The Shawangunk Kill is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed October 3, 2011 stream that flows northward through

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, Sullivan and

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

counties,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is the largest tributary of the

Wallkill River The Wallkill River, a tributary of the Hudson, drains Lake Mohawk in Sparta, New Jersey, flowing from there generally northeasterly U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed Octo ...

. It takes its name from the neighboring

Shawangunk Ridge The Shawangunk Ridge , also known as the Shawangunk Mountains or The Gunks, is a ridge of bedrock in Ulster County, Sullivan County and Orange County in the state of New York, extending from the northernmost point of the border with New Jersey ...

, where it rises in the town of Greenville, then flowing down into the valley. For part of its length, it forms the northwestern boundary of Orange County, with first Sullivan and then Ulster County along the other side.

Course

From its source in Greenville, the Shawangunk flows steadily northeastward to Mill Pond, near Mount Hope, by which point it has already lost almost half its original elevation. It passes through fields and woods east of Otisville. At the hamlet of New Vernon, it becomes the Orange-Sullivan county line and shortly thereafter receives its first named tributary, the Little Shawangunk Kill. It begins to widen a bit at Bloomingburg, and north of that community it is crossed by

NY 17 New York State Route 17 (NY 17) is a major state highway that extends for through the Southern Tier and Downstate regions of New York in the United States. It begins at the Pennsylvania state line in Mina and follows the Southern T ...

, the busiest road along the kill. Several miles to the north, the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also: ''conflux'') occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); o ...

of another tributary, the Platte Kill, marks the point where Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties come together as the stream bends slightly towards a more eastern heading. Pine Bush eventually rises on the east, and a few more miles north of that hamlet the kill becomes the exclusive property of Ulster County when the boundary returns to land at Orange County's northernmost point. The Shawangunk continues to meander into a wider and wider valley, populated mostly with farms and

woodlot A woodlot is a parcel of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products (such as wood fuel, sap for maple syrup, sawlogs, and pulpwood) as well as recreational uses like bird watching, bushwalking, and wildflower apprecia ...

s, the mountain ridge spreading across the western sky. Finally, it curves due east and joins the Wallkill just south of

US 44 U.S. Route 44 (US 44) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that runs for through four states in the Northeastern United States. The western terminus is at US 209 and New York State Route 55 (NY 55) in Kerhonkson, ...

NY 55 New York State Route 55 (NY 55) is a east-west state highway in southern New York, running from the Pennsylvania state line at the Delaware River in Barryville to the Connecticut state line at Wingdale. It is the only other state ...

near Gardiner.

Ecology

In the early 1990s, the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with oth ...

, when it was researching the fate of the former Galeville air base site (now

Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge The Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife refuge located in Ulster County, New York, United States. Formerly the Galeville Military Airport, it was decommissioned in 1994 and turned over to the United States Fish and Wildli ...

) found that the lower Shawangunk (from its mouth to Pine Bush) supports an unusually diverse plant and animal community for the region due to the absence of any serious

impoundment Impoundment may refer to: Water control * The result of a dam, creating a body of water ** A reservoir, formed by a dam ** Coal slurry impoundment, a specialized form of such a reservoir used for coal mining and processing * Impounded dock, an enc ...

along the upper river. It reported no less than six species of freshwater

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and Freshwater bivalve, freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other ...

s, including the rare swollen wedge mussel, and 31 species of fish. Among the latter were the rare ''

Notropis ''Notropis'' is a genus of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. They are known commonly as eastern shiners.''No ...

amoenus'' (comely shiner), ''Notropis stramineus'' (sand shiner), ''

Percina ''Percina'' is a genus of small freshwater ray-finned fish, classified within the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and pikeperches from North America. Like the similar fishes in the ...

caproedes'' (logperch), ''Lepomis auritis'' ( redbreasted sunfish) and ''Noturus insignis'' (margined

madtom Madtoms are freshwater catfishes (order Siluriformes) of the genus ''Noturus'' of the family Ictaluridae. It is the most species-rich family of catfish in North America, native to the central and eastern United States, and adjacent parts of Canad ...

).Shawangunk Kill
retrieved from training.fws.gov March 1, 2007. The study found that the region supports the only known community of ''Diarrhena obovata'' ( beakgrass) in the state. Other rare plants in the lower Shawangunk Kill include threadfoot on submerged ledges, sharp-winged

monkeyflower Monkey flower can refer to: *Several genera of plant family Phrymaceae, including: ** ''Diplacus'' ** ''Erythranthe'' ** ''Mimulus'' *Various snapdragon-like Lamiales, including: ** ''Linaria vulgaris'' ** ''Phyllocarpus septentrionalis ''Barne ...

