Lake Mendota

Description

Lake Mendota is a freshwater eutrophic lake that is the northernmost and largest of the four lakes in Madison, Wisconsin. The lake borders Madison on the north, east, and south, Middleton on the west, Shorewood Hills on the southwest, Maple Bluff on the northeast, and Westport on the northwest. Lake Mendota acquired its present name in 1849 following a proposal by a surveyor named Frank Hudson, who claimed to be familiar with local Native American languages; Lyman C. Draper, the first corresponding secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society, proposed that Mendota could have been a Chippewa word meaning large or great. Lake Mendota, like the other lakes in the Yahara River chain, contains many native aquatic plant species, which are the primary producers of the lake and serve as the foundation for aquatic food webs as well as shelter for northern pike and yellow perch, both of which are native fish species. Plant species play a role in partially mitigating the increasing eutrophication of Lake Mendota, as they absorb phosphorus and produce dissolved oxygen, and they aid in preserving the physical structure of the lake via their root systems, which stabilize sediment and limit shoreline erosion. The draining and damming of the wetlands that once surrounded Lake Mendota caused extensive losses of fish spawning areas, though about 34 fish species are still common in the lake, including the northern pike, white bass, walleye, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and musky.