PELLSTON, Mich. — “Returning here always feels a bit like coming home,” said Robert Ayotte as he walked along Douglas Lake in the snow in late February 2026.
“It is always a joy.”
The 1980 alumnus of the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) made his most recent journey back to the campus in northern Michigan to attend a two-day Jack Pine Research Symposium.
The resident of Chelsea, Mich., participated in his capacity as president of the Michigan Botanical Society.
“The Society has long been a stakeholder in pine barrens management and offered commentary on the Dry Forests, Savannas, and Barrens chapter of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources State Wildlife Action Plan,” Ayotte said.
Forty-six years ago, Ayotte first stepped foot onto the remote campus in the Northwoods as a student.
Ayotte took two courses at UMBS in 1980: Boreal Flora with Professor Edward G. Voss and Bryophytes with Professor Howard A. Crum.
While a UMBS student, he memorably wrote a song titled “The Bryophyte Blues” and performed it at the Talent Show before the summer term ended. (At the end of this story, read the lyrics.)
Ayotte said UMBS prepared him well for a career in science. He went on to earn a master’s degree in forest resources from the University of Michigan in 1983.
His ensuing work as a field technician, including with the USDA Forest Service, took him from Michigan to Pennsylvania to Mount St. Helens.
He later pivoted to medicine, earning a physician assistant degree from the University of Detroit in 1994.
Ayotte is retired from his 28-year career as a physician assistant in emergency medicine and urgent care.
“Mixing my interests, I enjoy sharing presentations on environmental toxidromes, which often reference toxic or medicinal plants,” Ayotte said.
Since 1980, he has returned several times to UMBS to conduct research and attend retirement celebrations as well as take one-week mini-courses, which were personal enrichment classes for adults — not for college credits.
In his own words, here are Ayotte’s reflections about UMBS memories and impact:
“I first attended UMBS in the summer of 1980 at the encouragement of my U-M graduate advisors, Burton V. Barnes and William B. Stapp. My focus was Natural History Interpretation with an emphasis on forest ecology. I enrolled in two unforgettable (and demanding) courses: Boreal Flora with Professor Edward G. Voss and Bryophytes with Professor Howard A. Crum. Both taxonomy courses stretched us in the best possible ways and deepened my appreciation for the remarkable flora of northern Michigan.
Dr. Voss ran a thoroughly organized course, supported by an excellent teaching assistant, John Sherman. We covered a wide range of sites — from poor fens and bogs to dunes and alvar. Ed was famous for surprise field quizzes that required us to ‘key-out’ plants using Gleason and Cronquist’s Manual of Vascular Plants. After long days in the field, he was also known to pull into a Dairy Queen if one happened to appear along the road. The highlight of the term was our overnight trip to Lake Superior Provincial Park, where we encountered botanical gems such as black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), prickly saxifrage (Saxifraga tricuspidata), and northern paintbrush (Castilleja septentrionalis).
Dr. Crum, meanwhile, often began our mornings with a visit to 'Krutchman’s Bog'— his well-disguised nickname for Krutchman’s Bakery. Our outstanding teaching assistant, Jeff Holcomb, helped guide us through peatlands and poor fens across the region. I still recall species like goblin’s gold (Schistostega pennata), dung moss (Splachnum spp.), and the wonderfully odd ‘bug-on-a-stick’ (Buxbaumia aphylla).
In appreciation for that memorable course, I wrote a song titled ‘The Bryophyte Blues’ and performed it at the end-of-term talent show. The lyrics were later recorded in Mary Crum Scholten’s entertaining memoir, ‘Grapevine to Pine Point’. (You can read the lyrics at the end of this story.)
Though I can’t remember every classmate, UMBS is where I formed lasting friendships with colleagues such as Mike Penskar, Denny Albert, Bill Brodovich, and Jon Monroe — each of whom went on to distinguished careers in botany and ecology.
As rigorous as the coursework was, we found time for fun. Weekends meant volleyball, softball, and swimming in Douglas Lake. A few of us played guitar and sang songs by John Prine, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell — simple pleasures that made that summer all the richer.
I earned my master’s degree in forest resources from the University of Michigan in 1983. Since then, I’ve returned to UMBS for mini-courses, retirement celebrations, and a Michigan Botanical Society Foray. From 2005–2006, I assisted the late Professor B.V. Barnes in reassessing trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) and bigtooth aspen (Populus grandidentata) clones on the Pellston Plain — part of a 40-year follow-up to his seminal 1966 work, ‘The Clonal Growth Habit of American Aspens.’
‘Bug Camp,’ as we affectionately called it, prepared many of us well for careers in science. I went on to work as a field technician and interpreter for the USDA Forest Service, the Woodcock Nature Center, and Pennsylvania Power & Light, among others. With the Forest Service, I worked on the Willamette National Forest and participated in the fifth-year post-eruption botanical study of Mount St. Helens. Later, I spent four seasons with Michigan Natural Features Inventory, including two focused on pine barrens. Building on the scientific foundation I gained — thanks in part to UMBS — I earned a Physician Assistant degree from the University of Detroit in 1994. I worked in Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care for 28 years.
Many have asked me why I switched from botany to medicine, and my response is always ‘botany is too hard!’. Of course, botany and medicine have a long interrelationship. Mixing my interests, I enjoy sharing presentations on environmental toxidromes — which often reference toxic or medicinal plants.
Now retired, I am honored to serve as President of the Michigan Botanical Society, in tribute to the mentors, advisors, colleagues, and friends at UMBS and on Central Campus who shaped my life and careers. Returning here always feels a bit like coming home.”
Below are the lyrics to Ayotte’s 1980 song “Bryophyte Blues.” First is a photo with illustrations from the book. It’s followed by the typed lyrics.
Bryophyte Blues
Lyrics by Bob Ayotte
Chorus:
Bryophytes
Bryophytes
Dream about them in my nights
I got mosses growin’ out of my shoes
& I feel like I’ve got the sphagnum blues
1:
Mosses on a tree,
Mosses on a log
all kinds of liverworts growin’ in the bog
can’t find them—
too small to see
& that microscope has got the best of me
(Chorus)
2:
Mosses on a quiz
Mosses on a test
never pick the ones that I know best
form a haze in
the back of my brain
& those liverworts will drive us all insane
(Chorus)
3:
Drive all day
& we don’t stop
until we get to a donut shop
buy a dozen
or maybe two
& we hunt for mosses ‘til the day is through
(Chorus)
Sketches by Nina Shishkoff (1981)
If you are a UMBS alumni and would like to share how your experience at the field station in northern Michigan impacted your life, please email Chrissy Billau at cbillau@umich.edu.
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.
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