Alma College Ecological Station
Get Your Hands Dirty
Get ready to step into the wild. At Alma College, we have our very own Ecological Station, affectionately known as “the Bog.” Picture this: you, rocking rubber boots, binoculars in hand, ready to explore more than 200 acres of forests, swamps and a sparkling lake.
The Bog isn’t just a stunning backdrop; it’s your playground for discovery. Team up with passionate faculty and dive deep into studying birds, plants, soil, water, and everything nature has to offer. By connecting with the environment up close, you’ll unlock insights into exciting topics like pharmaceutical medicine and climate change.
A Unique Environment
The Bog property, located near the town of Vestaburg, Mich., has been used by Alma College faculty and students to study animals, fungi, plants and aquatic life since the 1800s.
The Bog lies within the central feature of the property, a kettle lake that was carved by glaciers that acted like massive bulldozers during the Ice Age. The Bog, which totals more than 200 acres, is immediately surrounded by more-common wetlands, mature forests with some old-growth characteristics, secondary forested areas and abandoned agricultural fields.
Pursue Your Own Research
The Bog features an active research station and hands-on classroom, where students and faculty pursue studies of biology and other fields, using equipment that professionals in the field use, such as YSI water quality probes, Trimble GPS mapping units and crown densiometers. You can also find student researchers exploring the lake in kayaks or a flat bottom boat for aquatic invertebrate and vertebrate sampling.
Students and faculty write and publish real research based on what they find at the Bog, including topics like:
- spatial ecology and habitat use of Northern water snakes
- home range size, core area use, and daily movements of Blanding’s turtle
- thermal ecology of Northern water snakes in a northern wetland
