On the afternoon of Friday, April 17, a bus departed from North Hennepin Community College towards Palisades, MN, where students from Hamline University, North Hennepin Community College and St. Olaf, gathered for the weekend-long The Dream Big 2.0: Minnesota’s Outdoor and Environmental Summit. Long Lake staff, North Hennepin Community College’s Outdoor and Environmental leadership students, Hamline Professor of Environmental Studies, Ana Munro, and Minnesota Association for Environmental Education (MAEE) board members came together to host this summit.

Texas Tech University student, Maria Anastacio, hopped on the bus to Palisades with an environmental background. Born in Texas, Anastacio moved to Minnesota in January to work with Conservation Corps, Minnesota and Iowa, as a youth education specialist.

Anastacio entered undergraduate school for computer engineering, but switched to environmental engineering.

“I realized that that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to actually be outdoors. So I switched over departments to do natural resources management. I was able to do a lot of hands-on restoration work, enjoying some cool wildlife projects,” Anastacio said.

Having more access to opportunities in school helped shift her focus towards the environment.

“The first time that I went hiking was when I was 18 and already at college… So, truly being in the outdoors made me realize that I had a passion for actually working with the environment, and not just in an engineering technological way, but on actual hands-on work,” Anastacio said.

As a current youth education specialist, Anastacio joined the summit to support a summer project for her youth interns.

“Environmental issues affect us all, whether we realize it or not, and being educated on the problems that our communities face is one of the things that will lead us to actually find solutions to the problems,” Anastacio said, “Helping young kids to realize that maybe they’re part of the community that is disenfranchised, and is being impacted a lot more, will help us figure out solutions.”

In terms of restoration projects during her undergraduate time, Anastacio focused on the removal of invasive species, such as the native plant of Texas, mesquite.

“[Mesquite] does tend to grow very deep roots, and spread out through the land, kind of outcompeting other native plants for resources like water, sunlight. Also, we would go in there and kind of just take these chain saws to remove them, and then use herbicides. 
But it’s a really, really tricky plant, it’s like the equivalent of buckthorn here,” Anastacio said.

During the summit, many guest speakers and panel discussions were held including indigenous speaker Erika Bailey Johnson/Butterfly Woman, and author of “The Adventure Gap” and filmmaker of Big Medicine York Outdoors, James Edward Mills.

Majoring in Education and first year at North Hennepin Community College, Derek Yalartai.

”The sound of adventure really brought me to here and the fact that I could just be out there with nature. I mean, I had to come [to this summit],” Yalartai shared.

Yalartai spoke about how his new experiences while outdoors pushed him to be a leader, from foraging mushrooms to canoeing.

“When I was canoeing, the first person I was with, she had no clue how to canoe. I was a little afraid because I only did it three times. But when I was up there, I was directing on how to steer and how to row successfully,” Yalartai said.

Yalartai continued his passion for canoeing at Long Lake, learning more lessons from the outdoors along the way.

“It might have been cold, as one of the instructors said, but I had to do it. Being out there, the sun made the water look like glass. Even though I cannot swim at all, I just love being near water, and being in the canoe, you’re just flying, you’re just floating, and it’s so beautiful being there.” Yalartai said.

Throughout the summit, panel discussions were held with environmental leaders and staff members. One panel that stood out to Yalartai was a discussion on getting children outside when they are more interested in their technology.

“You could take [kids] to the most extravagant adventure ever, and they would rather just stay home and be on their phones. So, I didn’t really realize it was such a problem for areas that are mainly in the cities to tell [kids] that nature is so dangerous. I remember that I wanted to go outside all the time. 
So I just wonder, where does that go? Why does that keep disappearing from people?” Yalarti said.

The experiences of Mills stuck with Yalartai. Mills applied for a permit to canoe in the Grand Canyon for 10 years straight in a competitive lottery system. Finally, in 2016, he obtained a permit.

“I would have never known you had to pay or basically win the lottery and test their luck to even go in that river. 4.5 million people go there every single year and only 29,000 people can get on that river. The fact he was able to do it twice, and to share his story that he might have been the only black person to ever be on that trail, he’s just trying to make history, and I found that really nice,” Yalartai said.

Junior Solange Atakora was also struck by Mills’ story and was reminded of the proximity of significant historical moments

“When [Mills], was talking about how his father worked with Martin Luther King Jr., I feel like that was a reminder that things that happened weren’t like a 100 years ago, and a lot of the stories that we’ve heard led to some of the biggest moments in history, like the Emmett Till story, led to the Rosa Park situation and that led to like civil rights movement,” Atakora said.

Mills’ created a film, highlighting York, an enslaved African-American, owned by William Clark, and was brought on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Mills took an all Black team of adventurers to embark on the same terrain York traversed during the expedition.

“I think it was very inspiring to see different people from different backgrounds share that common ground with each other. The story was something I’ve never heard before. 
So it was really interesting, but also sad to hear about it.” Atakora said, “To just imagine being taken away from their family and then you don’t go back to them.”

Atakora also acknowledged the new knowledge she gained about Indigenous people.

“I only heard stories from when America got first colonized, but learning about their [indigienous] and what their everyday life was like, that was really cool,” Atakora said.

In terms of the student-led panel discussions, Solange commented on the impacts of different exposures to nature.

“It was interesting to see how being born in a different place can really change how we were raised in nature or not. For example, we had one guy who was born in Wisconsin and he had access to lakes and forests. Then you have another person who didn’t really have that growing up,” Atakora said.

Atakora also noticed a flourishing in environmental health during the COVID-19 quarantine.

“The environment has changed a lot, and I wonder how we can do that again without being quarantined.”

In Mills’ book, “The Adventure Gap,” a chapter is devoted to the Buffalo Soldiers, African American park rangers in 1866, named by the Indigenous people.

“Learning about that was really sad, because imagine you were there protecting the parks and then all of a sudden you’re not welcome anymore. But learning about that made me feel like, okay, so there were black people in the parks way back then, it’s not just something that has never been a place that we can go to.” Atakora said.

Sophomore at North Hennepin Community College, Sean Dawn attended the summit after some encouragement from Munro. Dawn remarked on the activities and the callback to his childhood.

“I felt like the activities were finally a breath of fresh air, I would say, especially for me, it was all new experiences, some things were from my childhood, but everything else was honestly pretty fun to learn,” Dawn said.

After the summit, Dawn discussed his main takeaways and steps to be environmentally conscious.

“The head takeaway would be to pay attention to the environment, and really take into account, everything that’s not only happening in the world, but what’s happening physically around you.”

Being surrounded by nature throughout this event reminded attendees of the beauty around them. Yalartai was reminded that the power to do things and enjoy this nature is in his hands and his ability to access this when he needs a pick me up.

“It made me realize, I have the power to literally just go out there and do things,” Yalartai said.

Sara Jime with Erika Bailey Johnson, participating in a morning Indigenous welcome song.

Derek Yalartai mushroom foraging.