Tree Lake Association.

It’s too nice, not to care!

About Us

Mud Lake is to the north, flowing into Tree Lake, and Penny Lake is to the south.  Wetland complexes are located to the northwest and the southwest of Tree Lake.  An outlet stream is located on the northeast shore, While the inlet streams flow in from the southwest (Klondike Creek).

 

Fish in the lake are: various pan fish species include Perch, Sunfish, Crappie, Large-mouth Bass, Northern Pike and recently stocked Walleye. 

 

Ground Water Shed & Land Use in the Ground Water Shed:

785 acres of ground water land use. Historic air photos dating back to 1948 were examined and show that land use within the groundwater shed is mostly non-irrigated cropland and forested. Other land uses in this watershed are shrub cover, residential

and transportation. Since 1948, residential and transportation land use has increased slightly while shrub cover has decreased. A few fields of non-irrigated cropland became irrigated sometime between 1968 and 1990.

 

Groundwater feeds the lake from the west and has shown where loading of

nitrate, chloride and reactive phosphorus is occurring.

 

Surface Water Shed & Land Use in the Watershed:

The surface watershed is about 2500 acres, extending into Marathon County.

Tree Lake has the largest surface watershed of any of the lakes included in the Portage County Lake Study.  The watershed has a flat topography and contains large amounts of wetland.  The lowest laying area is Klondike and Mud Creek plus the abundant wetlands around these creeks

The water source for Tree Lake. Mud Lake/Creek and its wetlands are about 74 acres and the Klondike creek wetland is approximately 2400 acres with most of the creek crossing farm land, These two creeks and their wetlands dominant land use in the watershed, which limits the amount of intense nutrient run-off (such as cropland and barnyards).  Although the farms may be small in area, efforts will be made to encourage the farmers to reduce these nutrient sources.  This will be very important because the watershed can have a big impact on nutrient run-off into the lake which impacts plant and algae growth.  Erosion and sedimentation would also impact water clarity.

 

Water Quality:

The 1991-1997 mean summer data places Tree Lake in the mesotrophic range

 a mesotrophic lake is intermediate between the clear weed-free oligotrophic lakes and the high nutrient eutrophic lakes, That support large amounts of biomass.  The deeper areas of Tree Lake may be devoid of oxygen in the summer, limiting cold-water fish and allowing recycling of phosphorus (nutrient of concern) from the sediments.