Stearns Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Stearns Lake pulls an A: clarity at 32.8 ft and 13 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. 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. The lake's maximum depth is not yet documented in state morphometric records — context for its physical structure remains limited. The lake's 232 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. Among the 202 graded lakes in Vilas County, Stearns Lake sits at rank 94, above the county median.

No invasive species are currently listed at Stearns Lake — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Stearns Lake, one of 6 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.