Round Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Round Lake pulls an A: clarity at 29.5 ft and 15 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI value of 36 puts Round Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. A maximum depth of 39 ft puts Round Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake is compact at 27 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Within Shawano County's 27 graded waters, Round Lake sits at rank 1, near the top of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Round Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. Walleye are documented at Round Lake, one of 5 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.