Our Mission
The Walleye Restoration Foundation mission is to protect, conserve, and restore the Upper Midwest’s Walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) resources for the public benefit by bringing together diverse interests to care for lakes and rivers so our future generations can experience the joy of fishing for walleyes and other fish.
Why A Walleye Restoration Foundation, Inc
We are in a time of natural resource management when there is a collision between protection of our natural resources and providing recreational opportunity. A collision between enhancing our natural resources and causing harm to our healthy environment. We are at a time where Aldo Leopold’s question” When will government conservation become like a mastodon and be hampered by its own dimensions” is defined in failure to adapt the ecological principles he developed.
Walleye Restoration Foundation, Inc Founder
Rand Atkinson
The Walleye Restoration Foundation, Inc. was founded by Rand Atkinson, an aquatic ecologist who has had a career and a past professional association with fish, water law, and lake management in Wisconsin.
Rand's earliest association with the Wisconsin DNR walleye management program was when he was relocated in 1982-84 from the cold-water rainbow trout facility at Oceola Fish Hatchery to the Spooner warmwater fish management program.
Our Approach
Our methods are to approach restoration of the walleye resources ecologically by:
Essays on Walleye Management
Conservation on The Ground
I fear conservation has become the mastodon that Aldo Leopold predicted. Modern environmental conservation is: “the protection, preservation, and sustainable management of natural resources such as land, water, air, plants, animals, and ecosystems to ensure their long-term availability in the future.” “ It involves actively managing human use of resources to maintain biodiversity, protect habitats,…
The Dilemmas of the Sciences
We have come to time in science where specialization has forgotten the big picture of solving problems. Institutions of government and higher learning have grown in parallel to this dilemma of not solving problems that are getting larger as the population of Planet Earth expands rapidly. University specialists receive funds from government specialists to lead…
Understanding Fish & Aquatic Thermocline Habitat
Our walleye populations, as well as our general fish populations in Wisconsin, have declined despite fish management efforts to preserve them. FISH HABITAT decline on shorelines is attributed to human development and increased recreational use. Recently, shoreline tree drops and a “Fish Sticks’ program has been developed to reverse this. But more is needed! The…