Medicine Lake is an inland

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

located approximately 8 miles northwest of downtown

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. The lake lies within

Hennepin County Hennepin County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapol ...

and is surrounded by two municipalities. At 902 acres, it is Hennepin County's second largest lake behind

Lake Minnetonka Lake Minnetonka (Dakota: ''Mní iá Tháŋka'') is a lake located about west-southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lake Minnetonka has about 23 named bays and areas. The lake lies within Hennepin and Carver counties and is surrounded by 13 inc ...

and is popular among boaters, sailors, and fishers. Medicine Lake's most significant tributary i
Plymouth Creek
which enters the lake at West Medicine Lake Park. The lake is also fed by rain and drainage from nearby cities, including Medicine Lake,

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, New Hope, Golden Valley and

Minnetonka Minnetonka ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. A western suburb of the Twin Cities, Minnetonka is located about west of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

Recreation

Medicine Lake is a major recreational resource for the area. Three public parks, French Regional Park, West Medicine Lake Park and East Medicine Lake Park, are located along the shores of the lake. Medicine Lake is popular for recreational fishing. According to the Minnesota DNR, the following species of fish can be found in the lake:

black bullhead The black bullhead or black bullhead catfish (''Ameiurus melas'') is a species of bullhead catfish. Like other bullhead catfish, it has the ability to thrive in waters that are low in oxygen, brackish, turbid and/or very warm. It also has barbels ...

black crappie The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black sp ...

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...

brown bullhead The brown bullhead (''Ameiurus nebulosus'') is a fish of the family Ictaluridae that is widely distributed in North America. It is a species of bullhead catfish and is similar to the black bullhead (''Ameiurus melas'') and yellow bullhead (''Ame ...

green sunfish The green sunfish (''Lepomis cyanellus'') is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. A panfish popular with anglers, the green sunfish is also kept as an aquarium fish by hobbyists. They are us ...

, hybrid sunfish,

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

pumpkinseed The pumpkinseed (''Lepomis gibbosus''), also referred to as pond perch, common sunfish, punkie, sunfish, sunny, and kivver, is a small/medium-sized North American freshwater fish of the genus ''Lepomis'' (true sunfishes), from family Centrarchi ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

white crappie The white crappie (''Pomoxis annularis'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two species of crappies. Alternate common names for the species include goldring and silver perch. is named for the fish. The genus name ''Pomoxis ...

yellow bullhead The yellow bullhead (''Ameiurus natalis'') is a species of bullhead catfish, a ray-finned fish that lacks scales. Description The yellow bullhead is a medium-sized member of the catfish family. It is typically yellow-olive to slate black on the ...

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samu ...

, bowfin (dogfish),

common carp The Eurasian carp or European carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), widely known as the common carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Arkive The ...

goldeye The goldeye (''Hiodon alosoides'') is a freshwater fish found in Canada and the northern United States. It is one of only two extant species in the family Hiodontidae, the other species being ''Hiodon tergisus''. The species name ''alosoides'' ...

smallmouth buffalo The smallmouth buffalo (''Ictiobus bubalus'', from the Greek for "bull-fish" and "buffalo") is a catostomid fish species native to the major tributaries and surrounding waters of the Mississippi River in the United States, as well as some other w ...

white sucker The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii)'' is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is commonl ...

banded killifish The banded killifish (''Fundulus diaphanus'') is a North American species of temperate freshwater killifish belonging to the genus ''Fundulus'' of the family Fundulidae. Its natural geographic range extends from Newfoundland to South Carolina, ...

blacknose shiner The blacknose shiner (''Notropis heterolepis'') is a species of fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae. Description The blacknose shiner is a soft-rayed species up to 9.8 cm with toothless jaws, but gill arches that contain one or two ro ...

bluntnose minnow :''"Bluntnose minnows" is also used for the genus ''Pimephales'' as a whole.'' The bluntnose minnow (''Pimephales notatus)'' is a species of temperate freshwater fish belonging to the genus ''Pimephales'' of the cyprinid family. Its natural geogra ...

brook silverside ''Labidesthes sicculus'', also known as the Brook silverside is a North American species of Neotropical silverside. The brook silverside lives in slow moving rivers and lakes from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi Basin and Gulf Coastal Plains. T ...

central mudminnow The central mudminnow (''Umbra limi'') is a small fish in the family Umbridae of the order Esociformes. It is found in central and eastern North America in productive waters. It is fairly tolerant of low oxygen concentration In chemistry, c ...

golden shiner The golden shiner (''Notemigonus crysoleucas'') is a cyprinid fish native to eastern North America. It is the sole member of its genus. Much used as a bait fish, it is probably the most widely pond-cultured fish in the United States. It can be fo ...

