Birch Island Run is a stream in Cameron County and

Clinton County Clinton County may refer to: *Counties named for George Clinton, first and third Governor of New York, and later the fourth Vice President of the United States: **Clinton County, New York **Clinton County, Ohio *Counties named for DeWitt Clinton, s ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in the United States. It is a tributary of the

West Branch Susquehanna River The West Branch Susquehanna River is one of the two principal branches, along with the North Branch, of the Susquehanna River in the Northeastern United States. The North Branch, which rises in upstate New York, is generally regarded as the exte ...

and is long. There are a number of

coal seam Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s in the Birch Island Run watershed, as well as iron ore. Mining has been done in the watershed. The watershed is 15.3 square miles in area and is almost entirely forested. The stream's tributaries include Little Birch Island Run and Amos Branch. Parts of the watershed are affected by

acid mine drainage Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weathering ...

. However,

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

live in the stream.

Course

Birch Island Run starts in Grove Township, in Cameron County. It flows a short distance southeast before exiting Cameron County and entering Clinton County. In Clinton County, the stream enters West Keating Township and continues southeast through

Sproul State Forest Sproul State Forest is a Pennsylvania state forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #10. The main offices are located in Renovo, Pennsylvania in Clinton County in the United States. The forest is located in western Clinton County an ...

. It picks up the tributary Amos Branch near the central part of West Keating Township. As the stream continues southeast, its valley gets progressively deeper. It flows past several

strip mine Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

s and picks up Little Birch Island Run within of its mouth. Birch Island Run empties into the West Branch Susquehanna River at the border between Clinton County and

Centre County Centre County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 158,172. Its county seat is Bellefonte. Centre County comprises the State College, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The lands ...

, near a

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

railroad.

Tributaries

Named tributaries of Birch Island Run include Amos Branch and Little Birch Island Run. There are also a number of unnamed tributaries to the stream.

Hydrology

The daily load of

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

in Birch Island Run is at the site BIR01, which is located at the confluence of Little Birch Island Run with Birch Island Run and at the site BIR02, which is located near the stream's mouth. The load of acidity is per day at BIR01, per day at BIR02, and per day at site BIR03, which is located at the confluence of Amos Branch with Birch Island Run. The concentration of

sulfate The sulfate or sulphate ion is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula . Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely used in industry. Sulfates occur widely in everyday life. Sulfates are salts of sulfuric acid and many ar ...

s is below 20 milligrams per liter in the upper reaches of Birch Island Run. However, an unnamed stream that experiences acid mine drainage and is a tributary of Little Birch Island Run has a sulfate concentration of 255 milligrams per liter. The pH of this unnamed tributary ranges from 3.9 to 4.2. At the mouth of Little Birch Island Run, the sulfate concentration is 40 milligrams per liter and the concentration at the mouth of Birch Island Run is 25 milligrams per liter. On Little Birch Island Run, at site LBIR01, which is located near its mouth, the daily load of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

is and the daily load of manganese is . The daily load of acidity is at LBIR01 and at site LBIR02. The discharge of Birch Island Run at its confluence with Amos Branch is 1548 gallons per minute. The discharge is 5881.43 gallons per minute at its confluence with Little Birch Island Run. At the mouth of Birch Island Run, the discharge is gallons per minute. At the confluence of Amos Run with Birch Island Run, the latter stream's pH ranged from 4.9 to 6.2 in 2002, with an average of 5.3. At the confluence of Little Birch Island Run with Birch Island Run, the latter stream's pH ranged from 4.7 to 5.7, with an average of 5.1. At the stream's mouth, the pH ranged from 4.8 to 5.5, with an average of 5.1. In the upper reaches of Birch Island Run, the pH is naturally low, as opposed to being low due to acid mine drainage. The

alkalinity Alkalinity (from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is the capacity of water to resist acidification. It should not be confused with basicity, which is an absolute measurement on the pH scale. Alkalinity is the strength of ...

level of the upper parts of the stream is low. There are two sources of

in the Birch Island Run watershed. Both discharge into Little Birch Island Run within of its mouth.

