North Turtle Lake

North Turtle Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. Clarity is the limiting factor — phosphorus is reasonable but suspended particles or algal cells keep water transparency below Wisconsin norms.

A TSI near 45 places North Turtle Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. The lake's 58 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Wisconsin — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. The lake's 359 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. North Turtle Lake ranks 81 of 191 in Vilas County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

An invasive species record — Rusty Crayfish — has been logged at North Turtle Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. Walleye are documented at North Turtle Lake, one of 6 fish species on record for the lake. 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.