, wingstem and redrooted flatsedge along the stream itself, with Davis' sedge, swamp agrimony, ''

Aster Aster or ASTER may refer to: Biology * ''Aster'' (genus), a genus of flowering plants ** List of ''Aster'' synonyms, other genera formerly included in ''Aster'' and still called asters in English * Aster (cell biology), a cellular structure shap ...

vimeneus'' (small white aster) and violet bushclover joining the beakgrass in the flood plains. Due to the minimal development (mostly agricultural) within much of its watershed, there is very little pollution. In 2015 the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

council members of Wallkill, through which five miles () of the stream flows, enacted a law to protect the Shawangunk Kill. It bars any construction (including roads),

clear cutting Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of fores ...

, dumping or

septic system Onsite sewage facilities (OSSF), also called septic systems, are wastewater systems designed to treat and dispose of effluent on the same property that produces the wastewater, in areas not served by public sewage infrastructure. A septic tank a ...

s within of the

high water mark A high water mark is a point that represents the maximum rise of a body of water over land. Such a mark is often the result of a flood, but high water marks may reflect an all-time high, an annual high (highest level to which water rose that ...

Crawford Crawford may refer to: Places Canada * Crawford Bay Airport, British Columbia * Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Ontario United Kingdom * Crawford, Lancashire, a small village near Rainford, Merseyside, England * Crawford, South Lanarkshire, a ...

, to the north, also has in place limits on new construction and rebuilding in the stream's vicinity, and in Mount Hope much of the land around it is owned by the municipality.

Geology

The river bedrock is predominantly

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 ...

, covered by silty loam soils left behind by past glaciation. The stream bed itself varies from solid rock to particulates such as gravel, sand and clay. Geologically, the Shawangunk valley is part of the

Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians 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 ...

, typified by the Shawangunk Ridge to the west and the lower Hoagerburgh Ridge to the east.

Crossings

''North to south, going upriver'' *Albany Post Road ( Ulster County Route 9) *McKinstry Road ( Ulster County Route 7A) *Hoagerburgh Road ( Ulster County Route 18) *Wallkill Avenue ( Town of Crawford, Orange County)/Bruyn Turnpike ( Town of Shawangunk, Ulster County) *Hardenbugh Road *

NY 52 New York State Route 52 (NY 52) is a state highway in the southeastern part of the state. It generally runs from west to east through five counties, beginning at the New York–Pennsylvania border, Pennsylvania state line in the Delawa ...

*Ulsterville Road *Crawford Street * Orange County Route 48/ Sullivan County Route 66 *Petticoat Lane *

* Orange County 76/ Sullivan County 171 *Spruce Road *New Vernon Road ( Orange County Route 18) *Shoddy Hollow Road *

Metro-North Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connecticut D ...

Port Jervis Line The Port Jervis Line is a predominantly single-track commuter rail line running between Suffern and Port Jervis, in the U.S. state of New York. At Suffern, the line continues south into New Jersey as NJ Transit's Main Line. The line is operated ...

*Carboy Road *

NY 211 New York State Route 211 (NY 211) is a state highway located entirely within Orange County, New York, in the United States. The western terminus is at the intersection with US 209 located in Cuddebackville, and the eastern terminus ...

*Mount Hope Road ( Orange County Route 11) *Guymard Turnpike ( Orange County Route 24) *Kohler Road *Eatontown Road *Fort Van Tyle Road *Springbrook Road *Mullock Road

Tributaries

* Dwaar Kill *

Platte Kill Platte Kill flows into the East Branch Delaware River by Dunraven, New York Dunraven is a hamlet in Delaware County, New York, United States, although it is often considered part of the adjacent hamlet, Margaretville. The settlement was origin ...

* Tomy Kill * Pakansink Creek *

Verkeerder Kill The Verkeerder Kill, sometimes Verkeerderkill and locally shortened to Kaidy Kill is an stream in Ulster County, New York, United States. It rises on the Shawangunk Ridge, in the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Wawarsing, New ...

Little Shawangunk Kill The Little Shawangunk Kill is a tributary of the Shawangunk Kill in Orange County, New York in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Contin ...

References