Justin Guiel
  • Biology
  • Class of 2018
  • East Hartford, CT

Eastern Student Justin Guiel of East Hartford Participates in Global Field Course to Mojave and Great Basin Desert Regions

2017 Apr 3

A group of students from Eastern Connecticut State University recently participated in a global field course (GFC) to conduct research in the Mojave and Great Basin Desert regions. The students were accompanied by Assistant Biology Professors W. Brett Mattingly and Matthew Graham.

Justin Guiel '18 of East Hartford was one of the students who attended. Guiel's major is Biology.

According Professor Graham, "The goals of the trip were to immerse the students in the desert ecosystems that they have been learning about all semester; gather data on plant diversity in the Mojave and Great Basin deserts for analysis and interpretation as part of a class writing assignment; and teach them the basics of desert camping and hiking, which are essential for conducting biological field work in the southwest."

"This trip was the best experience of my life. The ability to travel on such a trip was a wonderful experience. I saw parts of the country I never thought I would see such as small towns nestled in the shadow of beautiful snow-capped mountains. It was almost like experiencing time-travel through the history of the westward expansion, the Wild West and the Gold Rush. I enjoyed time spent in the wilderness the most and learned about desert life and organisms as I saw parts of the desert I didn't even know existed. Our group did ecological surveys and taught each other about our assigned plants and animals. My most memorable experience was waking up before sunrise and watching the light hit the Sierra Nevada as the moon set behind them. I never thought I would enjoy grueling eight-mile hikes up mountains in desert heat as much as I did, but I am itching to return and will as soon as I possibly can. Wanderlust is very real to me now!"

Students stopped to hike at Big Dunes in Nevada and conducted scorpion, vegetation, arachnid and herpetofauna surveys. They camped at various campgrounds including one near Lone Pine, CA, and Death Valley National Park. They also hiked the Sierra Nevada and Death Valley National Park regions, visited the Baldwater Basin salt flats, Amboy Crater, Kelso Dunes and a number of other locales. The students were also able to tour a joshua tree forest.