Meet Environment Minnesota’s Conservation Advocate, Katelynn Rolfes

My name is Katelynn Rolfes and I am the Conservation Advocate for Environment Minnesota. 

I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota benefitting from the many beautiful lakes, rivers, streams and parks that the city had to offer. My childhood was spent playing in Lake Bde Maka Ska and getting stuck in the mud in the Quaking Bog at Theodore Wirth Park. Many family trips to the North Shores of Lake Superior, exploring the coastline and our beautiful state parks are part of my core memories. Even as a kid, I appreciated my state’s reverence to nature, and understood it was something worth protecting. 

I attended the College of St. Benedict for college, obtaining a degree in Psychology. My goal as a young adult was a career in health care. That seemed honorable, and felt like a good path. However, trips around the globe during and after college further solidified my love of the Earth. I wanted it to be preserved forever, frozen, so that I could enjoy it for as much time as I was afforded. In 2017, President Donald Trump pulled the US from the Paris Climate Accord. My motivations began to shift towards fighting for a more livable climate. 

After obtaining my Masters degree in Development Practice at the University of Minnesota, I got married and began moving around the country with my husband, who was in the US Navy at the time. We landed first in Florida, which was a completely different landscape from Minnesota. I found that the culture in Florida revolved around the ocean. Although I’d spent more time in lakes, I knew sea level rise was an imminent threat that Florida faced. I looked around for ways to volunteer and found Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL), an organization that advocates for a tax on carbon. They had no chapter in Pensacola, so I started one. While organizing with CCL, I found other like-minded individuals, and learned more about the threat of fossil fuels to our planet. We fought to get the carbon tax legislation to Washington. While it didn’t pass, we succeeded in encouraging our Florida representatives to act, and they drafted an omnibus bill that included carbon tax.

After a bit of moving around with the Navy, I have landed back in Minnesota with my family and am eager to continue this important work with Environment Minnesota and Environment America. I now have two small children, and want more than anything for them to experience the world as I have. The Earth is such a beautiful place full of gorgeous sights and generous people. I hope that together, we can fight to preserve it, so future generations can enjoy it for many years to come.