Kemo Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Kemo Lake pulls an A: clarity at 17.0 ft and phosphorus readings still being added put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Kemo Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake's 65 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. The lake's 189 acres and 3.1 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Kemo Lake ranks 15 of 128 in Cook County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

Kemo Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The lake's fish records list 3 species — a varied community without one dominant gamefish. 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.