Sentinel Lake Assessment Report Elephant Lake (69-0810) Saint Louis County, Minnesota

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is working in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) on the Sustaining Lakes in a Changing Environment (SLICE) Sentinel Lakes Program. The focus of this interdisciplinary effort is to improve understanding of how major drivers of change such as development, agriculture, climate change, and invasive species can affect lake habitats and fish populations, and to develop a long-term strategy to collect the necessary information to detect undesirable changes in Minnesota Lakes (Valley 2009). To increase our ability to predict the consequences of land cover and climate change on lake habitats, SLICE utilizes intensive lake monitoring strategies on a wide range of representative Minnesota lakes. This includes analyzing relevant land cover and land use, identifying climate stressors, and monitoring the effects on the lake's habitat and biological communities. The Sentinel Lakes Program has selected 24 lakes for long-term intensive lake monitoring (Figure 1). The "Deep" lakes typically stratify during the summer months. "Shallow" lakes typically remain well mixed throughout the summer. "Cold Water" lakes are defined as lakes that either harbor cisco, lake whitefish, or lake trout and are the focus of research funded by the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENTF). "Super sentinel" lakes also harbor cold-water fish populations and research on these lakes is funded by the ENTF. Elephant Lake is located in Saint Louis County within the Vermilion River watershed, part of the Rainy River basin. Elephant Lake is located northeast of Orr, MN, within the Kabetogama State Forest. The watershed is dominated by forested and wetland land use. There is some development and a limited road network along the shore of the lake, primarily on the west and north sides. It is a moderate-size lake at 300 ha (742 acres) with a maximum and mean depth of 9.1 m (30 ft) and 4.5 m (15 ft), respectively. With a fetch of almost 3 km (1.9 miles), the lake is subject to wind mixing.