Dickman Lake

Dickman Lake grades an F: water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate poorly, placing it among the most stressed lakes monitored in Wisconsin. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

A TSI in the eutrophic range signals a lake doing what nutrient-loaded waters do — supporting an active algal community at the cost of clear water. Dickman Lake is a shallow lake at 12 ft maximum depth, which means it warms quickly, mixes constantly, and amplifies nutrient inputs. Dickman Lake is small — 6 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within the 10 graded lakes of Fond du Lac County, Dickman Lake sits at rank 9, near the bottom of the county list.

Dickman Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2022, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The lake's fish records list 1 species — a varied community without one dominant gamefish. 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.