Maria Lake

Maria Lake grades an F: water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate poorly, placing it among the most stressed lakes monitored in Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI above 70 puts Maria Lake in hypereutrophic territory: visible blooms are common, and clarity rarely climbs even in early summer. At only 6 ft deep, Maria Lake is shallow — wind keeps the water column mixed and sediment resuspension drives phosphorus levels harder to manage. Maria Lake covers 131 acres alongside 2.2 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within the 40 graded lakes of Carver County, Maria Lake sits at rank 38, near the bottom of the county list.

Maria Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2021, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The lake's fish records list 1 species — a varied community without one dominant gamefish. A documented public access point at Maria 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.