PELLSTON, Mich. — The more than 10,000-acre University of Michigan Biological Station nestled along Douglas Lake is home to more than 23 miles of hiking trails that are open to the public.
Resident Biologist Adam Schubel doesn’t have to maintain, monitor and improve the vast network on his own thanks to UMBS Stewards, a dedicated group of volunteers who live in the remote Northwoods area and show their love for their community and the planet by rolling up their sleeves.
“For me, the best thing that we do is clear trees that have fallen and blocked a trail,” said Dale Covy, a veterinarian from Ohio who has a home on Douglas Lake in northern Michigan with his wife, Anne. “It is extremely satisfying, in a visceral way, to open an obstructed trail using saws, shears and a lot of sweat.”
The volunteer corps of UMBS friends and neighbors — mostly retirees — formed in the late ‘90s to help the field research station with property management projects.
In the program’s third decade, leaders at the historic research and teaching campus plan to expand the scope of the Stewards to include research.
Meet the Stewards
One of the originals is John Verhoeven, a metallurgical engineer who taught at Iowa State for about 40 years.
“I am the oldest one right now. I am 90,” said Verhoeven, who moved into his home along Douglas Lake with his wife, Elizabeth, in 1991. “It’s fun to get out and do things. I wanted to help. I like to work. I’m a big fan of the Bio Station. Becoming a Steward was a nice way to get to know people in the community. Some of the guys are still my best friends.”
Mark Paddock, a former associate director at UMBS who died last year, organized the effort.
“I am grateful to all of the volunteers who help steward the U-M Biological Station that we all love,” said Schubel, the current “foreman” of the Stewards. “This was our first season without Mark's participation, but our caring work is one way that Mark and his good nature endure.”
Volunteers meet several times a year to work on projects around the UMBS property. Their work allows people in the region to safely explore the outdoors at UMBS to clear their minds, exercise, relieve stress and reconnect with nature.
The Stewards program helps Schubel in his work related to property management. UMBS’s resident biologist is a scientist who lives on-site and is responsible for on-the-ground oversight of field research sites, onsite species and habitat conservation, as well as field equipment, permits and teaching collections. Schubel also collects measurements for ongoing, historic data sets about the local ecosystem; is an expert on local flora, fauna and natural history; and leads UMBS site operation for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program and the UV-B Monitoring and Research Program.
The person who held the position of UMBS resident biologist prior to Schubel agrees that the volunteer work of the Stewards makes trail maintenance one of the best parts of the unique career.
“I had such fun working with those many people,” said Bob Vande Kopple, former resident biologist at UMBS who retired about 10 years ago and the original “foreman” of the Stewards. “They were so enthusiastic. I looked forward to 9 a.m. every other Thursday very much.”
Latest Season of Work
In 2024, UMBS Stewards beautified the landscape and enhanced safety and communication on the trails.
In April, a dozen volunteers removed a large amount of garbage during their annual roadside cleanup.
They picked up 470 lbs. of garbage on a nearly six-mile stretch of Riggsville Road, nearly double the 2023 spring haul. They collected an average 40 lbs. per person and 80 lbs. per mile.
“Perhaps because I am an archaeologist, the annual trash pickup along Riggsville Road has always been my most favorite Stewards activity,” said Katie Parker, who lives on the north end of Burt Lake with her husband Bert Ebbers.
“Trash has a story to tell about a society’s habits, behavior, responsibilities to others, and food preferences.”
In July UMBS Stewards received a surprise visit from the Little Traverse Bay Band’s Youth Conservation Corps. The different generations worked together to repair bridges in the Gorge and Carp Creek trail system.
“These local conservation leaders significantly increased our work capacity and significantly decreased our average age,” Schubel said. “We thank them for their valued assistance, and we look forward to working with them again in the future.”
Projects throughout 2024 also included:
- Reducing off-road vehicle traffic near Carp Creek by installing fencing across a powerline;
- Repairing fencing at North Fishtail Bay and rerouting the trail system there entirely onto U-M property;
- Installing a boardwalk at Indian Point to reduce impacts to a small wetland; and
- Posting UMBS Property Rules signs at trail entry and access points to welcome visitors and better inform them of the field station’s ongoing research to understand and sustain ecosystems and mission to educate the next generation of environmental problem solvers.
“Thank you to all of the volunteers for dedicating your time to help us conserve and steward these beautiful forests full of meadows, wetlands and bogs,” said Dr. Aimée Classen, director of the University of Michigan Biological Station. “Because of your generous efforts, we can give safe access to families in the region to adventure through some of Michigan’s hidden gems.”
A History of Hard Work
Through the Stewards’ history at UMBS, one of the most challenging projects was rebuilding a big stairway 20 years ago to make it more accessible for hikers to get a breathtaking view of a geological wonder: Carp Creek Gorge.
“The stairs were in terrible shape,” Verhoeven said, “so Mark Paddock decided to re-do them. It took us two summers to complete. And that’s one of the reasons I’m so proud of it. Most of our projects last a week or two. For the Gorge, we had a great group who showed up every week in the summer for two years.”
