Val Were, Outdoor Corps Coordinator, 612-624-7430

Since 2003, Outdoor Corps, a University of Minnesota Extension Service program, has been empowering high school students to meet environmental stewardship needs in their communities. Under teacher supervision, students participating in the program sample lakes in their communities and apply the science and math skills they’ve learned in their classrooms to real-world situations. All students and teachers are compensated for their time.

Outdoor Corps services are provided to lake associations and communities for a fee. In 2005, two sampling packages were available. Clients could opt for a basic package including water transparency, dissolved oxygen, and pH profiles, or order a complete sampling package: profiles and chemical analysis of total phosphorous and chlorophyll-a.

Three adult supervisors and ten high-school students worked during the 2005 summer sampling season in Benton, Stearns, Cass, Crow Wing, Kandiyohi, and Meeker counties (Figure 1). Samples were collected at a total of 32 sampling sites on 29 lakes. In addition, water samples were collected at a majority of the lakes and sent for total phosphorous and chlorophyll- a analysis at A.W. Research Lab in Brainerd.

Outdoor Corps will continue in 2006. For more on the program and its activities, please visit them on the web.

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