Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo

About Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo

The Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo, known locally as the NEW Zoo, sits on 43 acres near Green Bay, in the community of Suamico, within the Brown County Reforestation Camp. Together the zoo and the surrounding camp cover 1,560 acres and draw more than half a million visitors a year. The zoo is owned and operated by Brown County, overseen by the County's Education & Recreation Committee alongside the Brown County Parks Department, but it does not receive local or regional tax support for its operating budget — every dollar the zoo brings in is reinvested directly into its own operations, a rare setup among AZA-accredited zoos.

The property houses more than 92 exhibits and more than 215 animals from around the world, organized into themed trail areas: a Wisconsin Trail of native and near-native species, a Northern Trail, a North American aviary and plains section, an Australia area, an Africa section, an Education and Conservation Center, and a children's petting zoo. Adjoining the zoo is the Adventure Park, added in 2014, with a zipline, ropes course, and climbing tower built into the reforested landscape.

The NEW Zoo was accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums in 1996 and received the AZA's Quarter Century Award in 2021 for 25 years of continuous accreditation — a distinction held by fewer than 10 percent of the roughly 2,800 USDA-licensed animal exhibitors nationwide. The zoo describes its mission as connecting the community with wildlife and nature through interactive experiences, with an eye toward becoming a regional destination for conservation and stewardship.

History

The land beneath the zoo was thick with pine and oak forest when European settlers arrived in the 1800s. Heavy lumbering stripped the forest, and the farmers who came after struggled to grow crops in the sandy soil left behind; one by one the farms failed and the land reverted to Brown County for unpaid taxes. In 1948, sparks from a passing train set fire to what forest remained, leaving the county with a large, barren, unusable tract. The county's Agriculture Conservation Commission decided to replant it using inmate labor, creating what became the Brown County Reforestation Camp.

Harry Barth took charge of the new camp in 1949, moving into a house overlooking it with his wife Aurelia. By spring 1950, camp facilities were complete and inmates began planting: more than 250,000 native pine, spruce, and cedar seedlings went into the ground that year alone. Harry died of a heart attack in December 1951, and Aurelia — over the board's initial reservations about a woman supervising male inmates — took over the position, becoming the first woman in U.S. history to do so. By 1952 the community had begun treating the reforested camp as a green space worth protecting, and orphaned animals, starting with white-tailed deer fawns, were dropped off for the inmates to care for. The first animal pen went up that year, with a few white-tailed deer, a porcupine, an orphaned black bear cub, and timber wolf pups — the start of the zoo.

Aurelia's leadership carried the zoo through its early growth, but in 1985 Brown County, facing budget shortfalls, removed the zoo from its tax levy, cutting its funding. A group of concerned citizens organized as the N.E.W. Zoo Boosters to raise money and keep the zoo open, and the zoo became a county "enterprise fund" — owned by Brown County but required to be self-funded. The Boosters, later reorganized as the zoo's current nonprofit partner, went on to fund new buildings and habitat upgrades over the following decades. The zoo earned AZA accreditation in 1996, and in 2014 it opened its ropes course, climbing wall, ziplines, and base camp building, rebranding as the NEW Zoo & Adventure Park.

Exhibits and habitats

Near the main entrance, the penguin exhibit houses African penguins and South African shelducks, viewable both from a bridge overlooking the enclosure and from an underwater window; a Species Survival Plan breeding pair produced a chick visitors could see in fall 2013. Nearby, the Japanese macaque exhibit holds a troop that, as part of its own Species Survival Plan, produces infant macaques most years. The Education and Conservation Center houses reptiles, arachnids, and amphibians, including a bearded dragon, red-tailed boa, ball python, blue-tongued skink, European glass lizard, Amazon milky tree frog, African bullfrog, and an emperor scorpion, alongside two tarantula species. A separate tortoise den holds a male and female Aldabra tortoise.

The Wisconsin Trail carries native and regional species — North American otter, wild turkey, American black bear, red fox, red wolf, cougar, bobcat, Canada lynx, white-tailed deer, American badger, raccoon, and porcupine — plus the non-native red panda. The Northern Trail, reached via the Riley Building, adds black-footed ferret, cotton-top tamarin, moose, burrowing owl, and black-necked stilt, along with tanks of northern pike, largemouth bass, and yellow perch. The North American Aviary holds locally and regionally found birds, including American white pelican, bald eagle, and turkey vulture, plus ten duck species such as the pintail, canvasback, and hooded merganser. On the North American Plains, American bison, pronghorn antelope, and elk share one enclosure while black-tailed prairie dogs occupy another; a trumpeter swan pond ties into a restoration partnership the zoo has run with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources since 1994, raising cygnets born at the zoo for release into the wild.

The Australia exhibit features kookaburra, cockatoo, emu, and two lorikeet species, alongside blue duiker and snow leopard from elsewhere. The Africa section holds African lions, wattled crane, African pied crow, and reticulated giraffe, plus an albino alligator. The children's petting zoo, on the south side of the grounds, keeps domestic goats, sheep, red corn snakes, African leopard tortoises, llamas, alpacas, chickens, koi, and fallow deer.

Animal highlights

The zoo's collection spans more than 92 exhibits and more than 215 animals from around the world, ranging from native Wisconsin wildlife on the Wisconsin Trail to African lions, reticulated giraffes, and Australian marsupials in the themed international sections. Species named across the zoo's exhibits include the African penguin, Japanese macaque, Aldabra tortoise, red panda, black-footed ferret, trumpeter swan, snow leopard, and reticulated giraffe.

Conservation and programs

The NEW Zoo frames conservation as central to its mission, aiming to connect roughly 200,000 annual visitors with wildlife and motivate action starting at the zoo itself and in the surrounding community. Documented projects include red-shouldered hawk banding and black-footed ferret conservation work in South Dakota. The zoo's trumpeter swan partnership with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Trumpeter Swan Restoration Committee, running since 1994, releases young swans hatched at the zoo into the wild after two years. Zoo-wide sustainability efforts also address water usage, storm water runoff, energy usage, waste disposal, and environmental education as part of an ongoing plan to reduce the zoo's environmental footprint.

Planning your visit

As listed on the zoo's website, the NEW Zoo & Adventure Park is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Neil Anderson Canopy Tour offers a treetop walkway connecting the Adventure Park to the zoo, crossing over animal habitats along the way, and the Adventure Park itself includes a dual racing zipline built onto the camp's historic 1955 fire tower, an aerial adventure course with sixty graded challenges, and a 40-foot climbing tower. Outside the zoo proper, the surrounding Reforestation Camp offers bike, snowshoe, and cross-country ski trail rentals by season, with day passes and rental rates set separately from zoo admission.

Zoo and Canopy Tour tickets can be purchased on arrival, though the zoo recommends buying Adventure Park tickets in advance. Because ticket prices, seasonal hours, and rental rates change, confirm current details on the official website before visiting.