Fester Hollow is a tributary of

West Branch Briar Creek West Branch Briar Creek is a tributary of Briar Creek, in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long. The creek flows through North Centre Township and Briar Creek Township and has two tributaries: Cabin Run an ...

Columbia County, Pennsylvania Columbia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,727. Its county seat is Bloomsburg. The county was created on March 22, 1813, from part ...

, in the United States. It is long. Fester Hollow was most likely named in the middle of the 1800s, before 1860, after John Fester, a landowner and farmer. Bedrock in the watershed of Fester Hollow consists of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

, and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. The stream's watershed has an area of 4.54 square miles. Its median discharge is 3.54 cubic feet per second and its median pH is 7.66.

Course

Fester Hollow begins in northeastern North Centre Township, on the southern side of

Knob Mountain Knob Mountain is a mountain in Page County, Virginia. It is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Its summit lies within Shenandoah National Park at an elevation of 2,671 ft (814 m). Geology Geologically speaking, the mountain is situated ...

. The stream flows southeast until it reaches

Pennsylvania Route 93 Pennsylvania Route 93 (PA 93) is a state route located in Carbon, Luzerne, and Columbia counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at U.S. Route 209 (US 209) in Nesquehoning, about half-way from PA just north of the 1800 ...

, which it crosses. It then turns south-southeast and flows parallel to Pennsylvania Route 93 for a short distance, passing by a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

. When Pennsylvania Route 93 curves east, Fester Hollow continues going south-southeast. It then passes by the community of Fowlersville and then enters West Branch Briar Creek.

Hydrology and climate

The

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

of Fester Hollow in its lower reaches ranges from 0.75 to 34 cubic feet per second. The median discharge of the stream is 3.54 cubic feet per second. The minimum water temperature in the stream is and the maximum temperature is . The median temperature is . The stream's water temperature is often higher than the maximum required temperature for a stream to be considered a cold-water fishery. The median electrical conductivity of Fester Hollow is 89 milli-siemens. The highest recorded electrical conductivity is 351 milli-siemens and the lowest recorded electrical conductivity is 69 milli-siemens. The minimum pH of Fester Hollow is 7.06 and the median pH is 7.66. The maximum pH of the stream is 9.17, making it the most alkaline stream in the watershed of Briar Creek. The total concentration of

dissolved solids In chemistry, a solution is a special type of homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances. In such a mixture, a solute is a substance dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. If the attractive forces between the solvent ...

in Fester Hollow ranges from 34 to 169 parts per million. The median concentration is 44 parts per million. The stream also has higher-than-ideal concentrations of

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net charge that is not zer ...

s. The watershed of Fester Hollow is in Pennsylvania's Climate Division #5. In 2012, the Briar Creek Association for Watershed Solutions performed a visual assessment of Fester Hollow, rating it for various qualities, including streambank stability and the quality of the riparian buffer. The creek was rated as 5.4 out of 10, indicating "poor" water quality.

Geology and geography

The

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

in the southern tip of the Fester Hollow watershed consists of calcareous shale and a small amount of

. North of this is a band of

bedrock. The northern and central parts of the watershed have

as their bedrock. The Zipp Series, a

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...

soil, is found on the lower reaches of the stream. Fester Hollow is in the

ridge and valley The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending ...

geographical region of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

. There are forested

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. The lower reaches of Fester Hollow are at an elevation of above sea level.

Watershed

Most of the watershed of Fester Hollow is located in North Centre Township. However, the northeastern corner of the watershed is in Briar Creek Township. Major roads in the watershed include Mountain Road and Pennsylvania Route 93. The stream's watershed has an area of 4.54 square miles.

Biology

Wild

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

reproduce along the entire length of Fester Hollow. Forest corridors on Fester Hollow connect to the forests on Knob Mountain.

References