Loon Lake

Loon Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year. The two scored sub-grades — clarity and phosphorus — track close together, so neither one is dragging the average down.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. A maximum depth of just 9 ft means sediment-bound phosphorus releases back into the water column whenever wind stirs the bottom — a classic shallow-lake dynamic. The lake's 134 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 Chippewa County's 15 graded lakes, Loon Lake ranks 9 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

No invasive species are currently listed at Loon Lake — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. 2 fish species are documented at Loon Lake, a mixed warm-water community typical for Wisconsin lakes of this size. 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.