Shoal Lake

Shoal Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. The lake's maximum depth is not yet documented in state morphometric records — context for its physical structure remains limited. The lake's 676 acres and 4.6 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Shoal Lake ranks 114 of 141 in Itasca County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Shoal Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Shoal Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. No formal public access is documented at Shoal Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. 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.