The 13 personal essays in Water over Stones: Oregon Watershed Stories explore the
author's experiences in dozens of Oregon watersheds. Using the genre of the personal
essay, the author, a fifth-generation Oregonian and amateur ecologist, writes about her
life and family relationships in stories that are saturated with the waters in which they
have lived, logged, fished, and died. These stories are no defense of her family's past. but
neither are they a condemnation. Rather, these personal essays are an inside look at the
conflicts that arise in the author and in her family relationships when she discovers a
protective love of her watersheds, marries an environmental scientist and then tries to
negotiate her family's values with environmental values attached to her home waters.
This negotiation dives deep into personal waters that flow from childhood anger to
religious ecstasy. The author's negotiation of these waters demonstrates the personal
essay's unique use as a tool for exploring issues that underlie the science of watershed;
specifically: people and their relationships to each other and to their waters. These essays
are drawn from the author's experiences in watersheds as wild as Lawson Creek in the
Kalmiopsis Wilderness, where her family was lost, and as tame as Ash Creek in the
Willamette Valley, where she now lives. / Graduation date: 2005
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/29739 |
| Date | 06 December 2004 |
| Creators | Oberst, Gail D. |
| Contributors | Ede, Lisa S. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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