Stony Brook is a tributary of Fishing Creek in

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 ...

. It is long and flows through North Centre Township and Orange Township. The stream's watershed has an area of 3.72 square miles. It flows through a steep ravine which is inhabited by numerous plant species for much of its length. The fossil-rich Stony Brook Beds also have an outcropping near the stream. In the 1870s, it was considered for use as a water supply by the Bloomsburg Water Company.

Course

Wetland near the headwaters of Stony Brook 5

Stony Brook starts in northwestern North Centre Township, on the southern edge 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 ...

. It begins flowing southwest and almost immediately crosses

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 ...

. Shortly afterwards, it leaves North Centre Township, after which it enters Orange Township and continues southwest, where it enters a valley. The valley gets steeper as the stream turns south and then west, flowing north of Summer Hill. The stream crosses

Pennsylvania Route 487 Pennsylvania Route 487 (PA 487) is a , north–south state highway running from PA 61 in Shamokin Township, Northumberland County, to PA 87 (near its intersection with US 220) in Dushore, Sullivan County. In Bloomsburg, PA 487 and US 11 ...

and shortly reaches its confluence with Fishing Creek. Stony Brook joins Fishing Creek upstream of its mouth and upstream of Lightstreet.

Geography, geology, and hydrology

Stony Brook flows through a steep and narrow valley for part of its length. The elevation of the stream is above sea level. The

bed A bed is an item of furniture that is used as a place to sleep, rest, and relax. Most modern beds consist of a soft, cushioned mattress on a bed frame. The mattress rests either on a solid base, often wood slats, or a sprung base. Many b ...

of Stony Brook consists of

cobbles Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fro ...

. An outcropping of the

rock formation A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock formation'' can also refer to specific sediment ...

known as the Stony Brook Beds is visible on the side of a road at the mouth of Stony Brook. This rock formation 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 ...

and has a high concentration of

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s, including two varieties of spirifier. The habitat around Stony Brook allows for a relatively high

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

; the stream's water is quite clear, but there is a risk the water quality could be impacted by

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

from nearby residential and agricultural lands.

Watershed and tributaries

The Columbia County Natural Heritage Inventory from 2004 designated the watershed of Stony Brook as a "locally significant site". It has an area of 3.72 square miles, and no tributaries. The stream is in the Bloomsburg

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 ...

Topographical Quadrant. The valley of Stony Brook is forested and largely undeveloped. Although there is agricultural land upstream of the valley and on both sides of it and a housing development located on one side of the valley, there is no road going through the valley, and the Columbia County Natural Heritage Inventory strongly discourages the construction of one, stating that it would "be the most destructive action against this Exceptional Value Waters stream.".

History

In the 1870s, the

Bloomsburg Water Company Bloomsburg may refer to: Places * Bloomsburg, Ontario, Canada * Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, United States * Bloomsburg (Watkins House), a historic plantation estate in South Boston, Virginia, US Other * Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania * Blooms ...

attempted unsuccessfully to use Stony Brook as a water supply. In 1938, a concrete

tee beam A T-beam (or tee beam), used in construction, is a load-bearing structure of reinforced concrete, wood or metal, with a -shaped cross section. The top of the -shaped cross section serves as a flange or compression member in resisting compressiv ...

bridge was built over Stony Brook. It is long and carries Pennsylvania Route 487. The average traffic over the bridge is 6310 vehicles per day, as of 2013. In 2009, 25 local volunteers cleaned up of 17.15 tons of debris that had been left at the confluence of Stony Brook with Fishing Creek during a flood in June 2006. Stony Brook is named for the fact that rocks are found in large numbers near it.

