Mill Creek is a tributary of Roaring Creek in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Roaring Creek Township and Locust Township. The watershed of the creek has an area of . The creek is considered to be a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and

Class A Wild Trout Waters Class A Wild Trout Waters are the highest biomass class given to streams in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. They are considered to contain the highest-quality naturally reproducing trout populations in Pennsylvania. Th ...

. Numerous species of macroinvertebrates inhabit it. The creek was named from the presence of a mill.

Course

Mill Creek begins on

Catawissa Mountain Catawissa Mountain is a mountain in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Its peak height is above sea level, making it the fifth-highest mountain in Columbia County. Streams that flow near the mountain include Roaring Creek, Cataw ...

in Roaring Creek Township. It flows south-southwest for slightly over a thousand feet before turning southwest for several tenths of a mile. It then turns west for a few tenths of a mile before turning southwest and receiving an unnamed tributary. The creek then turns west-northwest and passes through the community of

Kulp KULP (1390 AM, 106.7 FM) is a radio station, paired with an AM revitalization FM relay translator, licensed to El Campo, Texas. The station airs a country music format and is owned by Wharton County Radio, Inc. Mill Creek joins Roaring Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Mill Creek has two unnamed tributaries.

Hydrology

The concentration of alkalinity in the waters of Mill Creek is 11 milligrams per liter. The pH of the creek is 6.6. The total concentration of

water hardness Hard water is water that has high mineral content (in contrast with "soft water"). Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum, which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbo ...

is 20 milligrams per liter. The creek is significantly impacted by agriculture. At 2:25 P.M. on June 14, 2004, the air temperature in the vicinity of Mill Creek at a point upstream of its mouth was . The water temperature of the creek at that place and time was . The

specific conductivity Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the fina ...

of the creek's waters is 49 micromhos. A visual assessment of Mill Creek in October 2007 had a result of 19 out of 28. Its scores on the seven components of the assessment were mostly 3 on a scale of 1 to 4, but it also scored 2 on some components. Mill Creek is an infertile stream with cold water.

Geography

The elevation near the mouth of Mill Creek is above sea level. The elevation of the creek's source is between and . Mill Creek is a relatively small stream, with a width of . It has a gradient of 29.8 meters per kilometer. There are deep holes on the creek, which are described as an "excellent physical habitat" in the Roaring Creek Coldwater Conservation Plan.

Watershed

The watershed of Mill Creek has an area of . The mouth of the creek is in the east-central part of Locust Township. There are forests for most of its length and also forests along most of the lengths of its unnamed tributaries. The creek is the smallest tributary of Roaring Creek. A total of 48 percent of the length of Mill Creek is within of a road. 82 percent is within of a road and 90 percent is within of one. It is difficult to access portions of Mill Creek because the entire length of the creek is on

private land Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

that is closed to the public. In 2000, the population density of the watershed was 18 people per square kilometer. Mill Creek is in the United States Geological Survey quadrangle of Shumans. The headwaters of the creek are near the

Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 58 Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 58 are Pennsylvania State Game Lands in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. They are one of six State Game Lands in Columbia County and Montour County and are the second-largest of those State ...

History and etymology

Mill Creek is named after a mill known as the Mowrey Mill. This mill was built by Abner Hampton in 1820. Volunteers from the Roaring Creek Valley Conservation Association performed a visual assessment on the creek on October 1, 2007. However, the creek is the only stream in the watershed of Roaring Creek that was not studied by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission prior to a 2009 survey of the watershed.

Biology

Mill Creek is considered by the

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is an independent state agency responsible for the regulation of all fishing and boating in the state of Pennsylvania within the United States of America. Unlike many U.S. states, Pennsylvania has a separ ...

to be Class A Wild Trout Waters between its headwaters and its mouth. The creek is also considered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to be a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery. It is inhabited by both

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 ...

and

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...

