Updates & Stories

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

REI's outdoor patio was a busy place as three dozen volunteers gathered on a sunny Friday in June to make almost 80 dozen seed bombs. Read More

More than 140 volunteers, staff and corps members turned out for the 24th annual Adopt-A-River cleanup at several sites along the Mississippi River near Red Rock Road, just north of the Waucouta Bridge.  Read More

Deployed in Texas working on flood relief was hectic. I didn’t realize that it was all just smoke preparing to become fire. “It’s time to say your last words to Louis, the doctors say he won’t make it through the night,” I heard from my close friends. My best friend and brother had been hit by a car. He was in critical condition in my hometown of Benicia, California.  Read More

The NPS roving crew has been busy controlling invasive woody plants in the prairies at George Washington Carver National Monument and Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield this past month. The amount of invasive species in the prairies is overwhelming and at times feels like a lost cause, but past GIS data shows great progress. By fighting back invasive species, we begin to see more native species returning to the prairie, such as the nodding ladies’ tresses (Spiranthes cernua). Read More

“It’s a horrible monster!” Pete yelled as the rest of our crew (YO2) and YO3 quickly gathered around him.“What is it, Pete?” I asked.“It’s a horrible monster,” he said again, pointing to a glove lying on the path.I looked down at the glove and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary at first, but as I bent down for a closer look I saw a giant spider scurrying across the mulch-covered pavement.  Read More