Sheridan College Science Lecture to Discuss Radio-Telemetry of Local Fish Migrations

The spring Sheridan College Museum of Discovery Science Lecture Series begins on Wednesday, February 16 at 7 pm with an online lecture entitled “Radio-Telemetry of Migratory Fishes in Clear Creek and the Powder River. The free online lecture will be held via Zoom and will be presented by Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Fisheries Biologist Gordon P. Edwards Jr. Gordon has served the great State of Wyoming as a Fisheries Biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for 17 years, currently managing aquatic wildlife across northeast Wyoming, stationed in Sheridan. 

The Powder River and Clear Creek in north-central Wyoming host an intact native fish community and the highest fish diversity in the state.  Many of these fishes migrate upstream from as far away as the Yellowstone River in Montana, assisted by fish passage improvements at man-made barriers.  In 2021, Wyoming Game and Fish Department Fisheries Biologists began studying the movements of Shovelnose Sturgeon, Sauger, and Goldeye with radio telemetry.  These fishes demonstrated seasonal movements throughout the entire basin dependent upon connections among distant habitats and influenced by streamflow.  A new passage structure at a dam on lower Clear Creek has restored access for many fishes to much of the creek after nearly 100 years of inhibited upstream migrations.  Exciting changes to the fish community are expected to begin in 2022 when a major fish passage project is completed on the Yellowstone River in Montana. The information to attend the online lecture and a schedule of additional upcoming lectures can be found here.