Over the past several years Wisconsin has received a record-breaking amount of precipitation resulting in high water and flooding issues in several areas across the state. Many lakes and rivers have flooded this spring and many waterways are still well above normal for this time of year from Bayfield and Vilas counties in Northern Wisconsin to Rock County in the south and from the Fox Valley to the Mississippi River. “At this time of the year we would normally see water levels starting to recede, but the problem is made worse by the rising groundwater and river levels,” said Keith Patrick, a DNR wetland and waterways team leader in Rhinelander. “The problems are generally most pronounced right now at many seepage lakes and are usually closely associated with groundwater. The reality is that on many seepage lakes water levels will not recede until groundwater levels decline.”
