Hello from Douglas Lake!
Though there have been glimmers of spring (snow melt/mud), fresh snow fell last week and we still have 14 inches of ice in South Fishtail Bay. Historically, the average “ice-out” date over a span of 93 years is April 15. Last year, you may remember we had a record-setting mild winter — scientists at the University of Michigan Biological Station marked the earliest ice out ever recorded on Douglas Lake on March 16, 2024. (My guess for 2025 in the annual staff contest is April 12.)
Stewardship and digitization of our wide-ranging, historic environmental data is a big part of our 2025-2030 Strategic Plan. I’m thrilled to announce UMBS has adopted a new strategic plan that will guide our next five years. Our vision is to be the leading field research station in the world.
I want to thank the planning committee and everyone who provided input over the last year through survey responses, town hall meetings and other avenues to create this ambitious, attainable plan with clear goals and strategic direction to move us forward and cohesively champion science, our living-learning laboratory and the power of advancing knowledge in our second century of operations.
Drawing upon the recommendations and reflections gathered from nearly 200 people, the strategic plan is focused on five goals, including an expansion to year-round operations so we can offer academic courses and research fellowships in the fall and winter too. We want to offer semesters Up North in addition to our spring and summer terms. Plus, the planning process developed a new mission statement and a trio of guiding values. Review all of those on the Strategic Plan website. I am proud of our team and excited to work together to achieve our goals.
It is also with great pleasure that I announce we will be hosting an Alumni Weekend this summer. We’re honored to welcome our friends and their families back to UMBS Aug. 8-10, 2025. Read the UMBS news story to access the online registration form. Space, which is limited, is reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. I hope to see you in person as you revisit favorite spots, reunite with old friends, and make new memories along Douglas Lake.
Speaking of alumni, this month we introduce you to a dynamic sibling duo who pursued careers in law and medicine (vascular surgery): Seeta Goyal and her brother Dr. Kiran Goyal I think we can all agree with Seeta when she calls the Biological Station “our happy place.”
Though the priority application deadline has passed, we’re still accepting applications for 2025 spring and summer courses on a rolling basis until our final deadlines. We strongly encourage students to apply sooner rather than later to avoid waitlists. UMBS accepts students from colleges and universities all over the world. Here are a few fascinating courses your networks might be interested in:
- Spring Term: Observation and Modeling of Climate Change Biology (EEB 405) and Field Botany (EEB 556)
- Summer Term: Insights from Trees (EEB 405) and Field Ecology (EEB 478)
Congratulations to U-M ecologist Thiago Gonçalves-Souza, the instructor of the Field Ecology course at UMBS! He has a new study published in Nature. We encourage students to join him in July at our campus in northern Michigan where they’ll conduct original research projects and gain a working toolbox of field techniques in population, community and ecosystem ecology.
I have more science news to share with you. This month’s feature story about forest ecosystems and carbon sequestration is a great example of collaborative, comprehensive research that takes advantage of some of our major assets at UMBS: more than 100 years of place-based data and state-of-the-art research infrastructure.
The recently published research led by Luke Nave at Michigan Technological University leveraged one of the most iconic pieces in the Biological Station’s catalog: the 150-foot AmeriFlux tower. Though part of a network of instrumented sites in North, South and Central America, we also are part of a select club of Core Sites that measure ecosystem carbon dioxide, water and energy “fluxes,” and other exchanges between the land surface and atmosphere. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the tower along Douglas Lake provides the highest quality long-term data on forest carbon dynamics in the world. And its data is downloaded every day by scientists to understand how ecosystems respond to climate change and improve the performance of models that predict climate change.
I have an important reminder for incoming researchers and graduate students who will be staying at UMBS during the 2025 field season. Housing applications are due by April 15. Go to the UMBS Researchers website to finalize the documentation needed to live and work on campus.
Before I sign off, I hope you all take a moment with me to remember Kathy Bricker, a UMBS researcher in the 1970s who studied micro-crustaceans in Saginaw Bay and Lake St. Clair while living and working at our campus along Douglas Lake for eight years. After UMBS, Kathy went on to become the first executive director of the Little Traverse Conservancy (LTC). She died in 2022 but her environmental legacy lives on all over northern Michigan.
This year the LTC is installing a sign at Sturgeon Bay in her honor. Kathy’s proudest achievement in her lifelong dedication to environmental and wildlife causes was mobilizing a grassroots effort to successfully protect 750 acres of Emmet County's Sturgeon Bay Dunes from sand mining. That land is now part of Wilderness State Park. Kathy worked tirelessly on that project from 1976 until 1991, when funding was secured and the state purchased the final 706 acres and 4,100 feet of lakeshore. Thanks to Kathy, families and researchers can still access and enjoy a summer afternoon on the beach at one of the most beautiful ecosystems in the world.
Kathy’s leadership and perseverance are something for all scientists to celebrate. She faced many setbacks but never gave up. Today she remains an inspiration to the people here at the University of Michigan Biological Station who love, learn from and protect our natural world.
Read the full March 2025 newsletter and watch of video of UMBS Resident Biologist Adam Schubel as he measures the ice on Douglas Lake.
Sincerely,
Dr. Aimée Classen
UMBS Director