The Stewards created a parking lot at the top of the Gorge trail along Riggsville Road and built the steps and rails to safely walk down more than 100-feet to the springs and Carp Creek.
“We worked from the bottom to the top, which we did in various sections,” said Vande Kopple, former resident biologist.
Verhoeven’s favorite memory of that project is how they got a bunch of “monster” rocks down at the bottom of the steps where the spring water flows off to the left and forms Carp Creek — rocks that are still there today.
“Bob Vande Kopple, who was the resident biologist before Adam, and a bunch of other guys brought those monster rocks in a truck to the top of the gorge. And a bunch of us were all the way at the bottom,” Verhoeven said. “They’d throw those rocks down, and the rocks would go every which way for 100-plus feet. We had to go way back so we didn’t get hit.”
He said it was a “higher class” operation when Don Schnetzler, one of the Stewards who worked for the telephone company, taught them how to install steel cables to secure the railings.
“When you go down there, you’ll notice the railings have three steel cables that come down from the top down to the bottom,” Verhoeven said. “We strung those from top to bottom. They go into the ground and into a fixture, and we tightened them up. Those are the kind of cables that hold up telephone poles so they don’t tip over.”
Two decades later, on Paddock’s 95th birthday in November 2023, the trail system those stairs are the start of was renamed the Mark and Ruth Paddock Trail at Carp Creek Gorge in honor of the conservationist’s devotion to land protection in northern Michigan.
The trail skirts and dips into a ravine more than 100-feet deep. 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 in the head of the Gorge.
“We had many other challenging projects, including the building of a boardwalk to Mud Lake Bog. Between hauling lumber and clearing brush while stumbling through muck and pools of water, eventually we made it,” Vande Kopple said. “I’m so proud that we accomplished so much.”
A Bright Future
As 2025 begins, field station leadership is hoping to broaden the scope of what Stewards do in the future at the research and teaching campus where laboratories, classrooms and cabins are situated along Douglas Lake.
“The Stewards are very well regarded by the UMBS community, and this year we have plans to begin expanding UMBS Stewards programming to include more opportunities to participate in scientific research,” Schubel said.
“That’s right down my alley,” Verhoeven said. “I would really welcome the opportunity to work with scientists who are monitoring experiments and collecting data.”
Stewards have occasionally been involved in research in the past related to the Douglas Lake water budget and lake-level monitoring.
Verhoeven has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering — all from U-M. Based out of his home along Douglas Lake, he took part in data collection and analysis for one particular project with Vande Kopple.
“Why does Douglas Lake go up and down about three feet every summer?” Verhoeven said. “We spent six years working on measuring how much water goes in and how much water goes out. In the end, we pinned everything out except the groundwater. That’s what stopped us from coming up with anything definitive.”
Winter Season and Warm Memories
As activity slows for the cold-weather season, several stewards will continue to volunteer through the winter months to help maintain hiking and ski trails.
UMBS has several miles of groomed trails open to the public for cross-country skiing.
When spring rolls around, the Stewards will gear up again for the busy season, starting with the annual roadside cleanup.
“No matter who I’m partnered with, we fall into fun camaraderie along our assigned section of Riggsville Road,” said Katie Parker, a Steward and an independent consultant who specializes in the identification and analysis of botanical remains from archaeological sites. “Passing vehicles occasionally honk their horns, which I interpret as a sign of approval. Two years ago, a pickup truck stopped just as my partner and I were nearing the end of our road section. The male driver hopped out and approached, handing me a $20 bill and saying ‘Thank you for what you’re doing here! Use this to buy everyone a beer.’”
“My absolute favorite part about volunteering with the trail stewards is socializing with the other people in the group,” Covy said. “I am always amazed at the deep connections, often going back generations, that the other stewards have with Douglas Lake. I enjoy hearing about how things have changed over the decades, the ecology of the area as well as learning about the colorful individuals who live and have lived around Douglas Lake. My trail companions are also a wealth of knowledge if there is an interesting place you want to visit nearby, or a great restaurant or even where to go for the best fresh fish (Big Stone Bay Fishery in Mackinaw).”
Covy said his favorite memory from volunteering with the Stewards involved forest navigation when they were working on some old research plots deep in the woods along the eastern shore of the lake with Bob Vande Kopple, former resident biologist.
“Bob was our team leader and he needed something from the truck that we had parked about a quarter of a mile away,” Covy said. “So Bob tells us to follow the two-track that we were on about another half mile to the next plot and that he would meet us there. He then pulled a compass from his vest pocket and went off in a diagonal direction from us right into the forest. Astonishingly, he not only beat us to the next site but popped out of the woods from a direction that didn’t seem feasible.”
“I’m excited to create more memories this year and see what we can accomplish together,” Verhoeven said.
People interested in joining the Stewards for the 2025 field season can email UMBS Resident Biologist Adam Schubel at aschubel@umich.edu.
The U-M Biological Station — the largest of U-M's campuses — is one of the nation's largest and longest continuously operating field research stations.
Founded in 1909, the Biological Station supports long-term science research and education. 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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