The Badger State is home to a wide variety of rocks and minerals, some of which you may find familiar and others you may not recognize. In this interactive guide, the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey takes you on a journey through the state, exploring our most important rocks and minerals.

The Wisconsin State Park System provides places for outdoor recreation and for learning about nature and conservation. State parks, forests, trails and recreation areas see more than 20 million visits a year. Come and join the fun!

This site has links to all of the State Parks, Forests, Trails and recreation areas in Wisconsin.

The Surface Water Data Viewer is a mapping tool for the State of Wisconsin. It provides interactive web mapping tools for a variety of datasets, including chemistry, physical, and biological data. The data managed in layers that can be turned on and off as needed. The Homepage of the Surface Water Data Viewer (SWDV) has many commonly used features labeled. Descriptions of the features are as follows:

Toolbars: There are a variety of toolbars with different themes to help complete tasks using the SWDV. The toolbars can be used to display the layers available to the map, add or remove shapes, text, or measurement features, identify points, print maps, and more!

Search Bar: Using the search bar, you can search monitoring stations by number, locations by keyword, and waterbodies by WBIC. Be careful when using the search bar, partial matches do not always appear in the results.

Navigation Pane: The navigation pane is where results will appear from searches, where you are able to select layers for the map, and features for printing. You will be able to refine the data that is shown here, if desired. You can hide the navigation pane by clicking the left-facing arrow at the top.

Coordinates and Coordinate System: The coordinates will display for any point moused-over on the map. Click the black triangle to select your preferred method for displaying lat/long (DD, DMS, DDM, Mercator). The right-most option in this pane allows you to manually manage thescale of the map. Click on the scale tool, and selected the desired scale at which you wish to view the map. Select Go to implement changes.

Scale Bar: The scale bar shows the current extent of the map.

Whole State View: This view describes what is being shown on the main map relative to the entire state. A blue rectangle will cover the region of the state being shown on the map. You can also navigate the map by moving the blue square around the state-view map. If you print a map, this whole state view will print in the corner as a reference. You can minimize this view by clicking the corner-facing arrow in the top left edge of the box.

Show/Hide Toolbar: Use this button to hide the toolbar for a larger view of the map. If you have hidden the toolbar, you can also use this button to show it again.

The Water Condition Viewer (WCV) is an interactive mapping tool that focuses on water condition, monitoring, assessment and management data. Data includes Clean Water Act, Monitoring Projects, Healthy Watersheds Assessments, Targeted Watershed Assessments, Wastewater Evaluation, Watershed Planning, County Land and Water Plans, Nine Key Element Plans and more. All datasets from specialized themes are available from this main, general set of layers.

This map viewer was created for use by the general public to view water quantity data collected by Wisconsin DNR (WDNR), the US Geological Survey (UGSG) and the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey (WGNHS).

This viewer also provides a means for the public to view pending high capacity well applications and recently approved wells. As required by Wisconsin law, these locations are generalized to display at the public land survey section level. Therefore, any well or surface water intake is symbolized by the section in which is located. Clicking identify on sections may return multiple records, one for each data point. This viewer contains a number of layer groups:

Well Applications and Approvals – This layer displays the locations of pending and approved high capacity well applications. It includes:
High capacity wells that have been applied for by the owner but have not yet been approved by the Department
High capacity wells approved in the last 30 days
High capacity wells approved by WDNR but that have not yet been constructed

High Capacity Withdrawal Locations – This layer show the location of high capacity wells constructed and available for use as well as currently registered high capacity surface water withdrawals. It includes:

Existing high capacity wells
Existing surface water withdrawals

USGS Water Quantity Monitoring – This layer shows the locations of groundwater level monitoring points, streamflow gages, and lake level gages monitored and recorded by USGS. It includes currently active monitoring locations as well as historical monitoring locations. Symbol sizes are scaled according to the number of measurements taken at each location.

WDNR Water Quantity Monitoring Groundwater Protection Features – This layer shows the locations of streamflow and lake level measurements maintained by WDNR. It includes a variety of measurement types taken by WDNR staff, partner organizations, county staff and volunteers.

WGNHS Spring Monitoring – This layer shows the location of springs surveyed by WGNHS staff between 2015 and 2017. Note that spring flow varies seasonally and annually. In addition, many spring locations are located on private land and not accessible by the public without landowner permission.

Groundwater Protection Features – This layer displays the locations of groundwater protection features as defined by Wisconsin Rule NR820. It includes trout streams, outstanding and exceptional water resources, and springs with a flow rate surveyed by WGNHS of 1 cubic foot per second (CFS) or greater. Note that all 1 CFS may not have been surveyed.

