Shepard Lake

On the LakeGrade scale Shepard Lake grades a B, with clarity at 14.8 ft and phosphorus readings still being added placing it above the Wisconsin median. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

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. A maximum depth of 18 ft puts Shepard Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Shepard Lake covers 179 acres alongside partial shoreline records — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Shepard Lake sits at rank 100 of 140 in Oneida County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

An invasive species record — Chinese Mystery Snail — has been logged at Shepard Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 4 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. 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.