The Wyoming Game and Fish Department Casper Region Fisheries Management crew is excited to welcome Jessica Dugan to the team.  Dugan comes to the Casper Region after working as a biologist for Game and Fish studying roundtail chub in the Blacks Fork drainage of Southwest Wyoming. 

Dugan completed her master’s from UW in fisheries management in 2015 where she studied brown trout and nongame fish in Southeast Wyoming.  She used GIS technology to analyze fish habitat selection, and stable isotopes and diet analyses to examine brown trout food preferences in the Laramie River.

Dugan’s passion for fish and wildlife has led her all across Wyoming, even the world.   She conducted independent fieldwork at a remote research station on the island of Mo’orea, French Polynesia.  Dugan worked for the Park Service engaging in cutthroat trout conservation in Yellowstone National Park and completed two field seasons as a fisheries technician for Game and Fish working in multiple regions across Wyoming before started her work on roundtail chubs.

When not studying fish, you can find Jessica enjoying the outdoors.  She has backpacked the Pacific Crest Trail in the Sierra Nevada’s, and now spends time backpacking and packing horses in Wyoming.  On snowy, windy Wyoming winter days if she isn’t ice fishing, you might find Dugan on the slopes.  She looks forward to meeting many of the anglers in the Casper area as she begins to explore and study the fisheries along the North Platte.