Agricultural land has a many detrimental effects on lake and water quality. The addition of fertilizers increases nutrients running off the land. Secondly,  these areas have low vegetative cover and areas absorb less water and provide less structure to soil strata.  Erosion is higher in these land use types, and nutrient additions to the receiving body of water are higher as a result
	The 7.2% decline in agricultural land is a small change within the entire watershed, but is over one third of the total agricultural area in 1965.  This change over the 38 years has the ability to have both positive and negative effects on lake quality depending on relative location within the watershed.  While there was a significant mix of positive and negative land use changes throughout the watershed, land use change along the shoreline of the lake was slightly more beneficial than detrimental to lake quality.