Crystal Lake

Crystal Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. A maximum depth of 37 ft puts Crystal Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. Crystal Lake covers 293 acres alongside 6.1 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Crystal Lake ranks 14 of 36 in Dakota County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Crystal Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 13 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been logged at Crystal Lake more than two dozen times, putting the median around Apr 5 — a useful baseline for tracking climate trends. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.