Conservation Crew

News from the Crew

Winter 2025–26—current issue

About the Crew

Conservation Crew is a student-led extracurricular school program for middle schoolers. Rooted in service learning, students develop leadership skills by designing and implementing conservation projects to impact their schools and communities. The program provides the support and resources students need to succeed.

Using a student-led model ensures participants learn about conservation issues that affect their daily lives and feel empowered to find solutions. Each Crew decides on its own interests and is given the resources to create a plan that fits its needs, including a $3,000 teacher stipend, connection to Conservation Minnesota staff, and industry experts. The hands-on learning model encourages students to research, understand, and ultimately take action to improve conservation initiatives in their communities.

Conservation Crew serves students at schools across the state. In the 2025-2026 school year, the program has grown to 54 schools statewide—57% of which are Title 1 schools—and more than 900 participating students.

"Just the big projects alone aren't going to change the world. The small steps that we're doing right now are really going to make the difference. And Crew taught me that."

—Conservation Crew student

Program Values

Much of the program design and implementation is determined by the students, helping to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. They decide the best approach to fit their school and community. This mirrors the local control and agency we want students to feel when it comes to addressing conservation issues.

By engaging and informing youth through a service-learning model about conservation, we are building their feelings of ownership and responsibility to lead in their schools, communities, and world.

Environmental issues disproportionately affect low-income and BIPOC communities, yet these communities are usually left out of the solutions. We strive to shift this by introducing students in these communities to conservation concepts at a young age, educating them about the issues and supporting them in developing the leadership skills to advocate for changes that will improve their quality of life and their community.

Low-income schools often lack the resources for high-quality, out-of-school programs like Conservation Crew, so we provide staff support, program materials, and funding to address this opportunity gap.

Conservation Crew is a way for youth to learn and understand more about the natural world around their school and community. The program fosters a lifelong connection to nature by allowing students to find the conservation issues that are important to them. Research shows that children who spend more time outdoors connecting to nature have improved concentration, productivity, and mental health.

The program is set up to give students the tools they need to tackle the conservation issues that matter to them by connecting them to local experts and providing project funding. Crew also supports teachers through a $3,000 stipend, helping alleviate financial barriers.

Each Crew will have an opportunity to share their unique project with other Crews from all across the state. At the end of the school year, a panel of experts will select three outstanding projects from participating schools and award an additional grant to support future activities.

“Facilitating an after-school environmental club has been a dream of mine for many years but I was intimidated trying to figure it all out alone. Conservation Crew provided us with the resources and support in getting it started, and to keep it going.”

—Shelbee Jaeger, Crew leader

Sign Up Your School Today

Schools are accepted on a rolling basis until all spots are filled.

Check out the latest updates in our Conservation Crew newsletter!

2026 Conservation Crew Project Winners

Small Crew & People’s Choice Award: Dillworth-Glyndon-Felton (Glyndon)
Students at Dillworth-Glyndon-Felton spent the year building awareness about the importance of prairie ecosystems through creative outreach and hands-on restoration projects. They launched a poster campaign, website, YouTube page, and Instagram account to educate their community, while also raising funds during Earth Week by selling hand-painted flower pots and Black-Eyed Susans. In partnership with local residents, students planted pocket prairies throughout the community and created a prairie trail complete with an open house event to encourage community involvement and environmental education.
Medium Crew: Heritage ESTEM Magnet School (Saint Paul)
Heritage ESTEM students combined environmental stewardship, education, and global outreach in their projects this year. They harvested and prepared seeds for planting, organized litter cleanups, adopted local drains to keep waterways clean, and encouraged energy conservation throughout the school. Students also led recycling education efforts, conducted trash audits, and promoted environmentally friendly holiday habits through creative educational campaigns. In addition, they built a solar suitcase that was donated to a school or business in Samburu, Kenya, and collected reusable supplies from locker cleanout day to reduce waste and support future use.
Large Crew: Prairie Winds Middle School (Mankato)
Prairie Winds students focused on improving sustainability practices within their school and community through recycling education, prairie restoration, and service projects. They hosted “conservation stations” at school dances to teach proper recycling habits, introduced additional recycling bins throughout the school, and conducted trash audits to improve recycling accuracy. Students also participated in litter cleanups, collected pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House, created Earth Day educational materials, and supported prairie restoration efforts through planting, seed collection, and educational outreach at conferences.
Large Crew: Valley Middle School of STEM (Apple Valley)
Valley Middle School students completed a wide variety of environmental and community-focused initiatives throughout the year. They educated younger students about plastic pollution, electricity conservation, composting, and recycling through trivia activities and presentations, while also promoting food waste reduction in the cafeteria. Students created conservation-themed art projects, including sculptures and murals made from recycled materials, built butterfly and bee houses, and crafted dog toys for a local shelter using upcycled clothing. Their efforts also included campaigns focused on reducing pencil waste, encouraging battery and electronic recycling, and promoting thoughtful technology use.
People’s Choice Award: Achieve Language Academy (Saint Paul)
Achieve Academy students demonstrated a strong commitment to environmental awareness and community service through a range of creative and impactful projects. They collected over 1,000 pounds of flexible plastic for recycling and expanded access to environmental education by adding eco-themed books to the school library and reading to younger students. Students also conducted water and microplastic testing at a nearby lake, created an immersive ocean-themed educational display about plastic pollution, and developed a school garden with a bird feeder to support local wildlife. In addition, they raised funds for the Woodbury Animal Shelter after learning about increased animal surrenders due to ICE detentions.

Backing Up the Crew

Conservation Minnesota is dedicated to protecting the people and places we love. We invest in programs that equip leaders of today and tomorrow to care for our natural resources.

Conservation Crew is generously supported by a grant from the Manitou Fund, Xcel Energy, CenterPoint Energy Foundation, and the George Family Foundation.