West Hemlock Creek is a tributary of Hemlock Creek in

Montour County Montour County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,136. Its county seat is Danville. The county is named for Andrew Montour, a prominent Mét ...

and Columbia County, in

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 West Hemlock Township, Montour County and Hemlock Township, Columbia County. The creek has at least one unnamed tributary. West Hemlock Creek and its unnamed tributary are considered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to be impaired. The watershed of the creek has an area of . The creek is designated as a coldwater fishery. Rock formations in the watershed include the Catskill Formation and the Trimemrs Rock Formation.

Course

West Hemlock Creek begins in a valley in eastern West Hemlock Township, near Hedge Road. It flows east for a short distance to the edge of the township and then flows along the township line for some distance. The creek then turns southeast into Hemlock Township, Columbia County. In Hemlock Township, the valley of West Hemlock Creek gets deeper. The creek continues southeast and east for a few miles. It then leaves the valley and almost immediately reaches its confluence with Hemlock Creek near the community of Buckhorn. West Hemlock Creek joins Hemlock Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Tributaries of West Hemlock Creek include the unnamed tributary UNT 65640353.

Hydrology, geography, and geology

of West Hemlock Creek is considered by 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. ...

to be impaired. The cause of the impairment is

siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

due to

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

activity. of an unnamed tributary of the creek also experience the same impairment for the same reason. The elevation of West Hemlock Creek near its mouth 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 lower reaches of the creek lie over rock of the

Trimmers Rock Formation Trimmer may refer to: * Trimmer (construction), beam used in construction * Trimmer (electronics), small electrical component * Trimmer (gardening), gardening power tool * Trimmer (surname) * Trimmer, California, community in Fresno County * Lam ...

. The upper reaches are on rock of the Irish Valley Member of the

Catskill Formation The Devonian Catskill Formation or the Catskill Clastic wedge is a unit of mostly terrestrial sedimentary rock found in Pennsylvania and New York. Minor marine layers exist in this thick rock unit (up to ). It is equivalent to the Hampshire For ...

. It is also near the West Hemlock Creek Fault. The areas along West Hemlock Creek that are a

hazard A hazard is a potential source of harm Harm is a moral and legal concept. Bernard Gert construes harm as any of the following: * pain * death * disability * mortality * loss of abil ity or freedom * loss of pleasure. Joel Feinberg giv ...

for

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

s are mostly not developed.

Watershed

The watershed of West Hemlock Creek has an area of . The land between the creek and

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

is forested.

Biology

West Hemlock Creek is designated as a coldwater fishery. The slopes of the valley of West Hemlock Creek contain a

riparian buffer A riparian buffer or stream buffer is a vegetated area (a "buffer strip") near a stream, usually forested, which helps shade and partially protect the stream from the impact of adjacent land uses. It plays a key role in increasing water quality i ...

that is composed mainly of

eastern hemlock ''Tsuga canadensis'', also known as eastern hemlock, eastern hemlock-spruce, or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as ''pruche du Canada'', is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It is the state tree of ...

. There are also forested seeps on the creek. According to the Columbia County Natural Areas Inventory, these may contain "sensitive ecological features".

References