Mike Snigg, a longtime Laramie region fisheries supervisor, retired Friday after 40 years of service with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Read what the Wyoming Game and Fish Department had to say about Snigg's accomplished career:

Snigg began his Game and Fish career in 1973 as a seasonal biologist in Pinedale. He later served as a seasonal biologist in Green River until September 1977, when he was hired as the fisheries biologist in Green River. While in Green River he led an ambitious 20-mile trout habitat enhancement project on the Green River below Fontenelle Reservoir that still may be the largest instream habitat improvement project ever completed in Wyoming. Snigg transferred to a fisheries biologist opening in Laramie in 1985 and accepted a promotion to regional fisheries supervisor for southeast Wyoming in 2003.

             Among the many accomplishments Snigg is known for since arriving in Laramie are developing oxygen systems to help prevent winterkill in Laramie Plains lakes, using remote video cameras to monitor fishing pressure on the North Platte River and being one of the Department’s outstanding ambassadors with the public, including recruitment of an army of volunteers to assist with stocking Pole Mountain beaver ponds. Snigg was recognized as Employee of the Year for the Fish Division in 2000.

            “Those who have had the pleasure to work with Mike know he is the consummate professional, a team builder that always retains a positive perspective and is never riled even during the harshest weather conditions,” said Fish Division Chief Mark Fowden. “He has an uncanny ability to prioritize tasks, ensuring those that work with him will have the time available to live a full, balanced work-private life. In this and many other ways, he demonstrates he genuinely cares for people – his biologists, peers and the angling public.”

            Snigg is a native of Suffield, Connecticut. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, and a master’s degree in zoology from the University of Wyoming. He will retire in Laramie.

More From Y95 Country