Lake Assessment Program Sugar Lake, Wright County, Minnesota

Sugar Lake is located 2 miles NW of the City of Silver Creek in Wright County, Minnesota. With a surface area of about 919 acres, it is among the top five percent of lakes in the state in terms of size. Sugar Lake has a maximum depth of 62 feet and a mean depth of 24 feet, which is a typical depth for lakes of this region. The total watershed is 5.6 square miles. Land use in the watershed is characterized by cultivated (40 percent), water and marsh (19 percent), pasture/open (17 percent), forested (17 percent) and urban/residential (7 percent) uses. These percentages are very comparable to other lake watersheds in this region of the state - North Central Hardwood Forests ecoregion. Sugar Lake was sampled during the summer of 1999 by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) staff and citizens from the Sugar Lake Association (Association). Water quality data collected during the study reveal summer-mean total phosphorus (TP) concentration of 17.4 ?g/L, chlorophyll a of 7.4 ?g/L and Secchi transparency of 8.6 feet. All three measures are well within the range of values exhibited by reference lakes in the NCHF ecoregion. Total phosphorus, chlorophyll a and Secchi transparency help to characterize the trophic status of a lake. These measures indicate mesotrophic conditions for Sugar Lake.