Kenu Lake

Kenu Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

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. At only 13 ft deep, Kenu Lake is shallow — wind keeps the water column mixed and sediment resuspension drives phosphorus levels harder to manage. At 68 acres, Kenu Lake sits below the Wisconsin median: a small water where shoreline activity has an outsized effect on water quality. Within the 202 graded lakes of Vilas County, Kenu Lake sits at rank 199, near the bottom of the county list.

No invasive species are currently listed at Kenu Lake — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Kenu Lake, one of 5 fish species on record for the lake. 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.