Parley Lake

Parley Lake earns an F: 100 µg/L of phosphorus and clarity at 1.6 ft signal heavy nutrient loading from the surrounding watershed. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Hypereutrophic conditions mean the lake is operating at the upper end of the productivity scale, with all the bloom risk that implies. The lake bottoms out at 18 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Parley Lake covers 258 acres alongside 3.8 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, Parley Lake sits at rank 35, near the bottom of the county list.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Parley Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. Walleye are documented at Parley Lake, one of 16 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Parley 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.