Hanks Lake

Hanks Lake sits at the top of the Minnesota PCA grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Minnesota. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Hanks Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. A maximum depth of 45 ft puts Hanks Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. The lake's 165 acres and 2.1 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Hanks Lake sits at rank 70 of 120 in Crow Wing County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil is established at Hanks Lake, which can dampen recreational access and pressure the native plant community. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 14 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. 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.