PELLSTON, Mich. — As Kendall Ash considered her options for the summer after graduating from the University of Michigan in May, she was hesitant to return to the University of Michigan Biological Station, though she treasured her time at the research and teaching campus along Douglas Lake as a student two years ago.
Would it be better for her career to instead go somewhere she hadn’t been before?
But Ash followed her heart, applied for a position and was hired for the 2024 field season as the UMBS field technician in northern Michigan.
Fast forward three months: “Taking the job was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” said Ash, who has a bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB), and German. “Being here again has itself been a completely new experience.”
In May, June and July, the 22-year-old from Northville, Michigan, who next plans to pursue a Ph.D., helped visiting researchers from around the world set up and run projects at the more than 10,000-acre campus in Pellston with UMBS Research Coordinator and Lab Manager Helen Habicht. Ash also worked with UMBS Resident Biologist Adam Schubel and UMBS Data Manager Jason Tallant.
In honor of the end of Ash’s field season position, we’re proud to highlight her contributions to and experiences as part of our scientific community, both as a UMBS student taking courses in 2022 and working as a paid employee in 2024.
To learn about everything from her newfound love of square dancing to painting “Dougie the Loch Douglas Monster” and drilling holes in cattle tanks for ant colony research, read our Q&A with Kendall Ash.
Q: Tell us about yourself and what led you to pursue science.
One of the first interactions I had with science was in elementary school when I participated in my school science fair. I did a project where I collected water from a river near my house and filtered it through different sediments to see how the water chemistry changed and whether pollutants were removed. The project was titled “Water we drinking?” and it ended up winning first place! The river where I collected the water samples was one of my favorite places to be as a kid, and I think this project was my first attempt at combining my love for being outside with my desire to learn new things. Funnily enough, it took me a long time to decide what I wanted to do career-wise and I didn’t declare my major in EEB until my junior year of college (right after I first came to UMBS). I definitely made the right decision though — studying ecology has revived the same childlike wonder that fueled my science fair project. I have always loved science, but I think ecology is especially great because it is all around us. All it takes to participate in ecology is going outside and taking a closer look at what’s already in front of you. I’m glad I ended up coming full circle in my choice to pursue science and I hope my career helps me keep that childlike wonder alive for the rest of my life.
Q: This summer isn’t your first experience at the research and teaching campus along Douglas Lake. What courses did you take before at UMBS? And what is it about UMBS that left you determined to come back?
I first came to UMBS back in the 2022 spring semester to take ecology lecture and lab. I thoroughly enjoyed being here the first time around, but I think my return was more of a coincidence than a planned event. I happened across the listing for the field tech position while searching for jobs for my gap year and decided I may as well throw my hat in the ring. I was hesitant to come back at first because I thought I should go somewhere I hadn’t been before, but I think taking the job was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Being here again has itself been a completely new experience — I’ve discovered so many more places and things to do than I ever could have seen in just four weeks. There are so many ways to immerse yourself in nature and research around Douglas Lake, and the constantly changing atmosphere means no two visits will be the same. Being here again has really allowed me to appreciate just how beautiful and ephemeral summer is at UMBS.
Q: As the 2024 UMBS Field Technician, you have an incredible work ethic and positive attitude. What do you do in your role and why do you believe it’s important?
One thing people often take for granted about ecology and science in general is how much work goes into the process of experimental setup and data collection. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes effort that allows a project to run, and my job at the station is to help visiting researchers with that aspect of their work. For instance, one of the biggest tasks I’ve helped with was at the beginning of the summer when I built mesocosms for ant colony research being conducted by Dr. JP Lessard’s lab at Concordia University. The mesocosms were 40 6-ft. diameter cattle tanks that needed to have holes drilled in them and be placed in separate plots around the woods. I spent about a week just drilling the holes and another week and a half rolling the tanks out and filling them with sand. It was a lot of manual labor and I had to deal with several snags along the way — including a family of mice that happened to be living inside the tanks! Prior to having this role, I probably would have seen the field of mesocosms and not batted an eye. Now, every time I drive past the field, I think about all the time and hard work that went into making them and I am super excited to see how JP’s experiments play out! The job of a field tech is important because without the work they put in, projects like JP’s would never be able to happen. Not only is it an important job, but it’s a lot of fun to get to see people’s ideas come together in real time all while getting to be outside every day.
Q: What was the most meaningful experience or project you contributed to this summer? What makes it stand out?
The most meaningful project for me has been helping Danielle Dorsen from the Jamieson Lab at Oakland University with her bumble bee field work. Danielle is conducting her Ph.D. on bumble bee species distribution and gut pathogens, and I have been assisting her with bumble bee population surveys as well as dissections. This means I’ve gotten to catch, ID, and photograph bumble bees once a week for the whole summer! Not only is Danielle’s project incredibly fun and interesting, but it’s also very meaningful to me because of how much I’ve gotten to learn from it. While working with Danielle, I’ve learned how to catch and photograph a bumble bee, conduct population surveys, and identify the species that live in northern Michigan. I think this project has also had the most noticeable impact on my life outside of work because the knowledge I’ve gained from it is so applicable. Even when I’m not in the field looking for bees, I find myself listening for the characteristic bumbling noise of a Bombus species and trying to identify whatever bees I stumble upon in my free time. Just observing what species are around campus is really interesting and often insightful, and I love looking further into what I see. One of my favorite bees to see around here is the Lemon Cuckoo, a species that is relatively uncommon in Michigan and which parasitizes the nests of other bumble bees. I was shocked to see them all around campus at first because the Michigan Bumble Bee Atlas didn’t even list northern Michigan in the species range! I probably never would have realized how amazing it is to have this species around if it weren’t for Danielle’s project, and I love how working with her has made me appreciate the little tidbits of knowledge that are hidden under our noses.
