Bear Lake

Bear Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Portage County. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Bear Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. 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. Among the 29 graded lakes in Portage County, Bear Lake ranks 2 — in the top quartile locally.

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.