Updates & Stories

Make a contribution today and become part of an amazing group of supporters who change the lives of young people while ensuring our natural resources are protected and conserved for generations to come. Hear more from Erik. Read More

April 12 dawned rainy and chilly, but Corps youth program alumni brought their gloves and good energy to Harriet Island in Saint Paul to clean up the Mississippi riverfront. Summer Youth Corps and Youth Outdoors alumni and a few staff members joined local volunteers and the Saint Paul fire department to pick up trash in the park and along the shore as part of Saint Paul’s annual Citywide Spring Cleanup.  Read More

YO crew members with trash picked up at the Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary construction site. While alumni were cleaning up… Read More

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Enter the Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa photo contest for your chance at fame and fortune (an REI gift card). The contest is open to any individual serving in a Corps program during 2014, including field crews, seasonal trail crews, Home Energy Squads, conservation apprenticeships, individual placements, Summer Youth Corps and Youth Outdoors. Read More

Here in the Northwest District, crews form just a little later than the rest of the state. We’ve been together for about six weeks now, and I’m glad to report that all is well for the Ottertail crew.I think the most challenging part of these early weeks is the so-called “training limbo,” the sense that the learning and waiting portion of our service will never end. Questions like, “When will we start actually working?” are frequent, and even as a leader, it becomes difficult to practice patience and steady attention. Read More

Amy Grace and her family showed up ready to work and make a difference for the Conservation Corps St. Croix riverfront cleanups lead by Summer Youth Corps crews for the past two years. Grace, a Stillwater resident and active community member, values participating in volunteer events with her family. Instilling a sense of service early in her kids, Peter and Ella, is important to her because she wants her kids to work for a better future. Read More

My crew and I have had the good fortune of spending the last five weeks working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge near Princeton, Minnesota. The refuge covers around 20,000 acres and is a mixture of remnant oak savannah, one of the most threatened ecosystems on the globe, as well as expansive wetlands and oak forest. It is an important breeding ground for many waterfowl and is well-known for its sandhill cranes. Numerous species of migratory birds and native wildlife also find sanctuary within the refuge’s boundaries.Now on our sixth and final week at the refuge, I’m having a hard time waxing poetic in a way that does the experience justice. Luckily, I carry a decent camera around in my pocket; perhaps some photographs can do the job for me. Read More

During my three months as a solar heat outreach specialist, I have worked to make connections with community resources while figuring out exactly how my job works. Lately, I feel a lot more like I know what I am doing. I performed my solar furnace presentation for a crowd at an event called Solar Day, which I had devoted much of my work time to since starting. Despite my newness, everything went well. I managed to start a couple of relationships with groups interested in using solar furnaces for themselves and had fun sharing with various others. I even got to be on the local news! It was satisfying to see the payoff of jumping right in. That day is definitely a highlight of my service so far. Read More

I found myself buried in snow somewhere between “I think I can climb out” and “Maybe they’ll find me in a couple days”. As I lay there, it seemed to me that I was going about this whole walking in the snow business all wrong. The snowshoe is a foreign concept to those of us from the Southeastern U.S. For thousands of years however, the snowshoe represented the pinnacle of technology for traversing frozen landscapes. It was only logical then, that I should become proficient in the use of these vehicles if I had any intention of surviving Minnesota. So with a little trial and quite a bit of error I was able to devise a few tips for those with a more temperate disposition. Read More