Matt Devine and Drew Ransom of CTDEEP
Matt and Drew will be presenting on a variety of topics applicable to the mission of CVTU. This is a monthly gathering you won’t want to miss.
Matt Devine
Matt Devine has over twelve years of experience sampling, studying, and enhancing cold and warm water fisheries. He has worked for state and federal agencies as well as non-governmental organizations specializing in fisheries conservation. After receiving his BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Redlands (CA), Matt’s fisheries career began in Litchfield, Connecticut as a Seasonal Resource Assistant for the CTDEEP Fisheries Division crew.
In 2009 Matt scratched his itch to move to the Northern Rockies. Matt held positions with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, USGS (Wyoming), and Friends of the Teton River (Idaho), and spent the off seasons on the Snake River raft guiding and winters working at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.
Matt returned to the Northeast and worked with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife before returning to school. He completed an MS in Fish and Wildlife Conservation Biology at UMass Amherst in 2015 and is currently wrapping up his PhD, also at UMass, where he is part of the Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. Now Matt, originally from West Hartford, has seen the light and has come full circle back to CTDEEP as a Coldwater Fisheries Biologist, and will be working out of the Eastern District Headquarters in Marlborough.
Matt’s graduate work focuses on the population dynamics and restoration ecology of anadromous river herring. For his MS Matt developed a sampling protocol for juvenile river herring in freshwater lakes and investigated factors that influence their density and growth. His PhD research expands sampling to large rivers and estuaries in an attempt to close the loop on understanding limits to production. His research also investigates the response of river herring to restored aquatic connectivity in coastal Massachusetts watersheds.
Matt is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hunting, fishing, snowboarding, searching for antlers with his dog, and spending time on and around rivers and streams with his wife Vanessa, two young boys Wyatt (6) and Jamie (3), and trusty golden retriever May.
Drew Ransom
Drew Ransome is a CT native who started his career working with the University of Connecticut and as a seasonal with the CT DEEP Western District office. He holds a BS in Natural Resources from UConn and an MS in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He has gained experience working in multiple states and eco-regions throughout his career (Intermountain West and Great Lakes) and has also held fisheries technician positions with Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Before starting his new position with DEEP he held a fisheries research biologist position working with Bull Trout and Westslope Cutthroat Trout in Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho.
Drew is an enthusiastic and unsuccessful angler, and has enjoyed getting to fish in the salt again after moving back to Connecticut.
We will be providing a Zoom link for this gathering only. There is a great deal of interest in these two gentlemen and their presentation. Please click the button below to gain access to the meeting. Be sure to “rename” your connection with full name and TU chapter.