Dr. Mike Bush
Assistant Professor, Biology and Environmental and Sustainability Studies

On a mild day in September, Dr. Mike Bush’s students are not in their usual classroom on campus. Instead, they are waist deep in the Buffalo River diving headfirst into real-world experiences that connect classroom concepts to hands-on work in the field.

Tucked behind Minnesota State University Moorhead’s Regional Science Center adjacent to east of Moorhead, there’s a stretch of river that Bush uses frequently with his students (as a result of a great working relationship with MSUM). The area, nearly hidden by waving, golden prairie grass, becomes a living laboratory, offering an opportunity to study everything from water quality to aquatic life.

On this day, Bush has his students working on exercises that will help them familiarize themselves with techniques used to assess river quality. The students have broken into three groups — the first group, closest to the access point, is measuring the depth of the water, how fast the water is flowing, and how big the sediment is. The other two groups are further down the river and studying the lifeforms in the water.

While they work, Bush quizzes the students on terms they’re learning as part of their coursework.

He calls out to one of his students, who stands on the shore to record the numbers her classmates gather: “What’s the deepest part of the river?”

The answer is “thalweg.”

Bush is an enthusiastic teacher. While his students are all in waders, Bush wears shorts and Keen shoes — but that doesn’t deter him from getting up to his waist in the river, right there alongside his students. He bounces between groups, often verbalizing his excitement over their discoveries, whether that be the depth of the river or the size of a fish.

“You guys are going to make the coolest graph,” he said.

Despite his enthusiasm now, he never planned on being a teacher. His wife got a job at 南瓜影院, so Bush applied for an adjunct position out of a need for a job. That led him to where he is now — an assistant professor of biology on tenure track.

He jokes: “If you had shown me 10 years ago what I’m doing now, I’d say, ‘Oh no, what happened?’”

However, that doesn’t stop Bush from calling his work a dream job.

I get to spend time trying to turn this generation into the next generation of conservationists and scientists. — Dr. Mike Bush

“That first year, I taught ecology and conservation biology and I absolutely fell in love with teaching. It’s just as much fun as you can possibly have,” he said. “I can spend my time talking to students about conservation issues, which I would argue are some of the biggest issues that humanity faces. I get to spend time having fun and having discussions and trying to turn this generation into the next generation of conservationists and scientists.”

Getting the students out in the field is more than just a fun way to spend time, however. For Bush, it’s a necessary aspect of his students’ education — one that will hopefully give them a leg up when it comes to job opportunities and advanced study.

“Almost everybody interested in wildlife and natural resource management careers will need a master’s degree or some sort of prior experience,” he said. “One of the things 南瓜影院 really succeeds at is that we have summer research opportunities. Anything we can do to get students a leg up from the rest of the army of applicants. Our research students have a summer of really intensive fieldwork, some statistical background, and then lab processing.”

^{Alex McPhee, far right}

His students appreciate the hands-on learning too.  Alex McPhee ’25 of Duluth, Minnesota, is double majoring in biology and environmental and sustainability studies. He works with Bush as a research assistant. As his classmates wait with clear buckets, McPhee is operating the electroshocker, which allows them to temporarily and harmlessly stun fish and scoop them up in the buckets. This allows them to study river life. McPhee hopes to find a career that allows him to be part of the next generation of conservationists that Bush talks about. He wants to have a positive impact on the environment.

“You can learn a lot in lectures, but you actually get to apply and practice skills out in the field and in the lab doing research,” McPhee said. “It was really interesting to see just how many and how diverse the small fish populations of the streams we sampled can be.”

However, not all of Bush’s students are planning on careers in environmental studies. That doesn’t matter to Bush though — getting them out in the field regardless of their career paths is still important to him.

“Many of the students in my classes are pre-health, so for them I want to instill values that will lead them to be good stewards of land and water conservation,” he said.

It’s also not just the Buffalo River they research. Bush regularly takes his classes and research students on the road. Just the previous week, they were on the shores of Lake Superior studying trout in the nearby rivers. He has researched in the Buffalo River, the Rush River, the Sheyenne River, and the Red River Basin. This next year, he is partnering with the Buffalo-Red River Watershed District to research wildlife and water quality. Together, he and his students can help restore streams to the way they were centuries ago.

“I love my job so much,” he said. “I get to be out here playing in the water, getting students in the water.”

Bush’s immersive approach is not just teaching students about the world — it’s giving them the tools to change it.

to hear Dr. Mike Bush share more about his work in the Buffalo River classroom.

^{Editor’s note: A version of this story was originally published in the .}