Bavaria Lake

The LakeGrade rubric puts Bavaria Lake at a C: clarity at 5.2 ft, 33 µg/L of phosphorus, and a TSI of 54 signal an intermediate trophic state. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

A TSI in the eutrophic range signals a lake doing what nutrient-loaded waters do — supporting an active algal community at the cost of clear water. At 66 ft of maximum depth, Bavaria Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. The lake's 166 acres and 2.5 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Bavaria Lake ranks 14 of 40 in Carver County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Bavaria Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery is bass-led, with 13 documented species across the lake's records. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Monitoring depth is thin here: the LakeGrade rubric is applied to a small number of sample years, and the grade will be revised as more data accumulates.