Huffman Lake

Huffman Lake is located in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan in the southeast corner of Charlevoix County. The entire lake falls within Hudson Township in Charlevoix County. The deepest point is located in the middle of the lake toward the east end.

Huffman Lake is a glacially formed kettle lake that sits at the headwaters of the Sturgeon River. There are at least two small inlet streams; a stream flowing into the northwest corner that connects to Kidney Lake and a stream of unknown origin that flows in at a developed property in the southwest end of the lake. The only outlet is located in the northeast cove, which is considered the beginning of the West Branch of the Sturgeon River.

The Huffman Lake watershed is a sub-watershed of the Sturgeon River watershed, which is, in turn, part of the larger Cheboygan River Watershed. Huffman Lake has a large watershed in relation to the lake’s surface area, measuring approximately 5,700 acres (does not include lake area). The watershed area to lake surface area ratio is ~46:1, which, compared to other lakes in Michigan, is quite high (e.g., Walloon Lake has a ratio of ~5:1). This ratio provides a statistic for gauging susceptibility of lake water quality to changes in watershed land cover. Essentially, the statistic indicates that the Huffman Lake watershed is large enough, relative to lake area, to provide a protective buffer, such that small areas of development will probably not negatively impact water quality. However, the cumulative impact of rampant landscape development throughout the watershed could have serious adverse impacts on the lake’s water quality.

According to land cover statistics from a 2006 land cover analysis, the majority of the watershed is forested. Of land cover types that typically contribute to water quality degradation, there is little urban/residential and a moderate amount of agriculture in the watershed.