Pearl Lake

Pearl Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

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. Pearl Lake reaches 17 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. At 753 acres, Pearl Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 4.0 miles of shoreline. Within Stearns County's 55 graded lakes, Pearl Lake ranks 35 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

No invasive species are currently listed at Pearl Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Pearl Lake, one of 14 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been recorded 15 times at Pearl Lake, with a median around Apr 4. 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.