Nescopeck Creek - Watershed

Watershed

Nescopeck Creek's watershed is 143 square miles in area. Most of the watershed is in Luzerne County. However, there are portions of the watershed in Schuylkill and Columbia Counties. Nescopeck Creek's watershed consists of one city, five boroughs, and thirteen townships. Most of the land in the Nescopeck Creek watershed, except for area near the source, is publicly owned. 13% of the land in the Nescopeck Creek watershed is owned by the state of Pennsylvania.

57% of the Nescopeck Creek watershed is composed of deciduous forest. Areas of perennial herbaceous vegetation make up 11 to 12% of the creek's watershed. Additionally, there are scattered patches of mixed vegetation and annual herbaceous vegetation in the northwestern part of the Nescopeck Creek watershed. 4 to 7% of the Nescopeck Creek watershed consists of mines, quarries, and gravel pits. A total of 95% of the Nescopeck Creek watershed is rural. The remaining 5% is suburban or urban. 27% of the streams in the Nescopeck Creek watershed are near surface-mining operations and 73% are not. Most developed land tends to be located in the southern part of the watershed, while most undeveloped land is in the northern part of the watershed.

All sub-watersheds of the Nescopeck Creek watershed contain at least 50% forest. A number of streams in the upper Nescopeck Creek watershed, in fact, have more than 80% forest coverage. Only 55% of the Black Creek watershed is covered by forest. Most sub-watersheds of Nescopeck Creek have only a small amount of barren land. However, the Cranberry Creek watershed contains 6.5% barren land, the Black Creek watershed contains 14%, and the Stony Creek watershed contains 30%. The Little Nescopeck Creek watershed contains 30% farmland and the Nescopeck Creek watershed contains 24%. Other sub-watersheds of Nescopeck Creek range from 2% to 13% farmland.

There are 910 miles of roads in the Nescopeck Creek watershed. 40% of the creek's length is within 100 feet of a road. 87% of Nescopeck Creek's length is within 332 feet of a road. There are 286 miles of roads in Nescopeck Creek's main stem sub-watershed. There are 253 miles of roads in the Black Creek sub-watershed. The Long Run and Little Nescopeck Creek sub-watersheds also contain close to 122 and 113 miles of roads, respectively.