Beth Waterhouse
Adding the Power of Story and Poetry to Environmental Causes

• Consults for environmental groups as writer / editor.

• Currently edits the Minnesota Project journal/newsletter, (since 1992.) Community Connections features story and poetry on rural community life and environmental issues.

• Wrote an internal report for the Minnesota DNR, assessing their willingness and ability to work with local citizenry. Interviewed 32 individuals, summer of 1998.

• Wrote That Mystery Between Knowing and Acting, a collection of five personal essays about environmental motivation. spring 2000, self-published by the Collaborative for Watershed Sustainability, IATP.

• Wrote a chapter for The Farm as Natural Habitat, edited by Dana and Laura Jackson, published by Island Press, April of 2002. My chapter – “A Refined Taste in Natural Objects” addresses environmental motivation.

• Remembering the Art of Farming – a writing and story-gathering project producing stories later featured in the Fillmore County Journal, summer of 2001. Project supported by the Surdna Foundation.

• Renewing the Countryside – writing and editing for a beautiful full-color photo book telling 43 success stories of rural community enterprises and local creative efforts in Minnesota. 2001 – softcover / hardcover / 160 pp.

• Time, Soil, and Children – a 52 pp collection of stories and photos featuring the second generation of sustainable farm families in Minnesota. Published by M.I.S.A / U of MN, 2004.

• Cultivating Leaders for a Changing Agriculture—A Harvest of Stories – a 50 pp collection of stories following the shared leadership program by this same name. Published by the Institute for Conservation Leadership, April of 2005.

• Beth writes poetry and personal essay, often motivated by Nature. See samples.
Poetry chapbook, Home Again and Again, 2001.

I also currently teach Environmental Ethics at the University of Minnesota, College of Natural Resources, a writing-intensive course for undergraduate students. Fall semesters. ENR-3011.