Bear Lake

On the LakeGrade scale Bear Lake grades a B, with clarity at 13.0 ft and phosphorus readings still being added placing it above the Wisconsin median. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI near 40 places Bear Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. Bear Lake reaches 28 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. The lake is compact at 29 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Bear Lake ranks 11 of 28 in Portage County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Bear Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery is bass-led, with 2 documented species across the lake's records. Public access is available — the lake is on the Wisconsin DNR public-access list. 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.