South Turtle Lake

South Turtle Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Wisconsin lake of its size and depth. Clarity is the limiting factor — phosphorus is reasonable but suspended particles or algal cells keep water transparency below Wisconsin norms.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at South Turtle Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. A maximum depth of 40 ft puts South Turtle Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake's 466 acres and partial shoreline records put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. South Turtle Lake sits at rank 107 of 191 in Vilas County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

An invasive species record — Banded Mystery Snail — has been logged at South Turtle Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. Walleye are documented at South Turtle Lake, one of 6 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.