Field Ecology of the Great Basin Desert

I was fortunate enough to be the science teacher at Haas Hall Academy for 3.5 years, from 2006-2009. It was a GREAT experience, I LOVED my job, LOVED my school, LOVED my faculty, and LOVED my students. Rod even had the opportunity to coach PE there for 1 semester, after he graduated and before he got his new job, and was pretty fond of the place too. It will always hold a spot in our hearts! So, when we learned we were moving to Nevada, we started thinking of ways to maintain a relationship with HHA. We decided to offer a summer class titled Field Ecology of the Great Basin Desert. We just hosted the first one, from July 28 - August 4, and it went off wonderfully!

I drove to Salt Lake City on the 28 to pick the five participating students up from the airport: Zoe and Eli Barton, Cayenne Buell, David Halperin and Katherine Magoulick. They all seemed excited and in good spirits. We stopped on the way back to Ruby Valley for a Burger King lunch and to buy a week's worth of groceries. We also stopped to take photos of a dead porcupine on the road - they were excited about everything, and it was contagious!

The first morning they participated in a Leopard Frog survey - we found five. They are considering listing it under the ESA.


That afternoon they got started on their individual research projects. Eli and David were going to examine mosquito larvae densities, but after not being able to locate any, instead, compared species diversity between habitat types for aquatic invertebrates.

Katherine looked at how soil crust varied as you moved linearly away from roadways.

Cayenne and Zoe looked at whether people attempted to avoid or hit a snake in the road, using fake snakes for models.

They had some interesting results, including this man who got out, retrieved a fishing pole and approached the snake with it, before realizing it was fake!

Their fake rattlesnake

It wasn't all work and no play. They went fishing one afternoon, got a refuge tour, toured the fish hatchery, visited Fort Ruby...

...went wildlife watching, and road cruising at night looking for snakes. Zoe, our budding herpetologist, couldn't get enough of that! Rod let them watch him process a rattlesnake one night too.




And finally, they were able to go on a 2 day field trip with the YCC crew to Great Basin National Park. We had a really great time! We hiked to an ancient Bristlecone Pine grove, the oldest organisms on earth, and a glacier below Wheeler Peak, the second highest point in the state.

I felt really pregnant for the first time! That hike was pretty tough!

We also were fortunate enough to have Bryan Hamilton, the park biologist, come talk to us and even take us tracking two of his transmittered snakes! Very cool.

We (Rod, the 5 HHA students and I) headed out at 5:30 am from the park to get them back to the airport. All -in-all, I think it was a great time! Maybe they'll drum up interest from their friends and we can do another next year!

On the way back to Ruby Valley, Rod and I stopped on the Bonneville Salt Flats to get a closer look.