Goose Lake

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

A TSI value of 38 puts Goose Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. A maximum depth of 18 ft puts Goose Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Goose Lake is small — 67 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within Adams County's 20 graded waters, Goose Lake sits at rank 2, near the top of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil is established at Goose Lake, which can dampen recreational access and pressure the native plant community. The fishery is bass-led, with 3 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.