Biology

Wetland near the headwaters of Stony Brook 4

The

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the agency in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania responsible for protecting and preserving the land, air, water, and public health through enforcement of the state's environmental laws. ...

has designated the entire length of Stony Brook as an Exceptional Value Stream, giving it some legal protection. The trees in the valley of Stony Brook are mostly hemlock of various ages. Other trees inhabiting the valley include

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

basswood ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

, two varieties of

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

yellow birch ''Betula alleghaniensis'', the yellow birch, golden birch, or swamp birch, is a large tree and an important lumber species of birch native to northeastern North America. Its vernacular names refer to the golden color of the tree's bark. In the pa ...

black cherry ''Prunus serotina'', commonly called black cherry,World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the g ...

pignut hickory ''Carya glabra'', the pignut hickory, is a common, but not abundant species of hickory in the oak-hickory forest association in the Eastern United States and Canada. Other common names are pignut, sweet pignut, coast pignut hickory, smoothbark ...

tulip poplar ''Liriodendron tulipifera''—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus ''Liriodendron'' (the other ...

, white ash, and

sugar maple ''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the prima ...

. There is also a substantial population of herbaceous plants in the bottom of the valley, particularly

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

s: nine species have been recorded. Native woodland flowers inhabit the edges of Stony Brook. These include

blue cohosh ''Caulophyllum thalictroides'', the blue cohosh, a species of '' Caulophyllum'' (family Berberidaceae) is a flowering plant in the Berberidaceae (barberry) family. It is a medium-tall perennial with blue berry-like fruits and bluish-green foliage ...

, false hellebore, twisted stalk, miterwort,

golden saxifrage ''Chrysosplenium'' (golden saxifrage or golden-saxifrage) is a genus of 57Soltis, D.E. (2001)Phylogenetic relationships and evolution in ''Chrysosplenium'' (Saxifragaceae) based on matK sequence data ''Am J Bot'' 88:883-893 species of flowering ...

barren strawberry Barren strawberry is a common name for several plants which may refer to: * ''Potentilla'', or in particular ''Potentilla sterilis'', native to Europe * ''Waldsteinia fragarioides ''Waldsteinia fragarioides'' ( syn. ''Dalibarda fragarioides'' ...

, false Solomon's seal, Solomon's seal, Canada violet, purple trillium, wild stonecrop,

trout lily ''Erythronium'', the fawn lily, trout lily, dog's-tooth violet or adder's tongue, is a genus of Eurasian and North American plants in the lily family, most closely related to tulips. The name Erythronium derives from Ancient Greek () "red" in ...

, dwarf ginseng, and

white baneberry ''Actaea pachypoda'', the white baneberry or doll's-eyes, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Actaea'', of the family Ranunculaceae. The plant is native to eastern North America, in eastern Canada, and the Midwestern and Eastern Unit ...

. An

overhead power line An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy across large distances. It consists of one or more uninsulated electrical cables (commonly multiples of three for three-p ...

crosses the valley of Stony Brook in one location. The area in its vicinity is inhabited by high numbers of

invasive plant An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

s, such as

multiflora rose ''Rosa multiflora'' — ( syn. ''Rosa polyantha'') is a species of rose known commonly as multiflora rose, baby rose, Japanese rose, many-flowered rose, seven-sisters rose, Eijitsu rose and rambler rose. It is native to eastern Asia, in China, ...

. There are small numbers of the

hemlock woolly adelgid The hemlock woolly adelgid (; ''Adelges tsugae''), or HWA, is an insect of the order Hemiptera (true bugs) native to East Asia. It feeds by sucking sap from hemlock and spruce trees (''Tsuga'' spp.; ''Picea'' spp.). In its native range, HWA ...

, which is considered a

pest Pest or The Pest may refer to: Science and medicine * Pest (organism), an animal or plant deemed to be detrimental to humans or human concerns ** Weed, a plant considered undesirable * Infectious disease, an illness resulting from an infection ** ...

, in the watershed. In higher numbers, this insect could damage the watershed's hemlock forests.

References

External links

{{authority control Rivers of Columbia County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Fishing Creek (North Branch Susquehanna River) Rivers of Pennsylvania