Cedar Lake

Cedar Lake earns a D — measurements through 2023 show persistent nutrient pressure that limits clarity through the summer. With clarity and phosphorus scored, the sub-grades cluster within a letter of each other, pointing to stable conditions rather than one specific stressor.

At a TSI of 61, Cedar Lake reads as eutrophic — nutrient-rich enough that summer algal growth and reduced clarity are expected, not unusual. At 51 ft of maximum depth, Cedar Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. The lake's 164 acres and 3.0 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Cedar Lake ranks 38 of 95 in Hennepin County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Cedar Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. Walleye are documented at Cedar Lake, one of 15 fish species on record for the lake. No formal public access is documented at Cedar Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. Ice-out has been recorded 12 times at Cedar Lake, with a median around Apr 9. 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.