Volunteers can pick apples, harvest pumpkins at Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center

The Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center has called hundreds of acres in Minnesota and Wisconsin home since 1981. 

Fourteen miles of trails wind through the Minnesota side. On the Wisconsin side, there are roughly 10 miles of trails, according to Executive Director Jennifer Vieth.

The nature center offers educational nature programming, space to hike and more.

Apples at a 2,000-tree orchard are picked by hand.

With only roughly 10 full-time staffers, it's one of the reasons the 501c3 needs volunteers to keep the operation going.

"Checking our pumpkin patch, you can imagine how many staff hours it'd take to harvest a pumpkin, clean it and get it ready," Vieth said.

Volunteers during Saturday's Xcel Day of Service will help harvest the patch and paticipate in other maintinance tasks.

Produce will then be sold in its year-round store to help fundraise.

"It just saves us hundreds of dollars in labor," said Viath.

It's labor that one man feels is worth volunteering year-round for.

"It's important for understanding the natural world and how we're impacting it," said Randy Newton, a volunteer.

Carpenter is holding its annual fundraising gala on Sunday. Tickets are still available.