Updates & Stories

The year is quickly coming to an end – there are only 23 days left in the term! I think we can all agree that this has been a hard year, but it has been rewarding as we have had the chance to work outside and watch the seasons change. Read More

In May of 2013 I started out my time with Conservation Corps in their Apprentice Academy program, having just spent the past several months cooped up in a florescent-lighted cubicle. Needless to say I was ready to get outside and get a little dirty. Read More

I have a life of discussion in and outside of the labor of Conservation Corps. Small talk has never been my forte. I often find myself bored of conversations with new people because I don’t desire to simply break the ice with them; I want to smash the ice to smithereens and sail away with them on an iceberg.  Read More

As keynote speaker at the 2015 Water Conference in Saint Paul, Executive Director Len Price shared his “Reflections on Water,” which included some history of water issues and policy in the metro area.  Read More

Employees of the Enterprise fleet management department spent an afternoon working with a Corps crew to clean up an area of Lilydale Regional Park in Saint Paul.  Read More

Since 2012, Conservation Corps crews in the Southern District have been able to make substantial improvements to public green space in the Truman and Lewisville area, particularly Perch Lake Park in Martin County.  Read More

It’s hard to believe that we are now down to the final month of the 2015 Conservation Corps service term. There are so many memories that I would like to write about for this last post. I could easily write a memoir but in order to keep this reasonably short, I have decided to share this year’s highlights through pictures. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Or something like that. Read More

‘Resources Restored, Lives Changed’. The first time I read those words, I was watching the sunset on a Lake Superior dock in Bayfield, Wisconsin. It was my first week working with WisCorps, a conservation corps based in LaCrosse. A crew from Conservation Corps Minnesota wandered onto the beach near us, wearing their corps shirts with the tagline emblazoned on the back.  Read More

Look into the woods this time of year. Not at the fall canopy or at the ground sprinkled with drops from the great reservoir of color above. Don’t look for the ghostly brown of bounding deer readying themselves for guns in the woods. Don’t look for the swooping boughs of balsam fir whose aroma fast forwards us all to the coming holidays. Ignore the soft tamarack needles that make no effort to hide the appearance of having stolen all of the gold from Fort Knox. Look into the space between the beauty. It is here where you’ll find how much people care about these woods. Read More

Corps staff, current crew members and alumni from the '80s, '90s and 2000s gather for a Corps Happy Hour in Rochester. Read More