Member Stories

I recently had the great pleasure of attending two Conservation Corps mid-year retreats; one for Individual Placements like me, and one for crews. The time spent with my fellow Corps members has been just the refreshment I needed. As Individual Placements, we don’t get as many opportunities to build camaraderie. It was nice to finally feel a true sense of community amongst my peers whether it was throwing down on the field during Corps Olympics or just relaxing around a campfire throwing a Frisbee. Victory was oh so sweet after my Olympics team, Loon, laid everything out there. Whatever hole was left from loss of dignity and sore muscles was quickly filled with s’mores. Besides the fun, I was glad we Individual Placements all got a chance to talk about our similar experiences; struggles, victories and all. Read More

We build bridges and docks, walls and trails, staircases to the highest elevations and well… you get the idea. We build things. It’s easy to see the structures we construct. They are lasting and useful, but its not easy to see the qualities we build in people.We build character. Not like regular character, but more like the character your grandad talks about when he used to walk ten miles to school uphill both ways, barefoot...through the snow.We build relationships. Not the “Hey, I saw you in the grocery store one time” kind of relationships, but the “You changed my life, thank you for being here and being who you are” kind of relationships.We build strength. The old man muscle, the kind that makes you feel like “Popeye ain’t got nothin’ on me”. Strength of the will and power of the spirit. Read More

This summer has been absolutely action packed. I feel as though I have been living like a drifter on the run from the law, but that is probably just my imagination getting away with me. I swear that I am a regular law-abiding citizen, though I haven’t spent a full week at home for the past two months. Lately it seems there is always some event or place to spread the word on solar assistance, whether it be client calls, fairs, classes, conferences, or retreats. This leads me to travel hundreds of miles in just one or two days and sleep in strange places on the regular. It is both maddening and so very fun! Read More

June has meant the return of real warm weather, and with that, some of our favorite work. The Ottertail crew spent two weeks in Becker County this month on the beautiful North Country Trail, a long-distance trail that will eventually stretch from New York to North Dakota. We had the pleasure of working with Ray Vlasek, volunteer coordinator for the Laurentian Lakes chapter of the North Country Trail Association, who graciously put down his pulaski for a few minutes one lunchtime to talk about life, trails, and what it’s like to work with the Corps. Read More

What does it mean to be part of a community? If you asked me what it is that the Conservation Corps does four months ago I might have been hard-pressed to give you a straight answer. I believe now, quite strongly, that I know what it means to me to be part of this organization, what we represent, and exactly what it is that we do.An iron-willed individual, with the strength of an ox, could toil his days and nights away in an effort to move a boulder embedded in the ground and not move anything forward but time. A group of individuals with a common objective however, has the ability not only to move the boulder, but to use it as a tool. The newly found inertia of the stone converts to a gravitational pull which attracts more and more people to aid its motion until, before long, the stone that the individual could not move now floats across the ground as if it were weightless. Read More

After what seemed to be a never-ending winter with dangerously cold temperatures and lots of snow, any sign of spring was more than welcome. Like many people, I associate spring with trees budding out and showing off their leaves. At the nursery, this sign of spring signals the start of spring harvest and planting season. Before anything can go in the ground, additional large bare root trees and shrubs have to be harvested to supplement those harvested in the past fall harvest season. The process is made very efficient through the use of one of my favorite pieces of machinery: the crawler. It has the ability to prune roots of trees and shrubs and shake off the excess dirt while two people stand on the platforms and hoist them out of the soil to pass onto the runners going back and forth to the delivery truck. Read More