Impressions of 2011 - Youth Conservation Corps

Each year, there seems to be a unique event that adds definition and complexity to the Youth Conservation Corps program. This year’s challenge: the State of Minnesota government shutdown that occurred just one week into the program.

Youth work on a staircase at Theo Wirth Golf Course

The impacts of the shutdown spread quickly through the program. Some positions were suspended, some youth had to change work sites, and some were not able to start at all – either way, disruption was felt. Most of our youth were able to start work again after the shutdown ended. Once they began work, the extremely hot and wet weather conditions challenged even the most dedicated workers. But attendance rates remained high and spirits even higher, amazing projects were completed and staff worked hard and creatively to minimize impacts on youth. 

While challenging, disruptive and disappointing at times, there is no question that the program achieved success. This was evident in the youth as well as the projects they completed. In the end, those that had the opportunity to continue working gained valuable skills and a better understanding of how bigger picture events can and will impact their lives. There is no question that the shutdown and the obstacles that resulted strengthened the program and our commitment to the youth we serve.

– Felecia Schmidt, YCC Program Coordinator

Impressions of 2011 – Young Adult Conservation Corps

Looking back on the year has made me realize how much the Young Adult Conservation Corps program (YACC) has changed, while keeping and building on the successes of the past. For the first time since 2006, all YACC staff and participants were together in one building. With the new building came a fantastic training room that we use every week to provide job training to our young adults. We welcomed two new crew leaders, Janessa and Nicole, to our staff, and have been fortified by the consistency and quality of our other staff:  Matt, Keith, Elliot, Laura, and Charlie. We made a few internal organizational changes to help with crew leader and participant support, and said farewell to Diana (a YACC supervisor) when she moved to Tree Trust’s Community Forestry Department.

 

Shoveling snow!

We implemented a new morning stretching routine to get the blood pumping, and as a program (staff and participants) did about 75,000 pushups. Early in the year, we battled everything Minnesota had to throw at us shoveling the 5^th snowiest winter on record. We completed many projects for local municipalities, with the crown jewel being an 1100 foot boardwalk at Westwood Hills Nature Center. Our crews mowed lawns at countless foreclosed homes in Minneapolis and weekly at five Hennepin County Libraries, and we helped maintain the Midtown Greenway Corridor. We persevered through the state government shutdown without having to stop any of our work, thanks in part to the diverse contracts we service.

Boardwalk in Progress

For all of the new in 2011, I’m still awed by what YACC does every year. Looking at the property maintained, construction projects completed, and the amount of tree work accomplished, I am astonished by the raw numbers. For example, the Westwood Hills boardwalk required our crews to move over 1 MILLION pounds of lumber…by hand…through the mud…at least ¼ mile one way!

YACC’s involvement with buckthorn eradication efforts on Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority property left a section of trail from Minnetonka to Chaska buckthorn free. To visualize the 2011 buckthorn removal quantity, imagine an area that has 60-75 football fields all together. Now go cut it down one buckthorn tree at a time, then haul each tree up a hill!

As amazing as these achievements are, what’s more amazing is that our young adult crews do this type of work day after day after day, learning new skills along the way, and realizing that to finish any project they have to work as a team to get the job done. Our staff is amazing, and the positive changes we see in the youth during their short stop here would not be possible without their dedication. To all who helped, participated, supported, and funded YACC in 2011, thank you. 

–Anders Oredson, Project Developer & Training Manager

Tree Trust removing buckthorn instead of snow

Buckthorn is an invasive species that was introduced to Minnesota in the mid-1800's. It was used as hedging material initially, but it was found to be very invasive. The incredibly mild winter that we have had so far has lessened the need for snow removal and allowed us to continue with one of our standard non-winter activities instead: buckthorn removal. So far this winter Tree Trust's Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC) Program and Landscape Services (LS) Department have put in a lot more time removing buckthorn than snow.

Thanks to Aaron Freng, Landscape Services' Project Foreman, for the following description of YACC's and LS's buckthorn removal:

YACC and LS are at it again--busting buckthorn in suburban Hennepin County along the HCRRA’s [Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority] Hopkins to Chaska and Dakota Trails! While some years we offer snow removal and ice management services…this year we are out defeating buckthorn. Our crews led by Elliot, Charles, Nicole, Laura, Janessa, Matt, and Sam have cut and chipped nearly two hundred cubic yards of buckthorn. These fierce men and women go at it every day with one of the most horrific and obnoxious non-native and invasive species that our state has in its soils!

The crew leaders and crew members are out cutting, dragging, and chipping into 1-ton dump trucks and hauling the chips in for bio-mass recycling at SKB Environmental in Minneapolis. The 200 yards of chips that our team has processed in the last month would actually fill two full size semi-trucks with wood chips!

Since 2011 was a year of weather extremes, finishing out December 2011 removing buckthorn instead of snow should come as no surprise. However, this is still Minnesota so we know the snow will come eventually and we'll all be pulling out the shovels. Until then... buckthorn be gone!