Heart Lake

Heart Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Beltrami County. 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.

Trophically, Heart Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake's maximum depth is not yet documented in state morphometric records — context for its physical structure remains limited. The lake's surface area is not consistently recorded across state datasets — physical context remains partial. Within Beltrami County's 86 graded waters, Heart Lake sits at rank 12, near the top of the local distribution.

Heart Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2025, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Heart Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. 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.