As walleye populations in many Wisconsin waters continue to sag, a partnership of governmental agencies will draw on private funding to attempt a relatively little-used strategy in one lake: build a spawning reef.
The Department of Natural Resources, Mole Lake Fisheries and U.S. Forest Service have agreed to move forward with a plan to construct an underwater rock structure in Franklin Lake, an 839-acre waterbody in northwestern Forest County.
The project is intended to improve the lake’s walleye spawning habitat and hopefully result in increased recruitment, or survival of naturally-reproduced walleye, and a self-sustaining population of the fish prized for sport and food.
Walleyes are native to Franklin Lake but have been declining in number over the last several decades. From 1989 to 1997 the lake averaged 3.02 adult walleyes per acre, according to DNR data. But from 2002 to 2025 the average fell to 0.51 per acre and a DNR assessment in 2025 found 0.46 per acre. This decline has occurred despite the lake being stocked with walleyes, including annual plants of 8,000 large fingerlings in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025.
Walleye recruitment hasn’t disappeared but over the last 20 years has been too low and too irregular to sustain the population.
“Our walleye population is in jeopardy,” said Bryan Davis, president of the Franklin Lake Improvement Association, a non-profit organization that has been pushing for a solution to its walleye woes. “We see this conservation project as a last resort for saving the fish.”
A similar project was proposed about a decade ago but lacked adequate public support, according to the DNR.
But the idea resurfaced, in part due to the continued walleye declines being documented and with an energized lake improvement group which had committed to raising funds for the project, and the DNR held a public meeting on it Aug. 27, 2025 in Eagle River.
A questionnaire filled out by 25 meeting attendees showed good support for walleye rehabilitation efforts in general and the Franklin Lake project in specific.
Eighty-four percent supported walleye rehabilitation efforts in Forest, Vilas or Oneida counties, 60% had fished for walleye on Franklin Lake, 96% believed walleye numbers had decreased on Franklin Lake and 64% supported the proposed walleye spawning reef and rehabilitation project on Franklin Lake (16% voted no, 20% were undecided).
In an Oct. 7 letter, DNR fisheries supervisor Adam Nickel said that due to the support among partners and public input, the DNR, Mole Lake and U.S. Forest Service decided “to move forward with project partners on the next steps of the project that include gathering funding, finalizing design and construction logistics.”
The preliminary plan calls for constructing the spawning reef on the eastern side of Franklin Lake. It would include round, uncrushed stone ranging in size from 1 to 4 inches, Davis said. The stone would be screened and washed to ensure it meets environmental requirements.
It would be added to the top of the ice in winter and then fall to the lake bed at ice out.
Davis said a project estimate placed the cost at $206,000.
But Flannery’s Materials of Lake Tomahawk has pledged to provide in-kind donations of material and service to place the rock on the lake, about a $103,000 contribution, Davis said. So the Franklin Lake Improvement Association is working to raise the balance, at least $100,000.
The organization has a Go Fund Me account and a Facebook page to help with its efforts.
The project is proposed to start laying down stone in 2027, according to the DNR.
Davis said a side benefit to the work could be to help the lake’s whitefish population. Franklin Lake is one of a handful of Wisconsin’s inland lakes with native whitefish populations.
It would also allow a detailed assessment of the fish population before and after the reef construction, according to Nickel.
“The Wisconsin DNR has also been working with research scientists who plan to fully evaluate the walleye reef project with a pre- and post-research project,” Nickel said. “In addition, this research project will employ car counters and other methods to measure overall angler effort response.”
To learn more about the Franklin Lake Improvement Association or contribute to the lake’s walleye spawning reef project, visit its Facebook page or Go Fund Me site.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: DNR approves walleye spawning reef project at Franklin Lake in Forest County
Reporting by Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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