Chase Lake

Chase Lake sits at the top of the Minnesota PCA grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Chase Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. Chase Lake is unusually deep for Minnesota at 95 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. At 211 acres, Chase Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 2.9 miles of shoreline. Chase Lake ranks 38 of 141 in Itasca County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Chase Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 10 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. No formal public access is documented at Chase Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. 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.