Guidance for how to use WDNR Geocortex viewers can be found here. For more information, please contact the water use section at 608-266-2299 or at DNRWATERUSEREGISTRATION@wisconsin.gov

The Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet (WiscoNet) is a growing network of weather and soil monitoring stations across Wisconsin, designed to provide high quality data at high spatial and temporal resolutions. There are currently 14 Wisconet stations with plans to expand to around 90 by 2026. Each Wisconet station provides more than one dozen measurements every 5 minutes.

The stations measure temperature, dew point, wind, rain, soil moisture and temperature, and more.

You can view data through an interactive map or a list of stations.

The Wisconsin Wetland Inventory (WWI) regulatory maps show graphic representations of the type, size and location of wetlands in Wisconsin. These maps have been prepared from the analysis of high altitude imagery in conjunction with soil surveys, topographic maps, previous wetland inventories and field work. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) manages the WWI.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) began producing non-regulatory, polygonal, geospatial wetland maps for the United States via their National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) in the mid-1970s. While DNR does provide WWI data to USFWS, there can be a significant lag before those updates appear in the NWI.

STATEWIDE: Digital wetlands data are available from the Wisconsin DNR for the state. Alternatively, wetlands are available for free viewing as a layer in the DNR Surface Water Data Viewer.

Wisconsin Wetland Inventory Geodatabase – free download
App: Wisconsin DNR Surface Water Data Viewer

NATIONAL: The NWI is slightly more detailed than WWI since NWI also maps deep water systems including lakes, streams and rivers. The Wisconsin DNR provides their WWI data to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service for integration into the NWI, but users should be cautioned that Wisconsin updates to NWI can reportedly take months, and in some cases years. Users requiring Wisconsin wetlands data are strongly encouraged to start with the Wisconsin Wetland Inventory.

National Wetlands Inventory Data

Do you know your Wisconsin fish? Wisconsin is home to more than 160 different fish species. The fish species below are most commonly caught by Wisconsin anglers.

Also links to these resources:
Wisconsin's state record fish
Hooked on Wisconsin Anglers' Club
Game fish of Wisconsin poster
Fish Wildcards - A set of 45 fish, plus games, knots, basic fish anatomy, a common fish parasite, and a handy trick to estimate your fish’s weight with a ruler! Two versions:
Match Your Catch, Low-Res Version [PDF] or
Match Your Catch, Hi-Res Version [PDF]
Fish of Wisconsin [exit DNR]
Fish identification database [exit DNR]
Burbot, bowfin and snakehead identification
Wisconsin fish species list [PDF] - a printable document with Wisconsin's fish species.

This is a map showing the location and severity of each of the Earthquakes which have occurred in Wisconsin in recorded history. This site is also where one can find recent or historic earthquakes, lists, information on selected significant earthquakes, earthquake resources by state, or find webservices.

Fishing in Wisconsin's waters is enjoyed by many, but only a few anglers apply their skills to the extent that they catch a verified record fish. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recognizes anglers who have legally taken the largest fish on record by hook and line and those fish that have been taken by alternate methods (for example, spearing or bow fishing).

Live release record fish category
Hook and line records
Alternate method records (spear, bow and arrow, crossbow)
The DNR does not keep line-class or lake-specific records. However, you may contact the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame [exit DNR] for national line class records.

DO YOU THINK YOU'VE CAUGHT A RECORD FISH?
If you think you or someone you know has caught a fish that might be a state record, there are several things you should do:

don't clean or freeze the fish
keep the fish cool - preferably on ice
get the fish weighed as soon as possible on a certified scale (found in grocery, hardware stores, etc.) and witnessed by an observer
contact the nearest DNR office to get the fish species positively identified and to find out whether the fish is a state record
obtain and complete a record fish application [PDF]
An official record fish application must accompany all prospective record fish entries.

The engineers at Splash Engineering (the students) have been commissioned by Thirsty County to conduct a study of evaporation and transpiration in their region. During one week, students observe and measure (by weight) the ongoing evaporation of water in pans set up with different variables, and then assess what factors may affect evaporation. Variables include adding to the water an amount of soil and an amount of soil with growing plants.

This activity focuses on getting students to think about bacteria, water quality and water treatment processes. Students develop and test their hypotheses about the "cleanliness" of three water samples prepared by the teacher. Then they grow bacteria in Petri dishes from the water samples. They learn how private septic systems and community sewage and wastewater treatment plants work, the consequences to the surrounding environment and wildlife from human wastewater, and what measurements of the released "clean" water are monitored to minimize harm to receiving rivers and lakes.

Students perform a macroinvertebrate survey to gauge the health of a local river. They collect water samples and count macroinvertebrates to learn how the health of a river's ecosystem can be determined by its river insect population.

To explore different ways of using solar energy, students build a model solar water heater and determine how much it can heat water in a given amount of time. Solar water heaters work by solar radiation and convection.