North Lake

North Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Barron County. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI near 42 places North Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. A maximum depth of 21 ft puts North Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. North Lake is small — 83 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. North Lake ranks 19 of 38 in Barron County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

An invasive species record — Chinese Mystery Snail — has been logged at North 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. 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.