Information on Mud Lake

100-Yr. Flood Elev    941.4 (District, 10-day snowmelt) 

Mud Lake is a shallow lake surrounded by a large, private livestock grazing operation. The grazing operation uses rotational grazing to manage pasture lands.  There is no public access to the lake.  In the past the lake has been subjected to considerable nutrient-laden runoff and erosion due to historic logging and farming practices.  The lake likely has a high internal loading rate for phosphorus.  When the District last monitored for in-lake phosphorus concentrations in 2001 concentrations were significantly worse than the MPCA shallow lake standard of (60mg/L).  In 2007 the lake did not meet the MPCA shallow lake standard of 1 m for secchi depth transparency.