Lily Lake

The LakeGrade rubric puts Lily Lake at a C: clarity at 3.3 ft, 17 µg/L of phosphorus, and a TSI of 52 signal an intermediate trophic state. The lake's weakest score is on Secchi depth — the water looks more turbid than its phosphorus number alone would predict.

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. Lily Lake reaches 45 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. Lily Lake covers 109 acres alongside 1.9 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Lily Lake ranks 118 of 141 in Itasca County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

Lily Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2022, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at Lily Lake, one of 8 fish species on record for the lake. 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.