Round Lake

Round Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Waupaca County. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Trophically, Round Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. Round Lake is unusually deep for Wisconsin at 67 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. Round Lake is small — 73 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Among the 25 graded lakes in Waupaca County, Round Lake ranks 2 — in the top quartile locally.

Zebra mussel presence at Round Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Walleye are documented at Round Lake, one of 8 fish species on record for the lake. 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.