Nixon Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Nixon Lake pulls an A: clarity at 13.1 ft and 11 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Nixon Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake's 67 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 60 acres, with 1.8 miles of shoreline and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Among the 64 graded lakes in Wright County, Nixon Lake ranks 13 — in the top quartile locally.

Nixon Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2021, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery is bass-led, with 9 documented species across the lake's records. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been recorded 6 times at Nixon Lake, with a median around Apr 9. 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.