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1. Because people impact lake ecosystems, it is important to consider factors influencing the human use of freshwater resources. We investigated the influence of the landscape position, as well as lake area, recreational facilities, and distance to highways and urban centres, on lake use by boaters in the Northern Highland Lake District of Wisconsin, U.S.A.

2. In aerial surveys of ninety‐nine randomly selected lakes, we did not see boats on over half of the lakes. Of the lakes with boats, we found a strong correlation between the number of boats and lake area. Recreational boats tended to be found on large, accessible lakes with good boating facilities. Boats were not seen on small, stained lakes with few recreational facilities.

3. Regression models showed that lake size and landscape position explained 63% of the variability in the average number of boats per lake and landscape position explained 24% of the …