Forestville Flowage Lake

Forestville Flowage Lake pulls a D on the LakeGrade rubric — phosphorus loading and limited clarity hold it below the Wisconsin average. 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. A maximum depth of just 5 ft means sediment-bound phosphorus releases back into the water column whenever wind stirs the bottom — a classic shallow-lake dynamic. Forestville Flowage Lake is small — 65 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Forestville Flowage Lake ranks 10 of 11 in Door County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

Forestville Flowage Lake carries an invasive watermilfoil record — boat-launch decontamination and shoreline care matter more here than at uninfested lakes. The fishery is bass-led, with 4 documented species across the lake's records. Public access is available — the lake is on the Wisconsin DNR public-access list. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.