Lake Buteau

Lake Buteau earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Lincoln County. 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.

Trophically, Lake Buteau reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. At 50 ft of maximum depth, Lake Buteau stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. The lake is compact at 51 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Lake Buteau sits at rank 13 of 21 in Lincoln County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Lake Buteau — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. The fishery is bass-led, with 3 documented species across the lake's records. 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.