Spring Courses Immerse Students in Nature and Research in Northern Michigan
Spring courses immerse students in nature and research in northern Michigan. From using CRISPR in the lab for genetics research to doing science along Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and jumping off boulders in “Narnia” to plunge into Lake Huron, UMBS students journey through work and play. Read full story: https://myumi.ch/jZrJZ
Swing Your Partner! Annual Square Dance Sweeps UMBS
Swing Your Partner! Share in the joy, music and laughter of a cherished tradition dating back at least 50 years at the U-M Biological Station. Watch our community come together for the annual Square Dance on June 1.
A local caller and live band carried us away in a high-energy night of fun. Thank you to John Richey and Maureen Scott on fiddles, Dale Scott playing guitar and harmonica and Ron Fowler strumming a five-string banjo. We also are grateful for Larry Dyer, the caller who taught everyone all the moves.
UMBS Students Explore Tahquamenon Falls for Ecology Course
Enjoy the sights and sounds of Tahquamenon Falls in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and learn how the field experience inspired new students at the University of Michigan Biological Station to think like scientists. Volume up for video. Read full story: https://myumi.ch/VGrX3
Researchers Value UMBS Stream Lab as ‘Giant Legoland for Scientists’
Researchers value the UMBS Stream Lab as a “giant Legoland for scientists.” The flexible, one-of-a-kind stream research facility temporarily redirects six million liters of Maple River water a day for creatively designed aquatic ecology projects. Volume up to watch the video. Read the full story: https://myumi.ch/qVgjG
The Inspiring Team Effort to Save Great Lakes Piping Plovers from Extinction
The University of Michigan Biological Station is home to the world’s only Piping Plover Rearing Facility. As we ready for the return of the endangered bird, be inspired by the team effort spanning 30+ years to rescue the iconic Great Lakes shorebird species from extinction. Full story and photo gallery: https://myumi.ch/M6pV3
All banding, marking and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Gorge at U-M Biological Station 4.22.24
Moment in Nature: Enjoy the sights and sounds as springs bubble out of the ravine between Douglas Lake and Burt Lake at the University of Michigan Biological Station in Pellston. Visitors are welcome to hike the Mark and Ruth Paddock Trail at Carp Creek Gorge. #puremichigan #EarthDay2024
Parking area is on the south side of Riggsville Road. Steps lead down 100+ feet to the head of the Gorge.
Estimated to have formed 11,000 years ago, the Gorge is an example of an erosional process called sapping — the result of Douglas Lake being 118-feet higher than Burt Lake. Water drains from Douglas Lake by seeping underground for a half mile and then reappearing under the roots of trees as springs.
Listen to the woodpecker far away in the woods this beautiful Sunday morning at the University of Michigan Biological Station along Douglas Lake.
With heavy hearts, we ask you to join us in remembering former UMBS associate director Mark Paddock, who died last week. A legend in his efforts to preserve and protect land in northern Michigan, Mark also made a lasting impact on the lives of students, faculty and researchers at UMBS. Grateful alumni returned to the field station four months ago to honor him on his 95th birthday with a beautiful surprise.
We will never forget Mark. Our UMBS family sends our sincere condolences to Mark’s family. In you’re in the area, walk the trail named at UMBS in his honor. https://myumi.ch/Prj1D
Good morning from Douglas Lake on this beautiful Saturday morning! Volume up to hear a bird and the peace of a light falling snow on Feb. 10, 2024.
U-M Biological Station: Earn Credits. Do Research. Explore Northern Michigan.
Earn Credits. Do Research. Explore Northern Michigan.
Turn up the volume and step into the experience of being immersed in nature. Students at universities all over the globe pursuing all areas of study can take courses during four-week spring and summer terms at the University of Michigan Biological Station. Apply to join the world of discovery. https://myumi.ch/EP1d5
U-M Biological Station Activates Snowpack Sensor to Study Changing Winters
How deep is the snow at the field station in northern Michigan? Visit the Snowpack Dashboard that provides hourly measurements online. UMBS scientists installed a new sensor to study changing winters and the cascading impact on summer growing season, forest health and water quality in Michigan and the Midwest. Watch the video, read the story and access the dashboard: https://myumi.ch/EPqeJ
Happy New Year! You can actually hear Douglas Lake freezing up in northern Michigan on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024.
