Gilstad Lake

Gilstad Lake pulls a D on the LakeGrade rubric — phosphorus loading and limited clarity hold it below the Minnesota average.

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. Gilstad Lake is unusually deep for Minnesota at 55 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. The lake's 257 acres and 3.6 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Gilstad Lake ranks 91 of 92 in Beltrami County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

Gilstad Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 15 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. 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.