Sand Lake

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

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. Sand Lake is unusually deep for Wisconsin at 73 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. Sand Lake covers 900 acres alongside partial shoreline records — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Sand Lake sits at rank 45 of 70 in Burnett County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Sand Lake has at least one documented invasive species (Chinese Mystery Snail), so boaters and anglers should observe clean-drain-dry steps when leaving the lake. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 4 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. A documented public access point at Sand 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.