Updates & Stories

The 13th annual Project AWARE river cleanup set several participation records as hundreds of people paddled all or part of the Wapsipinicon River between the cities of Independence and Olin in Iowa, cleaning up trash along the way.  Read More

In late July, two youth crews kicked off the first week of their month-long Summer Youth Corps session by leading over 100 volunteers in cleaning up the historic St. Croix Boom Site near Stillwater. During two half-day events, volunteers from Andersen Corporation and the community raked the beach to remove trash and broken glass, scrubbed cave walls of graffiti, weeded parking lots and a historical marker and cleared invasive species from beautiful overlooks.  Read More

Ah, vacation. Such a beautiful word. Conservation Corps gave us 10 days off over the Fourth of July holiday this year, and since we just can't get enough of each other, my co-workers and I decided to go on a road trip together. Read More

Take a moment to picture a scene... it's a sprawling prairie, part of the Midwestern landscape as it was a long time ago. Tall native grasses sing that song of swishing blades in the wind. In the distance, perhaps there are bison. Now imagine the people who would live there, and imagine yourself as one of them. Most likely you would see a homesteader, a man or woman who came to start anew in such a place.  Read More

During my time with Conservation Corps we have worked entirely with plants. We’ve cut buckthorn and cleared firebreaks, planted natives and picked weeds. It’s been great learning to identify things we haven’t seen or heard of before but one thing we have all been missing is wildlife. That said, we have recently had the opportunity to rescue some animals!  Read More

No tree is sacred. These were the instructions national game refuge staff gave my crew during a ten-day work stint in eastern North Dakota. Staring up into the branches of an enormous cottonwood, that claim reverberated dubiously between my ears. After carrying my chainsaw and a backpack full of fuel and oil a half-mile under the hot Dakota sun, the shade of the cottonwood grove engulfed me like a cool towel.  Read More

A week for the water trails crew is quite a bit different than the other crews located in the Central District. Learn more in Melissa Gearman's photo blog post. Read More

KFAI’s Ryan Dawes did a great job on this short audio documentary about the Corps, as part of the station’s MinneCulture program. Give it a listen! Read More

Two Corps crews based in Iowa are currently serving on disaster response deployments, returning later this week. Read More

In mid-June, the Polk County Iowa crew helped facilitate a fishing derby for 165 senior citizens at Easter Lake in Des Moines. Some participants had not fished in decades. Crew members helped people bait and cast their lines, identify and measure their fish, and repair broken rods and reels.  Read More