Beau grew up in the southern Thumb of Michigan, roaming malls and Lake Huron beaches. He went to college in Albion, where he covered student demonstrations and residence conditions for its paper. Next up, Niles, where he expanded his reporting skills to city council meetings, grade school musicals and pot shops. And now he's in the big city of Lansing, reading, writing, rowing on the Grand River and working for the Michigan Environmental Council.

In other words, Beau is a diehard Michigander. Through "Common Groundwater," he hopes to use that love to transcribe the tough, complex environmental issues facing Michigan's people and places, what folks are doing to solve them and how we can all take part.