The Changing Environment of Northern Michigan: A Century of Science and Nature at the University of Michigan Biological Station

How has northern Michigan evolved over the last hundred years? The answers are found in “”The Changing Environment of Northern Michigan””, a colorfully illustrated, scientifically based overview of the research done at the University of Michigan Biological Station over the last century. Nearly 10,000 students have taken classes at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS), laid out as a small village on Douglas Lake near Cheboygan in the northern Lower Peninsula. The property covers 10,000 acres and hosts research on field biology and related environmental sciences. The UMBS has been keeping records for exactly 100 years on the plants and wildlife in the northern Lower Peninsula and eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, documenting changes as people gradually moved in and settled in those areas. This book tracks those changes but also shows how the area has changed since pre-European settlement, based on the station’s research. The results are dramatic, underlaid with hard science, and described in a very readable manner. “”The Changing Environment of Northern Michigan”” is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about the environment and Michigan’s wildlife, or who has had the good fortune to visit the UMBS.