GRAYLING, Mich. — The clearing carved into the lush forest revealed a contrast.

The opening with neat rows of young jack pines and Virginia ground cherries seemed out of place amidst northern Michigan’s natural wilderness for more than a dozen undergraduate students armed with binoculars to explore jack pine barrens and the rare species they support on Tuesday, June 9.

While the difference is stark, the carefully managed area is exactly what the Kirtland’s warbler, one of America’s rarest songbirds, needs to survive.

“Listen to the call. In this dense understory, listening to nature is the first step to seeing the warbler,” said Dr. Dave Ewert, a senior conservation scientist and the Kirtland’s warbler expert with the American Bird Conservancy.

Silent, the class waited to hear the iconic voice.

Dr. Mary Jamieson, instructor of the Conservation Biology in Practice course at UMBS, took this photo of a Kirtland’s Warbler during the June 2026 field trip.

Suddenly, birdsong filled their ears. Their binoculars shot to their eyes to get a glimpse of the famously recovering local species which was removed from the federal endangered species list in 2019, and has been downgraded to threatened in the state of Michigan.

The conservation success story of the Kirtland’s warbler was a focus of the University of Michigan’s Biological Station’s (UMBS) Conservation Biology in Practice course, taught from May 19 through June 18 during the 2026 spring term by Dr. Mary Jamieson from Oakland University.

UMBS is a historic research and teaching campus nestled along Douglas Lake in Pellston among more than 10,000 forested acres.

“One of the goals of this class is to let experts working on a variety of conservation projects in northern Michigan talk about their conservation practices, both successful and unsuccessful, so students understand the diverse scope of conservation in the state,” Jamieson said.

2026 UMBS Conservation Biology in Practice class

Located more than an hour south of UMBS, the unique jack pine forests in the Grayling area gave UMBS students the opportunity to see the dazzling bird while appreciating the stories of Michigan’s natural world, led by experts like Ewert and Joe Young, a Ph.D. student studying forestry at Michigan State University.

The group discussed the transformation of the landscape into “opposing wave plantations” that helped rescue the Kirtland’s warbler from extinction but physically and chemically altered soil conditions, causing problems for fire-dependent ground flora.

The quilted planting pattern features trees planted at high density with foraging gaps. The plantations are harvested and replanted in rotations.

Going back even further in time, the students learned about Indigenous “cultural fire” and fire’s spiritual and rejuvenating ecological role in Anishinaabe history including the stimulation of berry production.

“Trips like this have given me the opportunity to see how the ecosystems and history interact with each other all the time, and have forever,” said Izzy Tosterud, a senior studying women and gender studies at U-M.

“There are thousands of years of natural history before colonization,” said Dani Sanchez, a senior studying American culture with a Native American sub-plan at U-M.

The young jack pine barren plantation habitat wasn’t the only jack pine landscape the class saw on June 9. Young took the class to two other barrens — one 40-year-old plantation and another undisturbed jack pine forest — all less than a mile from each other.

The class compared and contrasted conservation strategies between the plantation system and the undisturbed forest.

“Jack pine forests are such a different ecosystem from anywhere else in Michigan. I thought it would be sterile, but there was actually a lot of life,” said Carson LaVanway, a sophomore studying ecology and evolutionary biology at U-M. “They have so many weird plants, it’s almost desert-like, which gives way to so many plants that can only be found there.”

While some students ate lunch in Grayling, LaVanway and a few other students took a side-trip with Young to see Voss’s Goldenrod (Solidago vossi), a critically imperiled species only found in two counties in Michigan.

The rare wildflower was named after the late Dr. Edward Voss, a well-known botanist at the University of Michigan who taught courses for 35 summers at UMBS from 1963 to 1998.

“I was super thankful to hear directly from the people working in the field. I thought it was really special they took us to all of their spots. You could tell they had the same passion as us,” LaVanway said.

After touring the three different jack pine barrens, the class went to Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling, one of the last remaining old-growth forests in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

Many of the pine trees in the park are more than 200 years old.

Eunice Chan (left), a senior studying microbiology at U-M, and Alicia Dyer, a sophomore in Program in the Environment (PitE) at U-M, use their wingspan to try and find the biggest tree in Hartwick Pines State Park. Many of the trees in the park are hundreds of years old, and have become the dominant species in the old-growth white and red pine forests.

The site was preserved in memory of a World War II veteran as a reminder of the state’s logging history.

“The challenges of conservation of old-growth forest come from how placed-based conservation is. What works in one area might not be a good model for a nearby area. It’s extremely individualized," Jamieson said. “It’s so important to teach this because that’s what makes people care — it's communication, experience and education.”

Aside from Kirtland’s Warbler’s and Voss’s goldenrod, the class looked at conservation stories throughout northern Michigan from experts in their field. Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians’ sturgeon conservation from hatchery manager Kris Dey, Great Lakes piping plover conservation from UMBS researcher Francie Cuthbert and conserving the dwarf lake iris with Dr. Rachel Hackett from the Michigan Natural Features Inventory are just a few of the species of focus in the class, all taught by experts in their field.

Conservation Biology in Practice at UMBS isn’t just about seeing rare species or learning different conservation practices. It changes the students' relationship with the natural world. 

Sanchez had been to Hartwick Pines before, but this time it was different.

“I thought about what I noticed then versus now,” said the senior. “Back then I always looked up: birds, trees and the canopy — it was accessible to me.”

Their perspective shifted as a result of time spent at UMBS.

“Now, I look down, asking ‘Who’s here?’ What story does this tell?’” Sanchez said. “It’s really special.” 

Through experiences during trips taken by Conservation Biology in Practice, students have learned some of the stories behind conservation management of Michigan’s forests.

“As someone who wasn’t really into the conservation scene, the class has helped me realize how many reasons there are to care,” Tosterud said.

For Sanchez, the class sparked a question at the heart of conservation today: “How do we determine what stories are worth keeping?” 

 

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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