Beltrami Electric seeks volunteers to ready Lake Bemidji State Park

Beltrami Electric Cooperative is lining up volunteers to help prepare Lake Bemidji State Park for the 2026 season, a hands-on effort meant to keep one of Bemidji’s most visited outdoor spaces ready for heavier spring and summer use.

The cooperative’s GreenTouch project is scheduled for Thursday, May 14, and the work will focus on trail cleanup, planting and park maintenance at the state park south of Bemidji. Volunteers will be asked to meet there for the community work day, with a meal planned for 6 p.m. Beltrami Electric lists Angela Lyseng as the contact at 218-444-3689 or alyseng@beltramielectric.com.

GreenTouch has been part of Beltrami Electric’s service work since 2000, when the first cleanup events were held on the first Saturday in May across Minnesota. The cooperative says more than 10,060 people have volunteered nearly 37,000 hours through the program, a scale that shows how much routine park upkeep can depend on community labor when public spaces see steady seasonal pressure.

At Lake Bemidji State Park, that pressure is easy to see. The Minnesota DNR says the park is open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and offers camping, fishing, lake recreation, eagle and osprey viewing and a bog boardwalk that draws visitors to the park’s unique wetland ecosystem. The park is also the northern trailhead for the Paul Bunyan State Trail, which the DNR says stretches 112 paved miles and ranks among the longest paved trails in the United States.

For Beltrami County residents, the payoff is practical. Work done now can improve access on the paths and grounds visitors use most, reduce the burden on park staff and help the site look and function better before the summer rush. Beltrami Electric says GreenTouch is meant to combine environmental stewardship with community collaboration, and the co-op frames the effort as part of a broader tradition of local service.

That civic role has become a familiar part of Beltrami Electric’s identity. The cooperative says it has hosted the Touchstone Energy Open for more than 20 years and that its Indoor Garage Sale has raised more than $87,400 for the United Way of Bemidji Area. GreenTouch extends that pattern to a highly visible public space, where the results will be measured not in slogans but in cleaner trails, better-kept grounds and a park that is more ready for the season ahead.