National Park Service

Water Quality Conditions and Patterns on the Grand Portage Reservation and Grand Portage National Monument, Minnesota: Implications for Nutrient Criteria Development and Future Monitoring National Park Service

Inland lakes, streams, and wetlands are widespread in northern Minnesota landscapes and throughout the Boreal Shield, and have long been valued for their good water quality and the fish and wildlife resources they support (Steedman et al. 2004). In the Grand Portage Reservation, in far northeastern Minnesota, such water resources are central parts of Ojibwe heritage and culture and remain important for subsistence fishing and wild rice cultivation; these waters also played a fundamental role in the European fur trade era and were key to the establishment of Grand Portage National Monument within the Reservation in 1958 (National Park Service 2003).