Board Member Spotlight: Ed Hoogterp

Ed Hoogterp is an environmental consultant and retired journalist who lives in Benzie County’s Benzonia Township.

His so-called retirement has been a busy time. In addition to membership on the SBGC board, he has served as Benzie County Drain Commissioner, as president of the Crystal Lake & Watershed Association, and as Chair of the Benzie County Parks and Recreation Commission. Thankfully, he says, he is now just “a simple pensioner,” though he continues to work independently on county park issues, preservation of the Point Betsie Lighthouse, and community-building initiatives.

Ed is co-author of Watershed Management Plans for the Betsie River/Crystal Lake Watershed and the Little Manistee River.  He is currently working with the Benzie Conservation District to update the Platte River/Platte Lake Protection Plan.

In a long and varied career as a writer, he served as an editor and reporter in Manistee, Grand Rapids, Jackson, and Lansing, including several years as an accredited member of the State Capitol Press Corps.

Through the decade of the 1990s, Ed was employed by Booth News Service/Grand Rapids Press (now MLive.com) as a full-time “on the road” reporter, filing stories from throughout Michigan on everything from the mines of the Upper Peninsula to the continuing revitalization efforts in Detroit.

That work allowed him to observe every part of the state—and led Ed and Millie to choose Northwest Michigan as their perfect year-round landing spot following early retirement. They bought 20 acres of cutover Christmas trees in 1998. Within a few years, they built a home and set about restoring the land on the very long timeline dictated by natural systems.

Two decades on, they have no regrets. Today, the property has a small apple orchard, native grass plantings, and nature trails through the gently maturing woodland—all near enough the villages of Beulah, Benzonia, and Honor to encourage regular coffee-shop conversations with other caring residents.