Lazy Lake

On the scoring rubric Lazy Lake grades a D: clarity at 4.0 ft and 269 µg/L of phosphorus keep it in the lower bracket for Columbia County. With clarity and phosphorus scored, the sub-grades cluster within a letter of each other, pointing to stable conditions rather than one specific stressor.

A TSI above 70 puts Lazy Lake in hypereutrophic territory: visible blooms are common, and clarity rarely climbs even in early summer. At only 8 ft deep, Lazy Lake is shallow — wind keeps the water column mixed and sediment resuspension drives phosphorus levels harder to manage. At 161 acres, Lazy Lake fits the Wisconsin median for monitored lakes, with partial shoreline records. Lazy Lake sits at rank 7 of 10 in Columbia County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Lazy Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 4 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. 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.