The Upper Pine River watershed lies mostly in north central Richland County with a small portion in Vernon County. Streams in the watershed have a high gradient. Water quality is generally good, but with some water quality, habitat and recreational use problems due to nonpoint sources of water pollution.
Agriculture is the dominant land use.
The average soil erosion rate is about 4.9 tons per acre per year in Richland County, according to the Richland County Soil Erosion Control Plan. There are few wetland complexes in the watershed. Those that do occur are wet meadows adjacent streams which have been degraded by grazing or cultivation. One exception to this is a northern bog wetland complex near Hub City, something very rare to this part of the state. There are no municipal Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System-permitted dischargers in this watershed.