[4] Vitt has collected mosses not only in the United States and Canada, but also in the Canary Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Fiji, Brazil, Peru, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Jamaica, China, Japan, and Asiatic Russia.
He has been a co-collector with Richard Edward Andrus, Diana Gail Horton, and Timo Juhani Koponen.
[3] In July 1971 while collecting mosses on Devon Island, Vitt suffered two broken ribs from an encounter with a musk ox.
[7] Dr. Vitt's interests include ecosystem dynamics, biogeochemistry and paleoecology of peatlands, particularly as related to climatic changes.
He also has a continuing interest in all aspects of research related to biosystematics and taxonomy (emphasizing bryophytes), including ecological and systematic studies of mosses in tropical, temperate and arctic areas.
[4]A recognised authority on peatlands, he provided the subject section in the 2008 Encyclopedia of Ecology (edited by S.E.