Beth Spieles, information officer of the Center for Rural and Regional Studies, presented "Tapping into the Great Oasis of Local Environmental History" at the National Interpreters Workshop in Des Moines, Iowa held November 6-10, 2001. Interpreters of natural and cultural history gather at this annual conference to share research results and programming ideas. Spieles began the hour-long session with a discussion of place-based education theory. She then explained the compilation of the book, Draining the Great Oasis: An Environmental History of Murray County, Minnesota, and its grant-funded expansion into a conference and a series of environmental education outreach programs. Spieles concluded the workshop with a mapping activity that allowed participants to uncover missing links in their local environmental history knowledge.