North Shore Boat Launch Closed

The North Shore boat launch and parking lot at Devil’s Lake State Park closed Monday, July 6, and will stay closed through approximately August 11 while crews dredge the launch lagoon. The South Shore boat launch remains open the entire time.

The closure takes more than just the launch out of service, but the boat launch parking area as well as the North Shore off-leash dog swim area. If you’re launching a boat or bringing your dog down for a swim, South Shore is where you’ll want to head until the work is finished. Please stay out of any area posted as closed — that’s not a suggestion, it’s where the equipment and crews are working.

What’s actually happening

This is a recreation amenities project aimed at improving channel navigation through the North Shore boat launch lagoon. It’s limited to that lagoon area. Nothing else in the lake is part of this project.

The questions we got

We noted the closure on our social media channels recently and heard back with more questions than usual — where the removed sediment goes, why this is happening now, whether this has been done before. Good questions, and not ones we could answer off the top of our heads.

To learn more, we reached out to the DNR under Wisconsin’s open records law. What came back are the answers below — direct, but brief. Where an answer feels short on context, that’s the nature of the records response, not something left out on purpose.

What the DNR told us

Is the dredging limited to the boat landing area, or does it extend further?
Just the lagoon area around the North Shore boat launch. No other part of the lake is involved.

Where’s the removed sediment going?
Non-low-hazard material is being hauled to Milestone Materials. Everything else is being deposited behind the park’s Maintenance Service building.

Why is this needed?
To improve navigation through the lagoon and improve boat safety in that area.

Has this been done before at Devil’s Lake?
The DNR found no historical documentation showing a dredging project has been done here previously. As far as the record shows, this hasn’t happened before. *

Who decided to move forward with this?
The project was requested in the 2023–2025 DNR Capital Budget and approved by the legislature.

Why schedule this during the busiest stretch of the year?
Timing was set to protect fish movement, spawning, and egg incubation — the work couldn’t start before July 1 without risking those periods.

Will this improve water quality once it’s done?
Not directly. The DNR was clear that water quality isn’t typically a factor in a dredging project like this. The goal is restoring safe boat access by removing sediment that’s built up over time — not a water quality outcome.

With so much else that needs attention around the park, why this project?
This is one of two questions we didn’t put to the DNR as a records request; it’s less a factual question than a priority judgment, and that’s not something a short written answer was going to settle. But it’s a fair question, and worth addressing with what’s already on the record: this project came out of the 2023–2025 DNR Capital Budget, approved by the legislature. Capital budget requests generally fund larger, one-time infrastructure work and move through the state budget process years ahead of time, on a separate track from the day-to-day maintenance and staffing needs the park handles year to year. So it’s not that dredging got picked over some other repair on a list; this item was already working its way through Madison well before this season.

A question we can’t answer

* Another question readers raised is certainly worth mentioning here: Given how long Indigenous peoples have used this lake, and that there are documented burial mounds within about 100 yards of this shoreline — has any archaeological survey work been done in this area, past or present? We don’t know. Wisconsin’s Burial Sites Preservation Law requires Wisconsin Historical Society authorization before ground-disturbing work proceeds in a recorded burial site, so there’s a process that could apply here if this area falls within one. Whether it does, and whether it was followed, isn’t something we can confirm. It’s a good question, raised by our readers who usually are paying close attention, and we’d like to see more of this made public, as a matter of record.

Until the work is done

While the dredging is underway, anyone headed to the north end of the lake to launch a boat or swim a dog will need to use South Shore instead. That’s the workaround for the next several weeks — South Shore stays open and unaffected the whole time. Expect North Shore access, including its parking and dog swim areas, to come back sometime around August 11, weather and progress depending.

Learn more about your right to ask questions

Wisconsin Department of Justice Public Records
Wisconsin Legislature: 19.31
June 2025 Wisconsin Public Records Law Compliance Guide