Turtle Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Turtle Lake pulls an A: clarity at 15.6 ft and phosphorus readings still being added put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Turtle Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake's maximum depth is not yet documented in state morphometric records — context for its physical structure remains limited. At 25 acres, Turtle Lake sits below the Wisconsin median: a small water where shoreline activity has an outsized effect on water quality. Within Bayfield County's 55 graded waters, Turtle Lake sits at rank 12, near the top of the local distribution.

Turtle Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2021, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery is bass-led, with 2 documented species across the lake's records. 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.