Manistee County Lake Quality

There are 24 monitored lakes in Manistee County. The mix is varied enough that the county-level average tells you the broad strokes, not the choose-this-cabin specifics. 6 of those lakes carry recent nutrient and algae readings. The county-level summary describes that subset, not every water body listed. Taken together, the monitored lakes of Manistee County sit near the low-nutrient end of the Michigan range.

Most of the county's monitored lakes are shallow, under 50 feet, which means wind keeps the water column mixed all summer and sediment-bound phosphorus releases back into the surface layer whenever the bottom is disturbed. Dorner Lake has the lowest nutrient and algae readings in the county.