Mead Lake

On the scoring rubric Mead Lake grades a D: clarity at 6.6 ft and 205 µg/L of phosphorus keep it in the lower bracket for Clark County. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

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 16 ft puts Mead Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake's 310 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. Mead Lake ranks 4 of 4 in Clark County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

An invasive species record — Curly-Leaf Pondweed — has been logged at Mead Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 5 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Wisconsin DNR public-access list. 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.