Caden Erickson was this year’s Dunn County Land Conservation summer intern again
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — For the second year in a row, a young man from Colfax was the summer intern at Dunn County Land and Water Conservation.
Caden Erickson, who some readers may remember from playing basketball and baseball at Colfax High School, and also was a talented musician, is a student at Hamline University in St. Paul majoring in environmental studies with a biology minor and an emphasis in field studies.
Caden plays baseball for Hamline and signed a letter of intent with the university during his senior year at Colfax.
He is the son of Cal and Kellie Erickson of Colfax.
Last year’s intern was Hunter Larson of Colfax.
“When I applied for the summer intern, I did not know what I was getting myself into or how beneficial it would be,” Caden told the Dunn County Planning Resources and Development Committee at the August 21 meeting during the last week of his internship.
Caden described it as a “three way internship” with a “smorgasbord” of activities.
The internship included working with personnel from land and water conservation, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Landmark Conservancy.
Some of the activities over the summer included pasture walks, meeting with farmers, stream and well sampling, construction of grass waterways, manure pit closures, construction of new manure pits, and working with the county surveyor, Tom Carlson, and his survey crew.
“It’s their everyday life, and I was fortunate enough to see their day-to-day,” Caden said.
“Everyone I worked with this summer was extremely jazzed to have me out there with them. I (learned) so much from them,” he said.
Working with NRCS allowed him to see conservation from a voluntary standpoint, which was was a change from the regulatory work of the county, and also allowed him to learn more about the partnership projects between Dunn County and NRCS, Caden said.
He also learned more about logging operations by working with the regional DNR forester, Matt Molback.
Working with Landmark Conservancy, Caden learned about land easement properties, plant identification during prairie workdays, banding Peregrine falcons, and seeing the partnership between state, federal and private ownership of land.
Chase Cummings, Dunn County land conservationist, told Caden it is a “choose your own adventure internship.”
“I had internship goals and what I wanted to achieve. He said it was on me to learn as much as I wanted to and experience as many things as I wanted to,” Caden said.
The summer turned into a quest to “see how many things I can pack into my day schedule and week schedule,” he said.
Caden also spent time with DNR fish and game personnel and had the opportunity to shock brook trout on the Kinnickinnic River.
The Kinnickinnic is described as a 22-mile spring-fed river known as a world class trout stream with more than 8,000 trout per mile in some areas.
Throughout the process of seeing many different projects through a variety of agencies, “I feel I’m in the right place,” Caden said, adding that the various agencies he worked with had helped him realize he had chosen “the right career path.”
“I was fortunate to get this internship,” he said.
Caden ended his presentation to the PR&D committee by offering to share to the 70 page daily working journal he had kept over the summer.
The Dunn County land and water conservation internship is sponsored by the Dunn County Alliance.
Biography
According to his biography on the Hamline University website, Caden was a two-time Colfax High School MVP and best hitter, was named to the All-Dunn St. Croix Conference second team, was the national honor society president, was vice-president of his CHS class, was on the honor roll and participated in student council and the Letter Club.
During the 2024 baseball season, he “started in 38 games as in infielder… Drew a team-best 14 hit by pitches… Finished the season with a .279 (38-of-136) batting average, 30 runs scored, nine doubles, one triple, 18 RBI, a .360 slugging percentage, 19 walks, a .418 on-base percentage, and 14 stolen bases… Had eight multi-hit games, which included a 5-for-6 performance that consisted of three doubles, two stolen bases, four runs scored, and one RBI in a 20-6 win over Martin Luther (2/23)… Finished 4-for-5 with two RBI, two stolen bases, and three runs scored in a 9-2 win over Crown (3/12)… Accumulated a .919 fielding percentage that included 29 assists, 50 putouts, 86 chances, and seven errors.”
During his freshman year at Hamline in 2022, Caden “played in 16 games as a First-Year making 10 starts during the season… Hit for an average .341 and an OPS .783 in his 41 at bats on the year… Went 3-4 May 3 against Macalester with four RBI’s scoring two runs on the day… Went 2-2 May 8 against UW-Eau Claire scoring a run… Recorded two hits against Buena Vista February 20.”
