Nokomis Lake

Nokomis Lake earns a D — measurements through 2024 show persistent nutrient pressure that limits clarity through the summer. With clarity and phosphorus scored, the sub-grades cluster within a letter of each other, pointing to stable conditions rather than one specific stressor.

A TSI in the eutrophic range signals a lake doing what nutrient-loaded waters do — supporting an active algal community at the cost of clear water. A maximum depth of 33 ft puts Nokomis Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. Nokomis Lake covers 201 acres alongside 2.8 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within Hennepin County's 95 graded lakes, Nokomis Lake ranks 52 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Zebra mussel presence at Nokomis Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Muskie are on the species list at Nokomis Lake, among the lake's 13 documented fish. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been logged at Nokomis Lake more than two dozen times, putting the median around Apr 4 — a useful baseline for tracking climate trends. 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.