Lily Lake

Lily Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. 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 Lily Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. The lake's 51 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. The lake is compact at 44 acres, with 1.1 miles of shoreline and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Lily Lake sits at rank 18 of 31 in Washington County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Lily Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Lily Lake, one of 10 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Lily Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.