Lake Placid

On the LakeGrade rubric, Lake Placid pulls an A: clarity at 49.2 ft and 12 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for 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.

Trophically, Lake Placid reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. A maximum depth of 30 ft puts Lake Placid in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Lake Placid covers 178 acres alongside partial shoreline records — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Lake Placid ranks 18 of 52 in Sawyer County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil is established at Lake Placid, which can dampen recreational access and pressure the native plant community. Walleye are documented at Lake Placid, one of 4 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.