Pigeon Lake

Pigeon 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. Pigeon Lake is unusually deep for Wisconsin at 62 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. The lake is compact at 80 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Pigeon Lake ranks 4 of 18 in Manitowoc County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

Zebra mussels have been documented at Pigeon Lake, which alters the filter-feeding balance and can paradoxically increase water clarity while disrupting the food web. Walleye are documented at Pigeon Lake, one of 4 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Pigeon 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.