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Wildlife, Loppers & Chainsaws: : 1988 Vegetation Crew: My Wild, Rare, and Untold Adventures Working for the Minnesota Conservation Corps
Wildlife, Loppers & Chainsaws: : 1988 Vegetation Crew: My Wild, Rare, and Untold Adventures Working for the Minnesota Conservation Corps
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Wildlife, Loppers & Chainsaws: : 1988 Vegetation Crew: My Wild, Rare, and Untold Adventures Working for the Minnesota Conservation Corps
by Lisa Loucks-Christenson (Author, Photographer)
In 1988, I stepped out of my comfort zone and joined the Vegetation Crew for the Minnesota Conservation Corps—a seasonal job run then by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. God had heard my battle cry. My life—and faith—changed as I lopped, sawed, preened, and cut my path to the future.
I wasn't alone. My crew—John and Louis—became stealth guardians of my heart, brother-like coworkers, my safety net through the storms we weathered.
This photographic memoir unveils our wild adventures: clearing goat prairies at O.L. Kipp State Park (now Great River Bluffs); measuring Mystery Cave at Forestville; gathering grasses at Carlos Avery; tree work at Frontenac; controlled burns at Helmer-Meyer (now Meyer-Big Island); lopping at Sakatah Lake's "singing hills." We found rare wonders—an orange spicebush caterpillar, Henslow's sparrow banding, state-endangered common five-lined skink, six-foot timber rattlesnake sheds—plus bee stings and losses that tested us.
We sang Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" over lunch, drove fast trucks not cars, formed a threefold cord as shields for each other's souls. A grandfather figure's mantra—"things really did work out for the best"—carried us through.
Hop the tailgate for this inside story of three young adults growing up among the bluffs, becoming environmental stewards, artists transforming "before" scenes to "after" scenic views. My Minnesota Conservation Corps cap—stamped "1988 MCC Brothers"—marked adventures only God could've planned.
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