Spring Lake

Spring Lake sits at the top of the Wisconsin DNR grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in 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 27 puts Spring Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. A maximum depth of 37 ft puts Spring Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake is compact at 50 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Among the 30 graded lakes in Waushara County, Spring Lake ranks 3 — in the top quartile locally.

Spring Lake carries an invasive watermilfoil record — boat-launch decontamination and shoreline care matter more here than at uninfested lakes. Bass fishing is part of the appeal: the species list runs to 4, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. 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.