Moose Lake

Moose Lake sits at the top of the Minnesota PCA grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

The lake's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. The lake bottoms out at 43 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake is compact at 87 acres, with 2.7 miles of shoreline and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Among the 64 graded lakes in Wright County, Moose Lake ranks 10 — in the top quartile locally.

Zebra mussel presence at Moose Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Walleye are documented at Moose Lake, one of 11 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a partial ice record — 8 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 11. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.