Mckenzie Lake

Mckenzie Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Polk County. 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.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Mckenzie Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. A maximum depth of 25 ft puts Mckenzie Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Mckenzie Lake is small — 52 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Mckenzie Lake sits at rank 39 of 77 in Polk County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

An invasive species record — Chinese Mystery Snail — has been logged at Mckenzie Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. The fishery is bass-led, with 3 documented species across the lake's records. A documented public access point at Mckenzie 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.