first annual Youth Exploring Stewardship (YES) Conference

This past weekend was the first annual Youth Exploring Stewardship (YES) Conference.  The conference was organized as a way to bring together high school aged students from the Front Range who are interested in environmental stewardship. The YES Conference was designed as a leadership experience, where youth leaders from around the Front Range can…

• Participate in hands-on stewardship
• Explore future academic and career opportunities in stewardship, environmental education, and conservation
• Take their leadership skills to a new level
• Meet new friends and have fun outside!

What was supposed to be a two-day experience with an overnight turned into a condensed, one-day event because of the snow that was expected on Sunday.  We still managed to have a wonderful time, meeting lots of new people and learning a lot about the world of stewardship!

Around 30 students attended the YES Conference, which was held at Cal-Wood. We arrived early in the morning and started off with some hands-on stewardship projects! Half of the students helped with a Wildlife Management project. We helped put up a fence that is part of an elk exclosure project, to protect baby aspen groves. The second group worked on a Forestry project and earned their lunch moving lots of logs! 
We returned to the main cabin for a tasty taco lunch. In the afternoon, students separated again into smaller groups for mini workshops on Stewardship Pathways. Rotations included Youth Corps and AmeriCorps,  Natural Resource Careers, Graduate Studies in Restoration Science, and Environmental Education. Students each were able to participate in two Stewardship Pathway rotations.

We had a wonderful time and enjoyed the beautiful day at Cal-Wood. The conference was an effort between many organizations, and we had folks from our own GLC, but also from ELK, WRV, Teens Inc, Cairn, VOC, Colorado Young Leaders, Groundwork Denver, and Left Hand Outdoor Challenge. We're excited for next year already!