MESSAGE FROM TAYLOR PREUL-STIMETZ
I’m very excited to work on these lakes over the next few years for my PhD research. They are gems of the Northwoods and this project is a great opportunity to improve our understanding of lake ecosystems. I grew up in Rhinelander and have always had a deep love for exploring and conserving the beautiful wetlands, rivers, and lakes of Northern WI.
This research project revolves around testing the effects of the walleye spawning reef addition in Franklin Lake. The existing spawning habitat in Franklin is vulnerable to drought and is often exposed in low water years. The reef is designed to be drought resilient and remain submerged even in those extreme drought years. There are still some questions around these types of habitat additions, and this project presents a great opportunity to thoroughly assess the effectiveness of walleye spawning reefs in improving walleye recruitment. However, we also seek to investigate other topics such as forage availability/trophic interactions, overall habitat suitability, and characterize the populations of rare inland lake whitefish. This project is in full collaboration with the DNR-Florence team, the Sokaogon Chippewa Community, United States Forest Service, UW-Madison, Trout Lake Station, and the DNR-Office of Applied Science.
We will be conducting field work on both Franklin and Butternut, as we will use data from Butternut as our “control” to compare with Franklin over time. The field work for this project will begin this year as soon as the ice goes off and run through the entire season until mid-November. Throughout the season, you will likely see us out electrofishing, deploying trap nets of various sizes, snorkeling, scuba diving, measuring fish, collecting water quality data, assessing plant density/diversity, and deploying crayfish traps. It will typically be myself and a technician doing the work, but you may also see folks from our team of collaborators. We will also be assessing walleye spawning locations before and after the reef is installed using ovipositor tags, which are very small radio tags that are inserted into female walleye before they spawn that are released with the eggs. The tags give off a signal that can be detected using a radio telemetry antenna, so we will be able to find the precise locations where walleye are spawning in Franklin Lake.
IMPORTANT: An important thing for anglers to be aware of is that walleye in Franklin will be tagged in the spring with yellow floy tags. Not all fish will have them, but if you catch one, especially if you harvest it, please report the tag # to the number on the tag (fish biologist Greg Matzke). Walleye in Butternut have received similar tags for many years as part of trend lake monitoring, which we will also be using in this project. You may also observe temperature loggers or various survey equipment deployed along the shoreline. If you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to reach out, but please do not disturb the equipment if possible.
Please let me know if you have any thoughts or questions! I am looking forward to working on these beautiful lakes and learning more about them. If you see us out on the lake, feel free to stop by and say hello- we are always happy to chat and answer questions about this project!
Thank you,
Taylor
Taylor Preul-Stimetz, M.Sc. || she/her/hers
Northern Lakes Fisheries Research Scientist- Northern Highland Fishery Research Area
PhD Student, Center for Limnology | University of Wisconsin-Madison
I am living and working on the lands of the Anishinaabe/Ojibwe peoples.