The Biological Station center is laid out in the form of a small village along South Fishtail Bay on Douglas Lake. There are approximately 150 buildings for housing, dining, teaching, research, maintenance, and recreation.

Accommodations for the Station community range from 70 one-room cabins, 30 larger two- to six-room cabins, and a 14-room dormitory.  A spacious dining hall/kitchen is capable of seating over 275 people. Year-round residents use winterized cabins or homes.

The largest building is the Alfred H. Stockard Lakeside Laboratory with 24,000 square feet of floor space especially designed for biological research, including ethernet, a computer lab, chemical laboratory, photo darkrooms, stockroom, and large boatwell that connects directly to the lake. Special analytical equipment includes a Technicon autoanalyzer, a CHN machine, a Packard liquid scintillation counter, and a Thermo Finnigan Delta Plus XL isotope ratio mass spectrometer. Other technical equipment includes an ultra-cold freezer, both a gas and an HP liquid chromatograph, lyophilizer, autoclaves, spectrophotometers, ovens, incubators, balances, centrifuges, microscopes, and from the stockroom all kinds of field equipment.

The Marian P. and David M. Gates Lecture Hall is the principal venue for intellectual and cultural exchange on the Douglas Lake campus.  It has a 220-seat auditorium, a 100-seat seminar room, and a kitchenette.

The library is one of the best among inland field stations, holding over 10,000 volumes and noted for its collections in limnology, ornithology, ecology, systematics, taxonomy, and natural history.

Specialized Research Facilities

Property and Operations (includes maps)