Sheridan -
Congratulations to Sheridan Region Aquatic Habitat Biologist Travis Cundy on 35 years of service to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department!
Cundy graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in rangeland ecology and began work with Game and Fish later that year in Big Piney working on a mule deer winter range survey.
The following year, he was hired as the Casper Region habitat biologist. In 1997, he became an aquatic habitat biologist, covering both the Casper and Sheridan regions. In 2002, the two regions were separated and Cundy moved to Sheridan to focus his full time efforts in northeast Wyoming.
In recent years, he has been involved in rehabilitating degraded streams through trapping and relocating beaver, as well as the construction of beaver dam analogs, which mimic the water-slowing activities of beaver dams. He has also been instrumental in the completion of multiple fish passage projects, including the Clear Creek diversion in April 2010, that opened 36 miles of upstream movement for fish that had been blocked by a dam since 1913. Recent projects have included removing barriers to fish movement in Clear Creek near Buffalo and in the Tongue River near the former Acme power plant.
“Travis is part ecologist, botanist, wetland specialist, alluvial geomorphologist, engineer, ditch rider, project foreman,design specialist, trapper, fence and construction contractor,” said Assistant Aquatic Habitat Manager Lara Gertsch. “He is the type of biologist who plants willows in the morning, wrangles stream enhancement implementation in the afternoon, and sets beaver traps at night. Travis's best attribute is the mentoring and example he sets for the younger biologists. He instills a pride for the job, the department, the state of Wyoming and for the people we serve.”
- WGFD -