PELLSTON, Mich. — Amy Armstrong is a champion of conservation and natural resources.
From field biology to environmental law, she has remained focused on that passion in every chapter of her life after taking courses as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan Biological Station 36 years ago.
"I’m dogged and persistent and unrelenting,” she said. “Once I decide on something, I don’t give up on it.”
As a senior at U-M in 1992, the immersive, hands-on experience at Michigan's sprawling, remote campus along Douglas Lake left her enamored with the untamed energy of nature and the practical application of science and research.
The “mini-semester” in the summer had major consequences on her education and ensuing career.
“Seeing it with my own eyes and breathing it — just being in the environment — helped crystallize some of the things we were learning in the classroom,” she said. “I remember building nets and traps to capture amphipods. We stood in creeks to take samples at two sites to compare results. A lot of times you don’t get these opportunities until graduate school.”
Courses like ornithology deepened her appreciation for birds, biodiversity, and how species are linked within ecosystems.
She also credits her time and classmates at UMBS with personal development. She found herself thinking about food and agriculture from ethical and philosophical angles, a reflection that contributed to her decision to stop eating meat.
Launching a Career in Field Biology
After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology in Ann Arbor, Armstrong accepted a position as a biology technician with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, putting her in the field as she helped manage a recovering population of endangered Red-cockaded woodpeckers.
For four years, Armstrong monitored locations, breeding and offspring; captured and identified birds; supported habitat through forest management practices and prescribed fire; and even drilled new nest cavities in trees.
It was the kind of applied, mission-driven work she had hoped for.
Then, in a single morning, her life changed.
The Accident
Armstrong was headed out early to capture birds before dawn in the Sand Hills State Forest. She remembers leaving around 5:30 or 6 a.m. in her work truck, and then nothing until she woke up on a helicopter being flown to a major trauma center.
“I was in the middle of the woods. There was no other car,” Armstrong said.
The car accident left her paraplegic. She now uses a manual wheelchair for mobility.
“It’s drastic,” she said. “You’re up walking around one day and the next they’re telling you you’re not ever going to walk again.”
At 25 years old, Armstrong faced not only a profound physical change, but the loss of the work she loved most. Field biology was no longer possible in the way she had known it.
“It required rethinking everything that I did and how I did it,” she said. “Every single thing.”
Armstrong reimagined her career, her daily life, and how she could still contribute to conservation.
She decided on law school, graduating from the University of South Carolina in 2002 with a juris doctor and master's in earth and environmental resource management.
She developed a new instrument for impact.
Her voice.
Defending Landscapes
Now the executive director and general counsel for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP), Armstrong uses “legal muscle” to protect nature and communities, hold polluters accountable, and prevent environmental harm or destruction.
“I’m using my voice to try and do good,” she said.
Armstrong’s work helps the environmental community’s broader efforts.
Land trusts can buy and protect land. Grassroots groups can mobilize communities and influence public decision-making. Scientists provide essential research and expertise.
But sometimes, Armstrong said, legal intervention is the last line of defense against environmental destruction, especially when private economic gain is prioritized over the greater public good.
“Once our natural landscape is gone, it’s gone forever,” Armstrong said. “You can’t truly undo the loss of a wetland, the elimination of a forest or a degraded water quality after development has already happened.”
Armstrong’s work spans water quality, wetlands, wildlife habitat, land use, public access to natural resources, and environmental justice.
SCELP’s docket is extensive, with dozens of active cases alongside twice as many additional issues in motion.
One case involved what some people say is the oldest tree east of the Mississippi River.
“We fought a proposed development on 43 acres surrounding the iconic Angel Oak – a tree estimated between 500-700 years old with a circumference of 25.5 feet – that threatened wetlands and the tree’s life support system,” Armstrong said. “Cutting down all the trees around the Angel Oak would’ve led to its demise. Trees have a mycorrhizal system. They’re interdependent. We negotiated a settlement allowing a local land trust to acquire the land so that people in the community can now go to a preserve, recreate, and find peace in nature.”
In the Upstate, the organization is pressing for a full cleanup of toxic contamination from a former coal gasification plant that’s affecting a low-income, largely Black community.
Armstrong also is challenging the state’s failure to adequately regulate high-density septic systems in flood-prone coastal areas near shellfish waters and defending the public’s right to access lands below the high-water mark — preventing the private encroachment of seawalls on public beaches.
“We recently won a case over plans to build a brand-new nuclear bomb production facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina,” she said. “The federal district court ruled that the Department of Energy failed to assess the environmental impact of their plutonium pit expansion plan at South Carolina and New Mexico facilities.”
Inspiring Future Champions of Conservation
In a time of climate change and environmental uncertainty, Armstrong doesn’t sugarcoat the stakes for students looking toward the future.
“I fully understand how terrifying it must be for students to be facing what we’re facing right now,” she said. “It’s hard to know what the future holds, but I do know that things aren’t going to get better on their own. They will not improve without people actively working to change the system and improve the quality of the environment. It’s paramount. A lot of rebuilding is necessary, and we will need qualified and educated people to take that on.”
When she faced her future after the devastating car accident, she stayed involved, persistent and focused — refusing to quit the conservation fight.
Armstrong said there is no single way to make a difference. The environmental community needs many kinds of expertise, and legal advocacy depends heavily on scientific experts and grassroots organizers. Find a role that fits, be it science, policy, organizing, education or land protection.
“It’s important not to give up,” Armstrong says. “I truly believe everyone has something to contribute. Being part of something larger in society is fundamental for our own happiness.”
The University of Michigan Biological Station serves as a gathering place to learn from the natural world, advance research and education, and inspire action. We leverage over a century of research and transformative experiences to drive discoveries and solutions to benefit Michigan and beyond.
Our vast campus engages all of the senses. Its remote, natural setting nurtures deep thought and scientific discovery.
Founded in 1909, UMBS supports long-term research and education through immersive, field-based courses and features state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for data collection and analysis to help any field researcher be productive. It is where students and scientists from across the globe live and work as a community to learn from the place.
Subscribe to the UMBS monthly e-newsletter and follow the field station on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter).
