Lower Trelipe Lake

On the LakeGrade scale Lower Trelipe Lake grades a B, with clarity at 6.9 ft and 23 µg/L of phosphorus placing it above the Minnesota median. With clarity and phosphorus scored, the sub-grades cluster within a letter of each other, pointing to stable conditions rather than one specific stressor.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Lower Trelipe Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. A maximum depth of 32 ft puts Lower Trelipe Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. At 618 acres, Lower Trelipe Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 6.6 miles of shoreline. Within the 132 graded lakes of Cass County, Lower Trelipe Lake sits at rank 112, near the bottom of the county list.

Lower Trelipe Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 16 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been recorded 8 times at Lower Trelipe Lake, with a median around Apr 15. 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.