Field Crews

As a whole, the Ottertail crew is not a morning crew. Every morning, without fail, we eat granola and bagels, because nobody will ever wake up to make hot breakfast. “Mrrmph” and “aaahm” are typical morning greetings. You can imagine the crew’s reaction when I announced our project hosts’ plan for duck banding of meeting up at 6 a.m. the following morning, a full hour earlier than usual, and head for the hills. Read More

Have you ever heard anyone say to just “let nature take its course?” Whoever first said it probably wasn’t speaking literally, nor did they understand the ecological implications of an invasive species on a native species. The infamous buckthorn, for instance, is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of invasive species. Many more continue to prosper and take over the land. Some of these invasive species, much like native species such as poison ivy, have certain defenses that are unfriendly towards humans. In the last few months I’ve had to learn how to identify poison ivy and other noxious weeds. In fact, for more than two weeks we spent our days armpit-deep battling against wild parsnip, which is an invasive weed that is quite hazardous to humans although its taproot is, in fact, edible. So what’s bad about wild parsnip? Read More

The sun rose quickly through a clear sky, burning off all the dew that settled earlier in the morning. We were walking through a wooden trail, following our project host in the Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge to look at the work site, when the woods suddenly opened up to a prairie like a sea of grass spreading outward, the horizon only broken here and there miles in the distance by aspen and oak forests. Our job was to help create an oak savannah landscape by painting herbicide onto the aspen trees in one section of the land. We became familiar with the location, ate lunch, and began painting trees that afternoon. Read More

“The Land of 10,000 Lakes” they say.  The 800,000 registered boats in the state only need an average capacity of 6.75 persons to take the entire population of Minnesota for a boat ride this weekend.  And with the actual number of lakes at 11,842 there should be plenty of room.  Wow, the feasibility of this plan is pretty amazing. Just be sure to clean any plants off your boat and check for zebra mussels before you leave the boat landing! 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

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