Little Wood Lake

Little Wood Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Wisconsin lake of its size and depth. 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.

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. A maximum depth of 23 ft puts Little Wood Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake's 196 acres and partial shoreline records put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Within the 70 graded lakes of Burnett County, Little Wood Lake sits at rank 62, near the bottom of the county list.

An invasive species record — Chinese Mystery Snail — has been logged at Little Wood Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. Bass fishing is part of the appeal: the species list runs to 3, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. A documented public access point at Little Wood Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.