Lacks healthy plant life
With almost no native aquatic plants left, nothing competes with algae or holds sediment in place.
Columbia Heights · St. Anthony, Minnesota
Silver Lake
The residents association for the lake between Columbia Heights and St. Anthony.
- Size
- 71acres
- Max depth
- 47feet
- Average depth
- 6feet
- Shoreline
- 2miles
- Watershed district
- Rice Creek
The association
What we are
A volunteer group of people who live around Silver Lake. We became a 501(c)(3) in 2025, which lets us apply for grants and accept tax-deductible donations.
2026 water quality assessment
The report card
Overall health grade: D+. The biology score is the one that worries us most — the lake currently has no native aquatic plants at all.
Lake health score
40 / 100
Lake health grade
D+
Water quality score
23 / 100
Biology score
26 / 100
Hydrology score
71 / 100
Why the lake is in trouble
Three things are driving it
Invasive species
Eurasian watermilfoil, curlyleaf pondweed and common carp crowd out natives and stir up nutrients.
Fertilizer & pollution
Lawn chemicals, road salt and storm drain debris run straight off the neighborhood into the lake.
Recent work
What's been done so far
- Carp removed, summer 2026
- 14,000+
- Milfoil treated
- 2025lake-wide
None of this shows up in the water yet. Lakes recover on a scale of years, and the plant community has to come back before the numbers will move. What's underway →