Lower Springstead Lake

Lower Springstead Lake sits at the top of the Wisconsin DNR grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in 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.

The lake's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. A maximum depth of 27 ft puts Lower Springstead Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake is compact at 97 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Within the 34 graded lakes of Iron County, Lower Springstead Lake sits at rank 28, near the bottom of the county list.

Lower Springstead Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2025, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 6 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.