Upper Springstead Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Upper Springstead Lake pulls an A: clarity at 36.1 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, Upper Springstead Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake bottoms out at 22 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 121 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. Within Iron County's 34 graded lakes, Upper Springstead Lake ranks 21 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

An invasive species record — Curly-Leaf Pondweed — has been logged at Upper Springstead Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. Walleye are documented at Upper Springstead 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.