2002 Natural Resources Management

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condition include the relatively small watershed of the lake and the treatment benefits of the detention basin serving the industrial portion of the watershed. • Both water quality and the diversity of the native aquatic plant community appear to have improved significantly over the last 15 -25 years. • Water level fluctuations in the lake in response to precipitation events are small to moderate for an urban lake. This is important in fostering a stable and diverse fringe of emergent vegetation. Expansion of the watershed and increases in impervious coverage without full rate control should be avoided to protect this condition. • The north cell of the Lake is dominated by emergent vegetation. This condition likely exists because of the shallow depth of the basin and may be exacerbated by high nutrient loadings to this cell from its watershed. BENNETT LAKE Lake and Watershed Overview Bennett Lake and the approximate bounds of the land area draining to it is shown in Figure 5.2. Bennett Lake occupies 27.5 acres, about a third or more of the total area of Central Park. The lake has mean depth of about 5 feet and maximum depth of about 9 feet. Bennett drains to Lake Owasso to the northeast via the wetland in Central park. Prior to 1980's water was pumped out of the lake. In 1996, an open channel that connected Lake Bennet with the wetland replaced the lift station. Bennett Lake has a total watershed area of approximately 758 acres. It extends east to Victoria Avenue, west halfway between Hamline and Snelling, north up to County Road C2 and south to Larpenteur Avenue. The direct drainage to Bennett Lake (i.e. the area whose runoff reaches the Lake without first traveling through another lake or pond) comprises about 140 acres. A large portion of the direct drainage, about 28 %, comes from Central park, while residential use accounts for 62 %. Indirect drainage (i.e., that portion of the watershed that drains through other ponds first before reaching Bennett Lake) is 620 acres and is dominated by residential use mixed with some industrial. City of Roseville 48 Parks Natural Resource Management