A healthy lake is one that is near its natural state. Water entering the lake has low levels of pollution. A healthy lake is protected by a natural shoreline and by investments in careful stewardship of the lake and its watershed (lakeshed).
What is a healthy lake?
A healthy lake is one that is near its natural state. It has low levels of pollution and has a natural shoreline that protects the bank and filters runoff. It is surrounded by a landscape that delivers water and energy consistent with its self-sustaining plant and animal communities. A healthy lake can withstand changing conditions and seasonal fluctuations. Most importantly, it has a human community and society that values these resources and invests in the protection and restoration of the water, watershed, and interacting and dependent communities.
An unhealthy lake has received more disturbance than it can handle, forcing it to deviate from its natural state. The lake is out of balance with its water and nutrient input levels, impacting the health of fish and plant communities. A degraded lake is less resilient and may decline further under changing conditions.
Restoring a degraded lake back to a healthy condition is usually a lengthy, expensive, and complex challenge. In contrast, protecting a healthy lake and the surrounding land helps ensure that the ecological and economic benefits that it currently provides are likely to be sustained into the future.
How is lake health related to watershed health?
A lake's watershed (or lakeshed) is all land and surface water upstream of its outlet that contribute water to it. Lakes are influenced by the landscape characteristics and land uses within their respective lakeshed.
Lake health reflects the intensity of landscape alteration. Agriculture, forestry, transportation, industrial, and urban uses introduce contaminants that impact the health of our lakes.
Lake health is also affected by internal factors, such as lake area, depth, and diversity of nearshore habitat, and external factors, such as soils in the lakeshed, altered hydrology, lakeshed to lake size ratio, groundwater inflow, and the source and amount of surface water inflow.
It is the unique combination of these influences that determine the quality of the water and the aquatic community in a particular lake.
What do the lake health score and grade mean?
Lakes Included
There is currently information presented on 2,939 lakes. These lakes were included based on the presence of water chemistry (total phosphorus) and morphological data. The number of lakes included in this dataset will likely increase in the future.
How is the lake health score calculated?
Component Input Status
Source Data
Watershed Health Assessment for Lakes Scores (opens in new tab).
The Lake Health Score is an average of the Water Quality, Biology, and Hydrology Lake Health Component Scores and is on a 0 to 100 scale.
Lake Health Score (
Lake Health Grade: C
Lake Health Score Major Watershed Mean (
Lake Health Score Major Watershed Min/Max: 20/80
Lake Health Component Scores
Water Quality Score: 50
Water Quality Score Major Watershed Mean: 37; Min/Max: 1/86
Biology Score: 18
Biology Score Major Watershed Mean: 25; Min/Max: 0/75
Hydrology Score: 61
Hydrology Score Major Watershed Mean: 64; Min/Max: 16/96
Component Input Status
Each component score is created by combining data inputs. Some of these data inputs have a target value labeled a 'goal' or 'threshold'. If an input value is:
Water Quality
Phosphorus: At or Above Goal
Water Clarity: At or Above Goal
Biology
Fish Community Quality: Below Threshold
Lake Plant Community Quality: Below Threshold
Why is this important?
What is included?
Area (acres) | 296 |
Lakeshed Area (acres) | 5,380 |
Maximum Depth (feet) | 49 |
Maximum Depth (meters) | 14.9 |
Mean Depth (feet) | 20 |
Mean Depth (meters) | 6.2 |
Littoral Area (acres) | 110 |
Shoreline (miles) | 3.2 |
Water Body Class | Lake or Pond |
Managed Fisheries Lake | Yes |
Lake Finder | Open Lake Finder to Lake, opens in a new window |
Basin | Minnesota (0702) |
Major | Lower Minnesota River (33) |
Catchment ID | 3311701 |
County (Majority) | Carver |
County (Percent) | Carver: 59% |
County (Percent) | Hennepin: 41% |