Faculty & Staff Profile

Eric Castle

Associate Professor

Agriculture and Natural Resources Department

219-B

(218) 281-8119

castl047@crk.umn.edu

Associated Majors

Courses Currently Teaching

ART 1152-002: Drawing and Design

HORT 3030-001: Landscape Design

HORT 3030-002: Landscape Design

NATR 1226-E90: Environ Science/Sustainability

NATR 2630-001: Intro to Geographic Info Systm

NATR 2630-002: Intro to Geographic Info Systm

NATR 4652-001: Seminar

Research Interests

Nature play
Urban stormwater mitigation
Community volunteerism in built spaces
Ecological restoration

Awards, Distinctions, and Honors

2009 Outstanding Service Learning Faculty Award
Dangermond Fellowship. 2005. American Society of Landscape Architects & Environmental Systems Research Institute.
Graduate Merit Award. 2006. Kansas State University.
Robert P. Ealy Award. 2006. Kansas State University.

Selected Publications

Addo, A.O., E.E. CASTLE. 2015. Mapping play in intercultural communities: a cross-institutional ethnographic project. Higher Education Studies, V. 5, N. 1, p. 1-19.
CASTLE, E.E. 2014. Tree Cookies, Mud Pies, and Social Capital. Most Significant Change Pilot, NW Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, University of Minnesota Extension, p. 39.
CASTLE, E.E., D. Handeen, V. Singh. 2014. Combating obesity with tree cookies and mud pies; a case study of the health impacts of a collaborative design process on three natural play spaces in Northwest Minnesota. Landscape Architecture Record.
CASTLE, E.E. 2013. Children and Landscapes. The Scoop, V. 36, N. 9, (cover story) p. 28-30.
Castle, E.E. 2007. Geodatabases in Design: a Floodplain Analysis of Little Kitten Creek. Masters Thesis, Kansas State University. http://krex.ksu.edu/dspace/handle/2097/327
Peterson, B.W., P.S. Allen, E.E. Castle, S.E. Meyer. 2004. Restoration of Foothill Community in Rock Canyon (Utah). Ecological Restoration, Vol. 22:2.

Educational Background

B.S., Conservation Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. 2003.
M.L.A., Kansas State University, Manhattan, K.S. 2007
Ph.D., University of North Dakota. 2018

Professional Memberships

American Society of Landscape Architects
Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association

In the News

Staff Feature: Eric Castle

February 1, 2021

Students on the campus of the University of Minnesota Crookston are actively engaged in hands-on learning throughout the year. Eric Castle, associate professor in the Agriculture and Natural Resources department, has taken it to heart as he sought to show students in his Art 1353: Pottery Design and Techniques course they can make pottery from materials found in nature.

The Power of Doing

November 15, 2019

Before students can have an opportunity for learning-by-doing, instructors are involved in a whole lot of doing. For Associate Professor Eric Castle and Assistant Professor Leslie Lekatz, a study abroad trip to Brazil last summer provided opportunities in both horticulture and animal science at the University of Minnesota Crookston.

Pollinator Gardens Designed by Students for Hallock, Minn.

May 2, 2018

Students in Associate Professor Eric Castle's landscape design class presented their designs for pollinator gardens for the City of Hallock, Minn.