Wolf River basin

The Wolf River basin lies in northern and central Wisconsin and drains 3,690 square miles. It includes all of Waupaca County and parts of Forest, Langlade, Marathon, Menominee, Oneida, Outagamie, Portage, Shawano, Waupaca, Waushara and Winnebago counties. Almost the entire 233,384-acre Menominee Indian Reservation (Menominee County) is within the basin. A portion of the 655,000-acre Nicolet National Forest extends into the northern part.

The Wolf River basin is bordered by the Upper Green Bay basin to the north and east, the Upper Wisconsin River basin to the west and the Upper Fox River basin to the south. The basin includes the entire Wolf River, which flows in a southerly direction until it joins the Upper Fox River just above the Lake Winnebago Pool lakes.

The basin lies in portions of the Northern Lakes and Forests and the North Central Hardwood Forests Ecoregions (Omernik and Gallant, 1988). Predominant land uses are agricultural -- dairy, cash-cropping -- and forestry. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources owns and manages more than 50,000 acres of public conservation and recreation lands in the basin, including natural areas, state parks, fisheries access areas and wildlife management areas (WDNR, 1994). Urban development is limited primarily to the Clintonville, New London, Shawano and Waupaca areas. Most of the counties in the basin have had moderate (< 3%) population growth since 1990 (WDOA 1994).

Much of the basin's economy is based on tourism. In 1993, more than $399.5 million in income was generated from tourism (Walters, 1994). Tourism likely created more than 10,500 full-time equivalent jobs here in 1993. (Davidson-Peterson Associates, 1994). The basin's water resources provide numerous recreational opportunities and are a major component of the tourism industry.

Water resource information for specific watersheds