Panther Run is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

North Branch Buffalo Creek North Branch Buffalo Creek is a tributary of Buffalo Creek in Centre County and Union County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Haines Township in Centre County and Hartley Township, Lewis Town ...

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 ...

and Union County,

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 approximately long and flows through Haines Township in Centre County and Hartley Township in Union County. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The stream's headwaters are in a forest spring and it has one named tributary. Virtually all of the watershed is forested. In addition to hardwood forests and white pine, rhododendrons, sedges, grasses, and clubmosses occur in the stream's vicinity.

Course

Flickr - Nicholas T - Hook Natural Area (5)

Panther Run begins in a valley in Haines Township, Centre County. It flows east-northeast for a few tenths of a mile before entering Hartley Township, Union County. Here, the stream continues to flow east-northeast for a few miles. It then begins flowing southeast past Buck Ridge. The stream then enters The Hook, where it receives Slide Hollow, its only named tributary, from the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

. It then turns southwest for a few tenths of a mile before reaching its confluence with North Branch Buffalo Creek across from Dogback Mountain. Panther Run joins North Branch Buffalo Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Panther Run has one named tributary, which is known as Slide Hollow. Slide Hollow joins Panther Run upstream of its mouth and its watershed has an area of .

Geography and geology

Flickr - Nicholas T - Hook Natural Area (6)

The elevation near the

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

of Panther Run is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. The elevation of the stream's

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

is between above sea level. The headwaters of Panther Run are in a

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

on the forest floor. The stream is a "sizable stream" in some reaches. However, it is considerably smaller than North Branch Buffalo Creek, which it is a tributary of.

Watershed

Flickr - Nicholas T - Hook Natural Area (10)

The

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

of Panther Run has an area of . The stream is entirely within the

United States Geological Survey 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, ...

quadrangle of Hartleton. The watershed makes up approximately 2 percent of the Buffalo Creek drainage basin. About 100 percent of the watershed of Panther Run is on

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

ed land.

History and recreation

Panther Run was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1183261. In a 2008 report, the watershed of Panther Run was ranked eighth amongst sub-watersheds in the Buffalo Creek drainage basin for restoration priority. A

hiking trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. The ...

in The Hook Natural Area is located along Panther Run and also crosses the stream several times.

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 ...

naturally reproduce in Panther Run from its upper reaches downstream to its mouth. The stream's headwaters are designated as a Wilderness Trout Stream. In the upper reaches, Panther Run's streambanks are flanked by

hardwood forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These for ...

. Eventually, this gives way to

white pine ''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...

and various

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

s and

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es. In other reaches, the

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...

along the stream is dominated by

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

s. Additionally, patches of a

clubmoss Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants known as lycopods, lycophytes or other terms including the component lyco-. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching s ...

known as ''

Lycopodium annotinum ''Spinulum annotinum'', synonym ''Lycopodium annotinum'', known as interrupted club-moss, or stiff clubmoss, is a species of clubmoss native to forests of the colder parts of North America (Greenland, St. Pierre & Miquelon, all 10 provinces and ...

'' occur close to it.

References

External links

{{authority control Rivers of Centre County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Union County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Buffalo Creek (West Branch Susquehanna River) Rivers of Pennsylvania