Yellow Birch Lake

On the scoring rubric Yellow Birch Lake grades a D: clarity at 4.2 ft and phosphorus readings still being added keep it in the lower bracket for Vilas County. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

At a TSI of 56, Yellow Birch Lake reads as eutrophic — nutrient-rich enough that summer algal growth and reduced clarity are expected, not unusual. The lake bottoms out at 23 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 192 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. Yellow Birch Lake ranks 173 of 191 in Vilas County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil is established at Yellow Birch Lake, which can dampen recreational access and pressure the native plant community. Walleye are documented at Yellow Birch 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.