Foster Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric Foster Lake fails the cutoffs — a TSI of 75 and persistent algal pressure put it in the bottom tier. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI above 70 puts Foster Lake in hypereutrophic territory: visible blooms are common, and clarity rarely climbs even in early summer. At only 10 ft deep, Foster Lake is shallow — wind keeps the water column mixed and sediment resuspension drives phosphorus levels harder to manage. The lake's 115 acres and 2.3 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Within the 64 graded lakes of Wright County, Foster Lake sits at rank 54, near the bottom of the county list.

No invasive species are currently listed at Foster Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Foster Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. The lake lacks a documented public access point, so visitor use is limited. 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.