Johnny darter The johnny darter (''Etheostoma nigrum'') is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. It is native to shallow wat ...

spottail shiner The spottail shiner or spottail minnow (''Notropis hudsonius'') is a small- to medium-sized freshwater minnow. It can be found as far north as Canada and as far south as the Chattahoochee River in Georgia. These shiners live in lakes, rivers, an ...

Limnology

Hydrology

Medicine Lake typically freezes over during the winter months. The City of Medicine Lake, as well as the Minnesota DNR record ice-out dates for the lake.

Environmental Issues

Water Quality

The Bassett Creek Watershed Management Commission has monitored the water quality of Medicine Lake since 1972. In 2016, it published a report on major findings. According to the 2016 report, the Bassett Creek Watershed Management Commission monitored Medicine lake for: * Water chemistry (nutrients, chlorophyll a, chloride). * Water measurements (e.g., clarity, dissolved oxygen). * Phytoplankton and zooplankton (microscopic aquatic plants and animals). * Macrophytes (aquatic plants). The study found that "Medicine Lake does not meet applicable Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and BCWMC water quality standards for lakes. Trend analyses indicate chlorophyll a concentrations have increased significantly over the past 20 years."

Invasive Species

Several

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

inhabit the lake. Among these are

curly-leaf pondweed ''Potamogeton crispus'', the crisp-leaved pondweed, curly pondweed, curly-leaf pondweed or curled pondweed, is a species of aquatic plant (hydrophyte) native to Eurasia but an introduced species and often a noxious weed in North America. Descr ...

and

Eurasian milfoil ''Myriophyllum spicatum'' (Eurasian watermilfoil or spiked water-milfoil) is native to Europe, Asia, and north Africa, but has a wide geographic and climatic distribution among some 57 countries, extending from northern Canada to South Africa. It ...

. Medicine Lake has also been confirmed for the presence of

zebra mussel The zebra mussel (''Dreissena polymorpha'') is a small freshwater mussel. The species originates from the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, but has been accidentally introduced to numerous other areas and has become an invasive species in ma ...

s. On November 1, 2017, a resident notified the

Minnesota DNR The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or Minnesota DNR, is the agency of the U.S. state of Minnesota charged with conserving and managing the state's natural resources. The agency maintains areas such as state parks, state forests, recr ...

regarding a potential zebra mussel on a dock that the resident had pulled from the lake. On November 2, Minnesota DNR staff verified it was a zebra mussel and found two additional zebra mussels on two other docks in the lake. On November 9, 2017, the Minnesota DNR issued a press release publicly confirming that it had found zebra mussels in the lake. In 2018, the Minnesota DNR confirmed the existence of another invasive species--starry stonewort. The discovery of starry stonewort was the first confirmed case of the species in Minnesota in 2018 and only the twelfth case overall. A Three Rivers Park District watercraft inspector discovered the plant on a boat propeller after it was pulled from the lake. Following a DNR survey in 2018, the invasive species was found to live in about 14 acres of the lake.

Community Involvement and Activities

Groups

The Association of Medicine Lake Area Citizens, also known as AMLAC, is a volunteer organization which hosts various projects and stays up to date on issues relevant to Medicine Lake. It offers membership to anyone who lives near or uses Medicine Lake. In 2017, "members walked the shoreline of the entire lake, in partnership with Three Rivers Park District, to inspect docks on shore for zebra mussels." In 2018, AMLAC petitioned the City of Plymouth to close the Medicine Lake boat launch located at West Medicine Lake Park after the discovery of starry stonewort in the lake.

Events

Medicine Lake played host to the Twin Cities
Art Shanty Project
until the project relocated to White Bear Lake in 2014. The project subsequently relocated to Minneapolis's Lake Harriet. The popular Holes 4 Heroes ice-fishing tournament has also been held on Medicine Lake for a number of years. "Holes 4 Heroes is a special Ice Fishing Contest designed to honor our military, both at home and abroad." The contest features a "Hole of Honor" which utilizes a live video feed so that families of deployed soldiers can ice fish for free while being video linked to a soldier.

References

{{reflist Lakes of Hennepin County, Minnesota