Study shows fallen trees in shallow water provide ecosystem benefits

Madison — A fisheries research project in Vilas County nicknamed “fish sticks” has been recognized with a Sport Fish Restoration Project Award, presented by the American Fisheries Society (AFS).

These annual national awards recognize research projects that embody scientific excellence and effective use of federal funding under the Sport Fish Restoration Act. The award-winning project, “Fish Production and Aquatic Ecosystem Responses to Long-term Additions of Lake Coarse Woody Habitat,” involves controlled experiments that add fallen trees – known as “fish sticks” – to the shoreline of Vilas County’s 92-acre Sanford Lake. The trees enhance fish habitat by providing places to hide from larger predators. The “fish sticks” also naturally decompose over time, adding critical nutrients to the water and supporting the aquatic ecosystem.

For decades, as lakeshore residential development has occurred across Wisconsin, property owners have often thinned shoreline forests and removed fallen trees from the water, which affects near-shore aquatic ecosystems. The “fish stick” research project has been studying how tree drops and other habitat restoration efforts may contribute to healthier lake ecosystems, including fish populations.

“The primary objective for this project was to answer an age-old question for researchers and anglers alike: Do habitat additions, like these tree drops, simply attract the fish already in the lake, or do they create conditions favorable for growing the fish population in a given water?” said Greg Sass, Ph.D., Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries research team leader. “In our project, we found that adding trees doubled the number of fish that Sanford Lake can now support.”

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The ongoing project, which began in 2015, has produced multiple papers published in peer-reviewed journals, including a 2024 analysis that found adding fallen trees does not negatively influence lake water quality, which had been a concern for lake associations and lakeshore residents in the past.

An official national award ceremony will take place Aug. 30 at the AFS annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, with a second ceremony to be held in Wisconsin at a date and location to be announced in the future.

The project is funded primarily through the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act, also known as the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act. It is a federal source of dedicated funding for conservation efforts nationwide that are focused on restoring and managing sport fish populations and other aquatic resources. Revenue collected from various fishing-related taxes and fees are distributed to individual projects at the state level.