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.
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, located about 20 miles south of the Mackinac Bridge.
Laboratories, classrooms and cabins are nestled along Douglas Lake’s South Fishtail Bay, making up a small portion of the more than 10,000 forested acres that UMBS stewards. 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.
History
Land Acknowledgement and Burt Lake Band History
The University of Michigan Biological Station exists on lands once occupied by the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa people. We respectfully acknowledge the original inhabitants and the descendants of the land we now manage for purposes of preservation, research, and education. We ask our community and visitors to respect the integrity of the land that was home to indigenous people before our state and university were established by acknowledging this history. This requires that our programs of research, education, and outreach focus on the connections of all people to other living things and to our land, water, and air.
As part of our responsibility to the original inhabitants of this land and our current neighbors, we are working to raise awareness regarding the tragic and unjust burnout of the Burt Lake Village, the ancestral home of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, by the Cheboygan County sheriff and a land speculator in 1900. The University of Michigan established a committee in 2018 to investigate the burnout and make recommendations for actions that would acknowledge this history and incorporate lessons learned from this event into our education, research, and outreach missions. We strive to incorporate both the natural and cultural histories of this land into our Biological Station-based course content and our public outreach activities.
For more information, please review the following documents:
