Welcome to Youth Conservation Corps

We at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are now hiring four youths to serve on the Youth Conservation Corps located at the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center, part of the Fergus Falls Wetland Management District.

Application requirements:

·Ages 15 through 18 years old.

·All applicants must have a valid(有效的)social security number.

·Fill out a Youth Conservation Corps application and return it to the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center, 602 State Highway 210 East, Fergus Falls, MN 56537, no later than 4:00 pm on April 18, 2022.

Working conditions:

All members work on wildlife habitat improvement projects. They receive on-the-job training and work mainly outdoors, so exposure to weather conditions, insects, poison ivy and wildlife is expected. Proper personal protective equipment is provided by the district.

Schedule:

The summer work season starts from June 6, 2022 and runs through July 29, 2022. Work each day, Monday-Friday, 7:30am-4:00pm. Work 40 hours per week for 8 weeks.

Salary:

Each member is paid $10.08/hour.

Special notes:

·You can get application forms for pick-up at area high school career offices and at the visitor center of the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center.

·We will select the members through a random(随机地)drawing process to be conducted on April 22, 2022.

·To receive an electronic copy, email your request with Youth Conservation Corps

Application as the subject line to joanne_ryan@fws.gov.

Contact Information:

If you have questions regarding the application or the Youth Conservation Corps program, please call Prairie Wetlands Learning Center information desk at 218-998-4480 or email prairiewet@fws.gov.

What makes preschoolers eat their vegetables? Raise their hand? Wait their turn? “Because I say so” is a comment that parents often repeat. But when it comes to getting kids to behave, a recent study by Duke University researchers suggests that the voice of adult authority isn’t the only thing that matters. Around age three, fitting in with the group starts to count big too.

To understand what cause preschoolers to fall in line, the researchers conducted a test in a lab, where they invited 3.5-year-olds to help set up for a pretend tea party. Each of the 104 children was given a blue sticker（贴纸）to wear at the start of the study, and told that the people with that color sticker were part of the same team. Next the researchers watched as the children decided among different kinds of teas, snacks, cups and plates for the tea party, first on their own and then after listening to the choices of other team members.

Sometimes the other team members considered their choice as a matter of personal preference (“For my tea party today, I feel like using this snack.”) Other times they presented it as a need shared by the whole group. (“For our tea parties today, we always use this kind of snack.”)

After listening to the choices of others, most of the time the children stuck with their first choice. In other words, children who had said they felt like using, say, the cookie finally picked the cookie no matter what the other person said they were using. But 23% of the time the children changed their choice to accept someone else’s. And when they did, they were more likely to go along with the other person when a choice was presented as a group need rather than just a personal preference. The finding held up even when the other person was another child, not an adult.

The modern garden has history going back many thousands of years. Early humans were hunters and gatherers, and didn’t usually stay in one place for a long time.     16     During the Neolithic period, humans started to remain in one place and grow their own food.

What plants did people grow?

Evidence of early agriculture in Europe includes not only eatable plants such as wheat, but also plants for decorative purposes. Plants for medicine were grown, as were plants for flavouring (调味) or preserving food.     17     They were not only grown because they were useful or eatable.

Why did people plant gardens?

Gardens today are places to go and relax, but have had many purposes over the years. In the past they were planted to honour the gods, or used in religious ceremonies such as funerals and weddings. They were also a way to show that their owners were rich or powerful.     18     In Roman times the garden became an extension of the house, representing the owner’s status (地位) in society.

What does paradise mean?

    19     The ancient Greeks believed growing food was a job for the poor, but gardens were places for enjoyment. The English word paradise comes from the ancient Persian word pairidaeza — meaning a walled space: a garden. The gardens of the Middle East were places of great beauty where people enjoyed the pleasures of life.

Are gardens artistic?

As gardens have developed over the years, design and beauty have become more and more important.     20     The gardens of Versailles, in France, are an excellent example of garden architecture — everything is pruned (修建) to fit in with the design.

“Doctors say men over 45 shouldn’t shovel（铲）snow because of an increased risk of heart attack,” the morning news from the television. “Well, that’s not ________ to hear it,” I said. I looked outside at a foot of ________ fallen snow. I had two walkways to clear, two cars to ________, and two driveways to shovel.

I breathed heavily, and stepped out of the house. The temperature was ________. I felt the icy air hit my lung and I licked（舔）my cracked lips. I got hold of my snow shovel and ________ my body to shovel out the first path. I knew this was going to ________ quite a while and wished that my 55-year-old back would hold out.

I shovelled, lifted, and dropped as I slowly ________ my way through the snow. I stopped from time to time to breathe in the cold air, look around, and ________ the beauty of winter, I went inside only once to warm my ________ fingers and change a thicker pair of gloves. But then it was back outside to finish the ________. Over an hour later, when I was ________ , I smiled and watched my breath move away ________. The good news was that I still felt a ________ heart beat and that my back stayed undamaged.

In this life we are endlessly ________ with frightening news. Sometimes this is not the ________, though.