PELLSTON, Mich. — The summer day Corbin Kuntze met his future wife at the University of Michigan Biological Station nine years ago, he wasn’t looking for love.
He was looking for coyotes.
At the time, Corbin was a graduate student at the University of Michigan in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology focused on the community ecology of carnivores, specifically how raccoons and coyotes partition space and time to coexist as meat-eaters.
UMBS is home to more than 10,000 forested acres of land surrounded by lakes in Pellston, Michigan. It served as one of the study sites for Corbin’s master’s research — coupled with a location in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and one near Saginaw.
“UMBS represented my first independent research project – from design and implementation to data collection, analysis, and publication,” Corbin said. “It holds a special place in my heart for that reason.”
He enlisted students in the UMBS Field Mammalogy class to help deploy 60 motion-triggered camera traps in the woods, looking for game trails with fresh animal tracks and scat.
“I was in one of those groups,” said Zoë Kuntze, who was an undergraduate student in 2016 taking two UMBS courses: Field Mammalogy and General Ecology.
Fast forward two years and the two crossed paths again when they returned to UMBS to serve as teaching assistants (TAs) for separate General Ecology classes.
“In spring 2018, we met again at the campus along Douglas Lake,” Zoë said, “this time as TAs. Corbin didn’t remember that we had met, so he reintroduced himself.”
“I’d like to think of it as ‘love at second sight,’” Corbin said.
And the rest is history.
“After meeting each other for the second time, I knew I wanted to be with Corbin,” Zoë said. “He embodies and personifies some of the best attributes of UMBS.”
They remember a few dates they took in the middle of all the science field work: hammocking by the lake until sunrise and taking their friend’s sailboat out on Douglas Lake (with no wind, unfortunately, so they had to paddle back in from the middle of the lake).
“I’ve always thought of UMBS as a ‘pressure cooker’ of sorts,” Corbin said. “It’s romantic and special to be able to see someone so often — to spend your days learning and exploring, and your nights stargazing, midnight canoeing, or chasing owls through the woods. Sharing so many close, sweaty, buggy experiences is far from a traditional approach to dating, but a real quick way to know if you’re compatible. Plus, if you’re already at the Biostation, there’s a good chance you already have some values that align. A love of nature, for one.”
In 2018 Corbin was about to start his Ph.D. program in Madison, Wisconsin, and Zoë had one more year left of her master’s program in conservation ecology at the University of Michigan.
“After spring term, I left for three months of fieldwork in the Yukon Territory in northwest Canada and he moved to Madison,” Zoë said. “We wrote letters, talked on the phone often, and fell for each other over the distance.”
The couple now lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with Tiger, their “old girl” German Shepherd, in a home right across the street from Lake Monona, a big lake that reminds them a lot of Douglas Lake.
“In the winter we ice skate and cross-country ski on the lake, and in the summer walk down the block barefoot to the beach for a quick swim at any time of the day,” Zoë said. “We can hear the loons from our living room in the spring and enjoy the lake smell whenever it’s not frozen.”
Zoë and Corbin Kuntze married in August 2024. The ceremony was officiated by a friend they had met during their time at UMBS.
Zoë is the senior coastal programs manager at the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative. She works with coastal engineers and landscape architects to help cities plan projects that restore habitat and increase their resilience to coastal challenges like erosion, flooding, fluctuating lake levels, and severe storms. Zoë helps cities get grant funding to move their projects through implementation.
She also sits on several steering committees and working groups for initiatives in the Great Lakes, including the Obtawaing Biosphere Region (OBR). OBR, which encompasses roughly five million square miles of land and water at the convergence of three Great Lakes, is part of a network of designated regions of global cultural and ecological significance recognized by the United Nations.
Corbin is a postdoctoral researcher and instructor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He finished his Ph.D. program there in May 2024 and studied predator-prey interactions — woodrats and spotted owls — and how they are impacted by different land management strategies in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
“I’m eternally grateful for my time at UMBS,” Corbin said. “It gave me an appreciation for immersive classes, the value of undergraduate research opportunities, and the power of a supportive community in our field. I got to know so many incredible scientists, students, and people in a way that’s unique to this setting.”
While Corbin spent two summers at UMBS during his academic and research journey, Zoë amassed six summers at the field station along Douglas Lake.
“My first semester there was the best learning experience I had ever had, so I was hooked and kept going back,” Zoë said.
After the couple’s first unmemorable meeting in 2016, Zoë returned to UMBS in 2017 to take the Biology of Birds course as an undergraduate U-M student. She was a TA for General Ecology in 2018 and 2019 and for Field Mammalogy in 2021 and 2022.
“As a TA, I have so many memories of watching students form lifelong friendships, grow close to each other, and gain confidence and interest in science and the natural world in a really special setting,” Zoë said. “I love seeing the sparks when a student finds their niche and hearing inside jokes develop within classes and research groups. As a student, tracking coywolves near the station for Field Mammalogy sticks out. The Biology of Birds course with Dave Ewert gave me the biggest gift — a love of watching birds.”
One of the biggest takeaways from her time at UMBS was the importance of science communications and the realization that she was good at it.
“My time at UMBS and subsequent positions I have held led me to a role that helps translate natural science research for decision-making at different levels of government,” Zoë said. “Without roles like that, a lot of valuable research would never leave the ivory tower.”
Both Zoë and Corbin encourage all undergraduate students they meet — from the University of Michigan and around the world — to take a chance and dive into the life-changing experience at the Biological Station in Pellston, even if doing so is outside of their comfort zone.
“UMBS is an incredible opportunity and one that truly makes U-M so special,” Corbin said. “Go in with an open mind and don’t be afraid to be a little uncomfortable. Take advantage of your time there. Whether that means getting research exposure, taking a class that you wouldn’t normally consider, or even just canoeing as much as possible — the Biostation has something for everyone.”
“I can’t even imagine what my life would look like if I had never gone to UMBS,” Zoë said. “My time there influenced my friends, life partner and career path and strengthened my personal convictions and passions.”
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 research and education. It is where students and scientists from across the globe live and work as a community to learn from the place.
Subscribe to the UMBS monthly e-newsletter and follow the field station on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
Students: Explore 2025 field-based courses and scholarships at the U-M Biological Station and apply for the four-week spring and summer terms on the UMBS Courses website. Applications are open for the spring term, which is from May 20 through June 19, and the summer 2025 term, which is from July 1 through July 31. The priority application deadline is March 15, 2025. Student research fellowships are also available. See the UMBS Student Research Opportunities website for details.
