2026-10-16 · Mitchell Lake, Eden Prairie, MN
Twenty Years, 3,000 Fish, Two Empty Chairs — Mitchell Lake's Neighbors Keep Showing Up
Eden Prairie's first lake association hit 20 years with 3,000-plus fish stocked, 63,000 pounds of weeds hauled, and two board seats still waiting for a brave hand.
There’s a kind of Minnesotan who drives to a Legion hall on a Thursday night in October to hear about phosphorus. I want to be that person. Mostly I’m the person who reads the minutes afterward, standing over the sink with a sandwich.
On Oct. 8, thirty-two people did the real version at the American Legion in Chanhassen. The Mitchell Lake Association was marking 20 years. It started in 2006 as Eden Prairie’s first lake association, and the recap reads like a cooler packed by somebody who’s done this before: more than 3,000 fish stocked, over 200 trees planted, 20 lakeshore cleanups.
Mitchell isn’t a dramatic lake. It’s a shallow one, generally under 15 feet, where light reaches the bottom across most of it. Great for fish habitat. Slightly less great if your prop is trying to get through a salad. This July, mechanical harvesting pulled 63,000 pounds of vegetation off 15 private shorelines. Sixty-three thousand pounds. At that point it’s not weeds, it’s a weight class. The watershed district also treated 12.94 acres of curly-leaf pondweed in May and 3.36 acres of Eurasian watermilfoil in August.
Here’s the twist the guest speakers brought: the native plants are also the good guys. They hold the sediment down, soak up extra nutrients, and give fish somewhere to live. So the lake’s weeds are both the problem and the nursery, which is also how I’d describe my garage.
The water news was honestly good. Phosphorus has been improving over the last decade, and clarity has met state standards in most of the past ten years. That’s a long way from the years the association says the lake spent failing state water standards.
Then the business part: 68 members, $50 dues, running around break-even. Two board seats open. Nobody volunteered. Look, nobody raises a hand at the meeting. You raise it later, in a driveway, when a neighbor asks how the lake’s doing and you realize you know the phosphorus trend by heart.
There was also a lake history talk and a photo contest, the first one decided by member vote. Fifty-six people voted, and the winners walked away with Scheels gift cards.
Here’s the part that stuck with me. Mitchell has a public fishing dock and a boat launch, motors are 10 horsepower or less, and the association says plainly that the lake is for everyone, not just the folks who live on it. They stock it every spring and fall. Their own site promises, “It’s not possible to drop a line in Mitchell Lake and NOT catch a fish!” That’s twenty years of neighbors pulling buckthorn and counting fish so a stranger with a bobber can walk out on a dock and have a decent afternoon. That’s the whole deal.
Want in? The next buckthorn pull is Saturday, Oct. 24, at 10 a.m. at the Miller Park boat launch. Bring gloves. Bring humility. Buckthorn has a better grip than you do.
Sources: Mitchell Lake Association 2026 annual meeting minutes · Mitchell Lake Association