. A total of five species of fish inhabit the creek: brook trout, brown trout, eastern blacknose dace, white suckers, and

creek chub ''Semotilus'' is the genus of creek chubs, ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. The term "creek chub" is sometimes used for individual species, particularly the common creek chub, ''S. atromaculatus''. The creek chub species of minnows can ...

. The Roaring Creek Coldwater Conservation Plan advises against the stocking of trout in the creek. The

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...

of wild brown trout in Mill Creek is 48.28 kilograms per hectare and the biomass of wild brown trout is 23.92 kilograms per hectare. There are an estimated 110 brown trout per kilometer that are more than in length and an estimated 83 brook trout per kilometer of that length. There are an estimated 561 brown trout and 423 brook trout more than in length in the creek. The largest brook trout are long and the largest brown trout are long. Mill Creek is the only stream in the watershed of Roaring Creek where wild brook trout are common. A total of 24

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 ...

taxa inhabit Mill Creek. The taxa ''

Hydropsychidae The Hydropsychidae are a family-level taxon consisting of net-spinning caddisflies. Hydropsychids are common among much of the world's streams, and a few species occupy the shorelines of freshwater lakes. Larvae of the hydropsychids construct ...

'', ''

Nigronia Nigronia is a genus of megalopterous insects (dark fishflies) in the family of Corydalidae The family Corydalidae contains the megalopterous insects known as dobsonflies and fishflies. Making up about one dozen genera,See references in Haara ...

'', and ''

Philopotamidae Philopotamidae is a family of insects in the order Trichoptera, the caddisflies. They are known commonly as the finger-net caddisflies.Ephemerellidae Ephemerellidae are known as the spiny crawler mayflies. They are a family of the order Ephemeroptera. There are eight genera consisting of a total 90 species (Merritt & Cummins). They are distributed throughout North America as well as the UK. T ...

'', '' Gomphidae'', ''

Heptageniidae The Heptageniidae (synonym: Ecdyonuridae) are a family of mayflies with over 500 described species mainly distributed in the Holarctic, Oriental, and Afrotropical regions, and also present in the Central American Tropics and extreme northern Sou ...

'', ''

Limnephilidae __NOTOC__ Limnephilidae is a family of caddisflies with about 100 genera. They belong to the main lineage of case-constructing caddisflies, the Integripalpia or tube-case caddisflies. The Limnephilidae is one of the most species-rich Trichoptera f ...

'', ''

Perlidae The Perlidae are a family of stoneflies, with more than 50 genera and 1,100 described species. The majority of the Perlidae are found in eastern North America, but they occur worldwide except for Antarctica and parts of Africa. Their lifecycle ...

'', ''

Perlodidae The Perlodidae, also known as the perlodid stoneflies, stripetails, or springflies, are a family of stoneflies. Natural history The family Perlodidae is composed of at least 50 genera and over 350 species, with the fossil records extending at ...

'', ''

Pteronarcyidae The Pteronarcyidae, also known as giant stoneflies or salmonflies, are a family of the order Plecoptera. Natural history Two genera of Pteronarcyidae are found; ''Pteronarcys'' is found in all of North America, while ''Pteronarcella'' is f ...

'', and '' Sialidae''. Rare macroinvertebrate taxa in the creek include '' Baetidae'', '' Cambaridae'', '' Dytiscidae'', ''

Ephemeridae Ephemeridae is a family of mayflies with about 150 described species found throughout the world except Australia and Oceania. These are generally quite large mayflies (up to 35 mm) with either two or three very long tails. Many species have ...

'', '' Isonychiidae'', ''

Leptophlebiidae Leptophlebiidae is a family belonging to the Ephemeropterans that are commonly known as the prong-gilled mayflies or leptophlebiids. It is the only family in the superfamily Leptophlebioidea. There are around 131 genera and 640 described specie ...

'', ''

'', and several others.

References

External links

Map of the Roaring Creek watershed
{{authority control Rivers of Columbia County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of the Susquehanna River Rivers of Pennsylvania

Course

Tributaries

Hydrology

Geography

Watershed

History and etymology

Biology

See also

References

External links