October 2021 - 40

Jessica Dugan, a fisheries biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, installs a fish weir on the Big Sandy River. The
weir prevents sport fish from entering an area of the river during a treatment project. Dugan works with fish in several types of
water in the Green River Region. (WGFD photo)
I
n June a heatwave like no other descended on the West.
Western Wyoming, already dangerously low on snowpack,
endured weeks of record heat. The spring run-off was over
in the blink of an eye. Wyoming wasn't the only state to
endure the brutal heat. Utah and Idaho game and fish departments,
predicting major fish die-offs, issued emergency orders encouraging
anglers to keep more fish - the idea being if fish were going to
succumb to the stress of warm temperatures anyway, why not
allow anglers to keep them? As streamflow dwindled and the
summer intensified, the most famous trout rivers in Montana -
the Yellowstone, Madison, Beaverhead and Gallatin - were closed.
In Wyoming, signs advising anglers how to
handle trout in hot conditions were hammered
into the ground near boat ramps and trailheads.
Now that we are out of the woods with
cooler fall temperatures, there's great benefit
to thinking back on this summer and hearing
from experts about how a pattern of scorching
temperatures and drought could affect Wyoming
watersheds in the future. Fortunately,
40 | October 2021
looking back, the mortality associated with
the warm water temperatures were limited
this summer. A few dead trout were reported
through the summer, likely angling mortality
related to warm water temperatures, but as a
whole the populations survived the hot summer
temperatures.
Jessica Dugan, a Wyoming Game and Fish
Department fisheries biologist, holds a master's
degree in fisheries management and manages
warm and cold-water fish in a diverse set of
waters. A graduate from the University of California,
Berkeley and the University of Wyoming,
she was first introduced to Wyoming
when she interned in Yellowstone National
Park. Her first job was mitigating the illegal
introduction of lake trout in Yellowstone Lake.
She and her husband, Sam Lockwood, lived all
over the state, but when a position opened in
Game and Fish's Green River Region, Dugan
jumped at the opportunity. She said the area is
interesting from a fisheries perspective because
it supports world class sport fisheries, as well
as populations of native cutthroat and nongame
fish. She didn't realize her first year in

October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2021

October 2021 - 1
October 2021 - 2
October 2021 - 3
October 2021 - 4
October 2021 - 5
October 2021 - 6
October 2021 - 7
October 2021 - 8
October 2021 - 9
October 2021 - 10
October 2021 - 11
October 2021 - 12
October 2021 - 13
October 2021 - 14
October 2021 - 15
October 2021 - 16
October 2021 - 17
October 2021 - 18
October 2021 - 19
October 2021 - 20
October 2021 - 21
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October 2021 - 24
October 2021 - 25
October 2021 - 26
October 2021 - 27
October 2021 - 28
October 2021 - 29
October 2021 - 30
October 2021 - 31
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October 2021 - 33
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October 2021 - 35
October 2021 - 36
October 2021 - 37
October 2021 - 38
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October 2021 - 40
October 2021 - 41
October 2021 - 42
October 2021 - 43
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October 2021 - 45
October 2021 - 46
October 2021 - 47
October 2021 - 48
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