Watershed

The Birch Island Run watershed is largely in southwestern Clinton County. However, a small area is in southeastern Cameron County. Most of the watershed is forested and far from development. In specific, 95% of the watershed's land is forested. There are some unused mines in the watershed, and some residential areas along Keating Road. There are also camps in the area. The Birch Island Run watershed has a total area of 15.3 square miles. Out of these, 6.6 square miles are in the watershed of Little Birch Island Run. The tributary Amos Branch has an area of 2.3 square miles. State Forests occupy most of the northern part of the Birch Island Run watershed. State Game Lands occupy some of the southern part of the watershed. Abandoned mining lands are mostly located in the southern and eastern areas of the watershed.

Geography and geology

The headwaters of Birch Island Run are at an elevation of . The mouth is at an elevation of . The stream is located in the

Appalachian Plateau The Appalachian Plateau is a series of rugged dissected plateaus located on the western side of the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Mountains are a mountain range that run down the Eastern United States. The Appalachian Plateau is the nort ...

. The watershed is located in the Snow Shoe Northwest

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

quadrant map. Several

s are located in the Birch Island Run watershed. They are known as the Lower Kittanning, the Middle Kittanning, and the Upper Kittanning. Most of the rocks in the watershed are from Pennsylvanian or Mississippian times. Rocks from the Mississippian epoch include the

Huntley Mountain Formation The Huntley Mountain Formation is a late Devonian and early Mississippian mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, in the United States. Description The formation is composed of relatively soft grayish-red shale and olive-gray sandstone. It is lo ...

and the

Burgoon Sandstone Burgoon is a village in Sandusky County, Ohio, United States. The population was 172 at the 2010 census. Geography Burgoon is located at (41.266832, -83.250024). According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , ...

. Rocks from the Pennsylvanian epoch include the

Pottsville Formation The Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, and Alabama. It is a major ridge-former in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the eastern United States. The Pottsville Fo ...

and the

Allegheny Formation The Pennsylvanian Allegheny Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in western and central Pennsylvania, western Maryland and West Virginia, and southeastern Ohio. It is a major coal-bearing unit in the Appalachian Plateau of the eastern United States ...

Iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

is also found in the watershed. The Clearfield-McIntyre

syncline In structural geology, a syncline is a fold with younger layers closer to the center of the structure, whereas an anticline is the inverse of a syncline. A synclinorium (plural synclinoriums or synclinoria) is a large syncline with superimpose ...

is in the Birch Island Run watershed. It runs in a northeast to southwest direction, passing the confluence of Little Birch Island Run with Birch Island Run. The Chestnut Ridge-Wellsboro

anticline In structural geology, an anticline is a type of fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of an anticline. A typical anticline is convex up in which the hinge or crest is the ...

runs near the headwaters of Birch Island Run.

History

In 1835, Samuel Grove visited the Birch Island Run watershed for a number of weeks. He searched unsuccessfully for

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

in the area. Parts of the Birch Island Run watershed have been mined. A number of permits for

surface mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

have been issued. However, there has been no mining in the watershed since the 1980s. The

TMDL A total maximum daily load (TMDL) is a regulatory term in the U.S. Clean Water Act, describing a plan for restoring impaired waters that identifies the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can receive while still meeting water quali ...

for the stream was publicly discussed in Clearfield on July 14, 2004. In 2010, a 135-acre tract of

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

partially in the Little Birch Island Run watershed was created as an

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

habitat.

Biology

There are

living in some streams in the Birch Island Run watershed, including Birch Island Run itself. In 1915, a total of 1000 brook trout were observed in the stream. All of the streams in the watershed are considered high-quality coldwater

fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

. Almost all of the fish species in the watershed are brook trout. However, a number of scuplins have been found in the lower reaches of the stream. A smallmouth bass was also once observed near the stream's mouth.

Mayflies Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the orde ...

and

stoneflies Plecoptera is an order of insects, commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the mo ...

are

macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate s ...

s that are found on Birch Island Run.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Clinton County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Cameron County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Pennsylvania