Bark Lake

Bark Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. High phosphorus is the leading drag on the score — likely from upland agriculture, lawn runoff, or in-lake sediment release.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. Bark Lake reaches 34 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. Bark Lake is small — 65 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within the 15 graded lakes of Washington County, Bark Lake sits at rank 12, near the bottom of the county list.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Bark Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. Walleye are documented at Bark Lake, one of 4 fish species on record for the lake. Monitoring depth is thin here: the LakeGrade rubric is applied to a small number of sample years, and the grade will be revised as more data accumulates.