Our Team
We’re connecting and training the next generation of practitioners to revive their lands and waters.
Together
Dedicated to Change
Our goal is to educate and empower as many people as possible to revive their local waters and lands. Together we can restore the health of our planet.
- Stories
- Films, Videos, Animations, and Content. Our team of creatives are dedicated to highlighting the best stories of water cycle restoration from around the world.
- Community
- Real change happens through community movements. We connect people from around the world working for water, those who are taking action for positive change.
- Courses
- Actionable training for how to heal land working with water; composed of the wisdom of water heroes from around the world, designed to empower the student.
Our Founder
Zachary Weiss
Protégé of revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer, Zach is the first person to earn Holzer Practitioner certification directly from Sepp - through a rigorous two-year apprenticeship working on projects in North America and Europe. After 10 years of building Water Retention projects for clients around the world, Sepp said that there “needs to be hundreds or thousands of Zachs working around the world, millions would be better!” In that moment, the idea of Water Stories was born; so that any professional, land steward, or concerned citizen can have the same positive impact on their waters and lands.
Meet our leadership
We’re a dynamic group of individuals who are passionate about what we do and dedicated to delivering the best results for our clients.
Raleigh Latham
Films and Marketing
Raleigh Latham is filmmaker, storyteller, and fierce advocate of ecosystem restoration. With a background in ecology education, filmmaking, marketing, Raleigh brings a varied skill set to the Water Stories team. He dedicates his efforts to creating inspiring, actionable stories and courses that can show anyone how they can restore their water landscapes.
Peter Arnold
Chief Technical Officer
Peter is a creative programmer who specializes in creating complex web applications and digital products. He brings his broad technical expertise to the Water Stories team to build and maintain our educational app and websites - which are the core components of how we share the Water Stories message and deliver our offerings to you!
Brian Corin
Animations
Brian is an animator, illustrator and VFX artist. He has worked on diverse projects such as documentaries, music videos, commercials and independent films. He lives in Patagonia, Argentina.With life long experience in drawing, painting and animating. He has developed skills in diverse media, specializing in 3D animation and digital painting. His artwork is inspired by nature, water and the mysterious dance between life and consciousness, depicting a variety of textures, landscapes and movement.
Apollo Saldana
Films and Videography
Apollo lives to be in service. Finding ways to be in service to the homeostasis of this planet has led him to obtain skills and experiences in the fields of permaculture, natural building, ecovillage design, alternative governance and videography. Apollo is a Water Cycle professional practitioner, having spent years working with Zach pond building and spring tapping with Elemental Ecosystems. He is a film production specialist at Water Stories.
Mattie Morton
Chief Operating Officer
Mattie has a deeply entrenched dedication to providing natural solutions to the world's ecological crises. She is passionate about encouraging ecological awareness, connection to nature, and believes that felt connection is foundational to effective ecological protection. In addition to establishing businesses focused on natural clothing, botanical products, ecological art and education, Mattie has worked with various companies, offering them organizational, technical, and ecological solutions. Mattie excels at managing our organizational systems, nurturing the Water Stories community, orchestrating diverse teams, and supporting our students and community members.
Megan Neary
Workshop and Community Manager
Megan is dedicated to regenerating landscapes with a focus on rehydrating our landscapes, soil health, biodiversity, and the decentralization of fresh water sources. After studying Geology and Geophysics and working in an extractive industry, she shifted her professional focus to conservation, followed by farming. She began working as a Restoration Ecologist for Elemental Ecosystems, building water retention features on projects across the world. Megan works as the Event Organizer and Operations Assistant Manager at Water Stories.
With our eternal gratitude to
We’re a dynamic group of individuals who are passionate about what we do and dedicated to delivering the best results for our clients.
Sepp Holzer
The Rebel Farmer
A visionary in the fields of working with water and nature, Sepp Holzer is an Austrian Mountain farmer who defied convention to create model farms and projects around the world. By creating dozens of water bodies on his steep mountain farm, and planting thousands of trees, Sepp created one of the most diverse, ecological wonderlands in Europe. Sepp’s work has transformed countless communities across the earth, who have modeled his decentralized water retention features to reverse drought, and bring abundant water supplies back to their land. Working with Sepp from 2012 to 2015 had a foundational impact on Zach Weiss and Water Stories, serving as the backbone in many ways to the approach and techniques shared here.
Rajendra Singh
The Waterman of India
While tending to his drought-stricken impoverished community as a medical doctor, an interaction with a patient shifted his focus to restoring water.. Starting alone with a shovel, his work grew into a movement of tens of thousands of villagers, building water retention spaces that captured the rain, lowered the temperature, and brought back water to more than a million people in Rajasthan. Meeting Rajendra at the Global Earth Repair Conference in 2019 was eye opening for Zach with regards to initiating community movements for water and earth repair. Visiting his projects in India later that year for another foundational event leading to the creation of Water Stories.
Cassie Laangstraat
Former Executive Director
Having grown up on various ranches across Montana, Cassie has had a diverse exposure to land stewardship from a young age. Since then, she has become entrenched in the regenerative agriculture sphere. Her and her partner run a grass fed beef business where they use holistic grazing techniques so they can put Water Stories strategies into practice by improving the soil in order to increase water absorption to feed her local watershed. Cassie has been the glue that keeps things together at Water Stories for 5 years, and now she is starting her new path as a Mental Health Therapist this year and will be leaving Water Stories and Elemental Ecosystems. Water Stories wouldn’t be what it is today without Cassie, she will always be a member of the team!