Cedar Lake

Cedar Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. The lake bottoms out at 32 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. At 1,120 acres, Cedar Lake is one of the larger lakes in Polk County, with partial shoreline records supporting multiple distinct use patterns. Within Polk County's 74 graded lakes, Cedar Lake ranks 49 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Cedar Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 5 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. 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.