Lake Assessment Program - East Battle and Stuart Lakes, Otter Tail County

East Battle and Stuart Lakes are located in south central Otter Tail County. They have surface areas of 2040 and 727 acres respectively. East Battle Lake's watershed is quite large (42,760 acres) while the Stuart Lake sub-watershed comprises 19 percent of that total area or 8,168 acres of that total watershed area. As a whole, land use types are distributed in percentages equivalent to the anticipated North Central Hardwood Forest (NCHF) ecoregion land use average ranges. However, East Battle Lake's watershed has a high percentage of agricultural land (50%) while Stuart Lake's watershed has a higher than expected amount of land (16%) in water and marsh lands and in lands within the pasture and open category (29%). East Battle and Stuart Lakes were sampled for water quality data during the summer of 1994 by MPCA staff along with representatives of the respective lake associations. The work described in this study was undertaken upon a request from the association.