UMBS Names Gorge Trail in Honor of Conservationists Devoted to Northern Michigan Land Protection
In a surprise ceremony on conservationist Mark Paddock’s 95th birthday, the University of Michigan Biological Station officially dedicated the Mark and Ruth Paddock Trail at Carp Creek Gorge. Watch the video of alumni, staff and friends unveiling the gift and read the story about Paddock’s decades of devotion to land protection in northern Michigan. https://myumi.ch/Prj1D
BEHIND THE SCENES: We took advantage of the warm temperatures and relatively low wind Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, and pulled our high-tech buoy out of Douglas Lake’s South Fishtail Bay. Good night, for now, sweet bastion of science. We'll make sure the floating laboratory gets a nice scrub before redeployment in the spring. Watch the smooth process of safely hauling the heavy equipment out of the water.
Though the buoy is no longer sending data for the season, learn more about the solar-powered device that provides real-time measurements remotely accessible to scientists and the general public — including fishermen and boaters — to help track water conditions. https://myumi.ch/5JR9V
Undergraduate Students at UMBS Use CRISPR to Study Monarch Butterfly Genetics
How does nature’s biodiversity come to be? The University of Michigan Biological Station in northern Michigan is bringing research — and CRISPR — into the classroom.
Read the story and watch the video about undergraduate students pursuing questions about monarch butterfly development as part of Eco-Evo-Devo, a four-week course featuring a combination of field-based research and modern technology. https://myumi.ch/JpVm4
Students Net 1,000 Invasive Fish While Sailing Lake Michigan, and Nearly Nothing Else
Volume up! Watch UMBS students net more than 1,000 invasive fish, and nearly nothing else, while sailing Lake Michigan’s beautiful Suttons Bay on a windy Wednesday in August.
Thank you to Inland Seas Education Association for the research and education adventure aboard the 105-foot Alliance. It’s experiential learning and discovery at its finest.
The U-M undergraduate and graduate students grasped first-hand how the round goby has grown dominant in the Great Lakes.
“It’s very different to read about something and rationalize it, and to actually be there in person for a few hours and see how significant it is,” said Dr. Hernán López-Fernández, U-M associate professor, associate curator of fishes and associate chair for collections of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology museums.
The experience on the Great Lake was the capstone of a two-week field extension course in northern Michigan this month called Michigan Fishes in Changing Environments that connects learning between Ann Arbor and Pellston campuses.
READ FULL STORY: https://myumi.ch/zwDRb
https://myumi.ch/5JD7y
U-M Biological Station Announces Results of 2023 BioBlitz
BioBlitz results are in! Thank you to the scientists across the U.S. and families along Douglas Lake who worked together to tally the living things that call this part of northern Michigan home. Watch the video and read the full story to see the total numbers and spectacular diversity: https://myumi.ch/j7q4G
The Northern Lights were visible from the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) along Douglas Lake, just south of the Mackinac Bridge, overnight (July 22, 2023). Watch the UMBS time lapse to see the colorful sky dance. #northernlights #auroraborealis
LIVING LEGACY: Indira Sankaran is our 2023 CLEAR Fellow. The undergrad is taking a summer class at the field station in northern Michigan and interning at the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, an environmental nonprofit that traces its roots back to UMBS students in the 1970s with a passion for water quality and advocacy. Watch the video and read the story: https://myumi.ch/by2Rr
“Watching the chicks grow feels like watching a Disney movie."
Detroit Zoo's Ania Goins releases piping plover chicks to training grounds on Douglas Lake at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) in northern Michigan, home to the world's only Piping Plover Rearing Center, before the endangered birds are set free along the Great Lakes. Coming soon: An inspiring story about the decades-long team effort to save a species.
