By Mary Beth Botz On November 17, 2021, the Sleepy Eye YES! Team met at the Sleepy Eye golf course to learn about the importance of the prairie ecosystem and to plant native forbs (flowers) as part of a continuing habitat restoration project. The afternoon consisted of both indoor and outdoor direct involvement activities. Nate Fore, Pheasants Forever Farm Bill Biologist for Brown
YES! 2021 Virtual Fall Summit
The Virtual Fall Summit on Oct. 27 was a success! Four YES! teams from across Minnesota participated in three sessions during this Zoom event. Dr. Peter Neff, a glaciologist at University of MN, revealed the climate clues he found in ice cores collected during research trips to Antarctica. Students had lots of questions about the challenges of camping and conducting fieldwork in blizzard-like
Taylor’s Farewell
Written by Taylor Templer, West Central Coordinator It has been very rewarding being the West Central Coordinator for the Youth Eco Solutions (YES!) program over the last 4 years. The experience I received while working for YES! and Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center (PWELC) has been invaluable and I cannot express enough how thankful I am for such an amazing opportunity. Not only
YES! Alumni Spotlight: Emily Giere
Emily Giere went to New London-Spicer Schools where she participated in the YES! program from 2017-2019, as a middle school and high school student. The main projects Emily worked on included changing the light bulbs in the school parking lot to LED and putting together a Community Climate Convening to help members of the community understand what local problems were occurring in relation to
YES! Does it Again with their 15th Annual Fall Summit
Written by Taylor Templer, West Central Coordinator On September 29th YES! teams from across Minnesota gathered at Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center (PWELC) in Spicer for the 15th annual YES! Fall Summit. Over 160 students and coaches were in attendance representing Yellow Medicine East, MACCRAY, Minnewaska, New London-Spicer, Discovery Woods, Parkers Prairie, Springfield,
2021 YES! State Award Winners
On May 19, the 2021 Youth Eco Solutions (YES!) annual Spring Judging took place via Zoom. Spring Judging is when YES! teams get a chance to show off their work by completing a final report and presenting their projects to a panel of judges. After presentations the teams are scored in the following categories: Community Engagement & Impact, Project Planning & Completion, Team Work &