Q: How have your experiences at UMBS informed your decisions about a career path? You recently graduated from U-M in the spring. What’s next and where do you hope to be in 10 years?
The field technician position at UMBS is unique in that it offers the ability to work on an incredibly diverse array of projects. I haven’t found a similar job anywhere else, and in fact, the position didn’t even exist at UMBS until this summer! By having the chance to work on so many different projects, I have learned just how many perspectives and facets of knowledge exist within ecology. Because of this, I think it’s impossible to gain a complete (or really even a functional) understanding of any concept through just one or two of these perspectives. Wherever I end up, I want my career to be interdisciplinary, acknowledging the complexity and nuance of whatever problem is at hand. My time at UMBS has done nothing but confirm my passion for research, so as my next step I am planning to pursue a Ph.D., hopefully in a lab that integrates many different disciplines to address a research question. One lab I am looking into has used biophotonics to look at how some animals have evolved to have a “super black” color and is now researching how light impacts the relationship between coral and algal symbionts. In 10 years, I actually hope to be doing something very similar to what I have been doing this summer at UMBS. I want to explore the environment around me, be outside, and ask my own questions about how the natural world works.
Q: What is your favorite thing to do at UMBS?
There are countless things I enjoy doing at UMBS, but if I had to pick a favorite event it would have to be the square dance. I have never been super into dancing (although I do like to have fun every now and then), but something about the square dance makes my body take over. Something about the live music and the energetic atmosphere is entrancing in a way unlike anything else I’ve experienced. I could square dance for hours on end with little to no breaks and have the best time of my life. I went to the dance both semesters and it made me understand how the Dancing Plague of 1518 could have happened. It’s also a great way to get to know people!
Q: You’ve been here for an entire field season and really immersed yourself in the research and teaching community. Tell us about the UMBS community, the energy here, and what people are doing when not in the field or lab.
One thing I’ve found to be unique about UMBS is its ability to foster fun and creativity. Outside of classes and work, people are always playing games, socializing, or making something. Campus-wide events like the weekly guest lectures and the square dance ensure that people are rarely alone and always have something to do outside of work. For me personally, I find that the community and nature around Douglas Lake bring my artistic side to the forefront. One of my favorite memories from this summer was when me and my friend Marlana, a TA for Ecology Lecture, performed the song “Man or Muppet” at the talent show. We had a great time planning how we would sing the song and making prop Muppets out of an old pair of socks I had. Living at UMBS also means that there is a ton of free time for people to have creative or fun projects outside of work. Throughout the summer, Douglas Lake has inspired me to create a series of watercolor paintings of cryptids that live around UMBS. This has involved collecting stories of cryptids (either based on lived experiences or imagined) from the wider UMBS community and then painting how I imagine these characters to look and behave. Some of the paintings I have done so far include Dougie the Loch Douglas Monster, Bigfoot (naturally), the Pig Boy, and the Crayfish Man. Another fun thing I convinced my friends to do with me was film a recreation of the 2019 movie “The Lighthouse” which we called “The Belltower.” Our short film replaced the lighthouse from the movie with the campus dinner bell and reworked the plot to be set on Douglas Lake. We crammed the filming into the last few days of the summer term and were able to screen it for the community after Ecopalooza (the final day celebration). The film was incredibly fun to make and it turned out great — I think almost 50 people watched it! Possibilities for creativity are endless at Douglas Lake.
Q: What will you miss most when the field season ends?
I will definitely miss the community more than anything else when the season ends. It’s so easy to meet new people at the station and the tight-knit environment makes it so that just about anyone can become friends. It’s a rare opportunity to be able to wake up and see your friends first thing in the morning and then again throughout the day, all while living in such a beautiful place and contributing to research. The nature at UMBS is spectacular, but it wouldn’t be the same without the people who make the biostation their home for the summer.
Q: If there’s one thing you want a prospective student to know about UMBS, what would it be?
Everyone’s probably heard this a million times but I want to emphasize how important it is to not take things too seriously. As students, it can be easy to get caught up in assignments and projects and forget why you decided to come here in the first place. The classes here are fantastic — they immerse you in the environment and approach teaching from a unique and engrossing perspective. However, classes and work are not 100% of the experience here. Most of what makes the biostation unique are the things you can do outside of class — meeting new people, picking up hobbies, and exploring northern Michigan. There is so much you can discover about yourself and the world around you while you are here. Take advantage of the time you have here to find what you enjoy and do as much of that as you can. You are only here for so long — make the most of it! It may even change your life.
Founded in 1909, the U-M Biological Station is one of the nation’s largest and longest continuously operating field research stations.
Laboratories and cabins are tucked into more than 10,000 acres along Douglas Lake to support long-term climate research and education.
Follow UMBS on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
