Michael Dobberstein is a retired associate professor of English at Purdue University Northwest. His teaching and research interests were in art and poetry. He became interested in environmental history, with a special focus on the wetlands of Northwest Indiana, as a volunteer for the Nature Conservancy's restoration project at Kankakee Sands, located on the basin of Beaver Lake. He has published articles on draining these wetlands and continues to research and speak to local groups about conservation.