Grass LakeKenny's quiet wetland.
Grass Lake is a 27-acre wetland tucked into the south end of the Kenny neighborhood — a walking loop, a surprising amount of wildlife, and a patch of wild Minneapolis worth caring for. This is a neighbor's guide.
A resident-made guide, not an official site. Links to the folks who steward it below.
Grass Lake
7 days without a truckin the lake
Please keep it that way.
What Grass Lake is
Grass Lake isn't a deep blue lake — it's a shallow 27-acre wetland (about two feet deep on average), and that's exactly what makes it special: a working piece of urban habitat in the middle of the city, near the Highway 62 / I-35W interchange. It sits in the Minnehaha Creek Watershed and is a DNR-protected public water. The land around it is City of Minneapolis property; Public Works and the Park Board's forestry staff have both had a hand in its care. Grass Lake, Richfield Lake and Wood Lake were once one connected system, and a pipe still links Grass Lake to Richfield Lake. For the people of Kenny, it's the neighborhood's wild backyard.
How healthy is it?
Honestly, it's a hardworking city wetland, not a clear swimming lake. The MPCA and Metropolitan Council have sampled it in 13 summers since 1997, most recently in 2024. It's a nutrient-rich, shallow basin, and it swings a lot from year to year. The latest, summer 2024, was its cleanest since 2016:
Show the numbers
| Summer | Phosphorus µg/L | Algae µg/L | Chloride mg/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 182 | – | – |
| 2002 | 210 | 120 | – |
| 2003 | 252 | 157 | – |
| 2004 | 57 | 14 | – |
| 2006 | 111 | 14 | – |
| 2008 | 55 | 6 | 83 |
| 2010 | 82 | 9 | 42 |
| 2012 | 105 | 18 | 27 |
| 2014 | 79 | 6 | 38 |
| 2016 | 101 | 5 | 53 |
| 2020 | 178 | 63 | 43 |
| 2022 | 186 | 29 | 120 |
| 2024 | 75 | 11 | 14 |
High phosphorus and warm summers that bring algae: that's not "broken," it's what a stormwater-fed urban wetland looks like. Road salt shows up too: chloride peaked at 225 mg/L in summer 2022, close to the state's 230 mg/L limit for aquatic life, before falling back to about 14 in 2024. (The 225 was a single sample; the chart shows the 2022 summer average, 120.) All of it is why the hands-on care below (less runoff, less salt, more native plants, fewer invasives) matters.
Water-quality data: MN Pollution Control Agency and Metropolitan Council monitoring of Grass Lake (lake ID 27-0681), retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal in October 2026; summer (June–September) averages. Water clarity was only measured in 1997. Goals: Minnesota's eutrophication standards for shallow lakes in this region (Minn. R. 7050.0222) and its chloride standard.
A loop full of life
The loop around the wetland is a mix: stretches of quiet street you share with cars, a gravel trail along the water, and neighborhood sidewalk. It's an easy, pretty walk any time of year; watch for traffic on the road sections. Neighbors have logged 487 species here on iNaturalist, including 82 birds, and birders have reported 179 bird species on eBird. Along the way you'll spot wood ducks (in nest boxes neighbors build and hang), mallards, red-winged blackbirds in the cattails, herons, even wild turkeys, cardinals and migrating warblers; painted turtles sunning on logs; and — a real bright spot — monarchs and native bumble bees working the plantings. Come late summer, there are wild raspberries and blackberries right off the path. It's the kind of quiet, close-to-home nature that's easy to walk past without realizing what you have.
Neighbors count them together, too: a Breakfast BioBlitz on June 6, 2026 logged 145 species in a single morning on iNaturalist.
Counts as of October 4, 2026: iNaturalist research-grade species within 0.7 km of the lake (82 birds, 11 mammals, 2 reptiles, 2 amphibians, 198 insects, 148 plants); eBird hotspot "Grass Lake": 179 species from 1,894 checklists by 171 birders. Add yours when you visit.
It stays healthy because neighbors show up
Much of the routine care (trail upkeep, trash pickup, wood-duck houses, native plantings) is done by Kenny residents who live around the lake. The Grass Lake Restoration Team, working with the Kenny Neighborhood Association, fenced and planted a native garden on the southeast shore in May 2026 and is laying erosion blankets on the steep banks there; please stay off those slopes so the plants can take hold.
The big ongoing job is buckthorn. This invasive shrub has spread throughout the area: tough, persistent, and crowding out native plants. Knocking it back takes volunteer "buckthorn busts," and it's never one-and-done, which is why steady help matters. (Dame's rocket and other invasives turn up too.)
You don't need to be an expert, just a neighbor who shows up
- Join the effort. The Grass Lake Restoration Team and the Kenny Neighborhood Association run buckthorn removal, plantings and BioBlitzes.
- Come to a buckthorn bust. Saturday Nov 14, 2026 (the last one this season), 1–3 pm, at the fenced garden on the southeast shore. Free; families welcome. Where to meet, what to bring, and sign-up →
- Small things count: carry out trash, keep dogs leashed, and don't dump yard waste or anything down storm drains (it flows to the watershed).
- Plant natives in your own yard. Every pollinator patch helps.
- Tell a neighbor. Most people don't know Grass Lake is here.
- Vote. Tuesday, Nov 3, with early voting through Nov 2. Where, when and what's on the ballot →
Yes, you'll hear planes
Grass Lake sits just southwest of MSP airport, so aircraft are part of the soundtrack — and a glassy, open wetland actually carries sound farther than the tree-lined blocks nearby (open water gives noise less to absorb it). If aircraft noise affects your home, the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) runs a residential noise-mitigation (sound-insulation) program for homes inside its noise contours. Check MAC's "Do I Qualify?" tool to see whether your address is eligible.
Eligibility is set by MAC's annual noise-contour analysis. Informational only.
Who cares for the lake (and where to learn more)
- Kenny Neighborhood Association: the neighbors who steward it
- City of Minneapolis: owns the land around the lake (Public Works)
- Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board: forestry work and an MPRB habitat corridor
- Minnehaha Creek Watershed District: the watershed
- MN Pollution Control Agency: water quality
- MN DNR: wetlands & wildlife
- eBird: Grass Lake hotspot & iNaturalist: log what you see
- EPA Water Quality Portal: every water sample on record (search 27-0681)
- "Grass Lake: Past, Present, and Future": Lanya E. Ross for KNA, UMN CURA, 1996
- AllTrails: the Grass Lake loop
- MAC: aircraft noise & mitigation
Reviews are in
