PELLSTON, Mich. — A building that has stood along Douglas Lake for nearly eight decades holds deep meaning in Dr. Madeleine Wattenberg’s new poem published in the journal Green Humanities.
Titled “In The Science Library”, the eco-poem focuses on LaRue Library at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) and issues a call to action for a more sustainable future.
Built in 1949 and named for past station director Dr. George R. LaRue, the library has grown to house nearly 10,000 books and journals, as well as 25,000 cataloged reprints, which have since been digitized.
It is open 24 hours a day for students, faculty and researchers at UMBS during the spring and summer field seasons.
“The LaRue Library is a satellite of the U-M Science Library system,” said UMBS Associate Director Karie Slavik. “The special space is loved by the UMBS community for its unique setting, light and scents as well as resources to help us better understand the natural world we immerse ourselves in every day in northern Michigan. It is one of the more memorable buildings on campus, and students, especially, like to spend time there.”
Wattenberg, an assistant professor of writing at Lakeland University in Wisconsin and an artist in residence at UMBS in 2024, saw the library as a symbol of the mountain of work of generations of researchers here and around the world.
At UMBS, the sprawling campus in northern Michigan that has served as a living laboratory since 1909 and spans more than 10,000 forested acres hit a milestone in February 2026 when its research bibliography reached 3,500 entries, including everything from peer-reviewed journal articles to dissertations and textbooks.
“Some entries are true classics and changed how we look at the natural world entirely, like those from Dr. Henry Gleason, one of the most influential plant ecologists of all time,” said Dr. Aimée Classen, UMBS director. “Our ever-growing library of knowledge is our foundation and our legacy of discovery.”
Wattenberg — sitting at a table in the historic library in the heat of summer surrounded by bookshelves filled with the rise and fall of ecosystems — felt a symmetry between the Earth and the two-story building amid a changing climate, as well as a disconnect between attention paid to lessons learned from scientists and topics popular to the general public.
Read the poem blending environmental awareness with human experience:
IN THE SCIENCE LIBRARY
at the University of Michigan Biological Station
All these words, doorways pulled firmly shut,
an echo dusts down the hallway—
the makings and unmakings of several worlds.
To categorize: I choose a chair on the upper floor,
footfalls shudder the wood beams.
Pinned between two long rows, a dense heat.
The books here slowly erode, the consequence
of too much water, too much sun,
so words slip over melted edges.
Science, here's what I will say:
on your shelves I found a hand-written note concerning
the felling of empire—
from phycology, migration patterns, arthropods,
to mammals of North America,
which volume will deliver us to whatever end remains?
Outside the library, rain falls over
the lake to join a larger body.
UMBS plans to frame the poem and hang it in LaRue Library.
Learn more about LaRue Library on the Michigan Library website.
Read highlights from the UMBS research bibliography in the UMBS February newsletter.
Scroll below to view more photos of the library and Wattenberg at UMBS.
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.
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