Drewery Lake vs Wolf Lake
Water quality, depth, fish species, and recreation comparison.
Wolf Lake reads lower on nutrients and algae than Drewery Lake. Both are in Beltrami County, Minnesota.
Both Drewery Lake and Wolf Lake sit in Minnesota. A same-state comparison strips out the state-level water-quality regime as a variable: any differences in the readings here are about the lakes themselves, not the agencies sampling them. The readings are meaningfully apart: Wolf Lake carries clearly lower phosphorus and chlorophyll-a readings than Drewery Lake. A spread that wide reflects real underlying differences, in watershed inputs, depth profiles, or monitoring rigor.
For a recreational visitor, the wider gap in the readings is decisive: Wolf Lake has the lower nutrient and algae numbers. For a researcher, the gap is the interesting part: what is different about the two watersheds, and which of those differences is mutable?
Drewery Lake
Murky, only visible to about 3.5 ft.
Wolf Lake
Moderate clarity, visible to about 9 ft.
Side-by-Side Metrics
| Metric | Drewery Lake | Wolf Lake |
|---|---|---|
| Water Clarity | 3.5 ft | 9 ft Better |
| Phosphorus | 11.5 µg/L Better | 19 µg/L |
| Chlorophyll-a (Algae) | 2.7 µg/L Better | 5.3 µg/L |
| Maximum Depth | 120 ft Better | 57 ft |
| Surface Area | 15,958 acres | 1,076 acres |
| Public Access | Yes | Yes |
| Fish Species | 21 Better | 18 |
| Trophic State | mesotrophic | mesotrophic |
A green ✓ marks the better value for that metric (lower phosphorus / chlorophyll = cleaner; higher Secchi / depth / species count = better). Surface area and trophic state carry no tick — a bigger lake is not a better lake.
Swap a lake
Compare Drewery Lake or Wolf Lake against a different lake.
Verdict
Wolf Lake reads lower on nutrients and algae than Drewery Lake. Water clarity: 9 ft vs 3.5 ft. For more fish-species variety, Drewery Lake edges ahead with 21 documented species.
Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.