Erosion at NorthKill creek

[Paul6.5]

I went to NorthKill creek in State Game lands 110 today hoping to find some fishable water. I was expecting high but clear water but was greeted with high muddy water. I’ve fished this creek many times throughout the decades and have never seen the water muddy that far up.
I know the hemlocks have been dying there for years and eventually the loss of the trees would catch up to the creek and it appears to have happened.
I saw bad erosion all the way up and it wasn’t until just before the falls that I found fishable water.

 

[Mike]

That doesn’t look very “muddy” to me and is the color that I have in a number of Pa mountain freestoners after heavy rain.

Northkill and Birch Ck down the ridge have been subject to quite substantial habitat changes throughout the years due to locally intense storm events. In the mid-1980’s next to the SGL gate, a large storm caused rocks transported by the Northkill to pile so deeply at that location that for about 10 ft the stream itself was buried by the rock pile when flows dropped to normal summer levels. Likewise, Birch Ck blew out of its channel and flowed through the woods during a substantial storm cir 2015. It ripped up all of the stream’s banks and created tremendous log jams in the forest and in the creek. Very few brook trout remained. In both cases I have to believe that with such forces the streams became quite muddy and probably clouded up a bit with lesser storms that followed given the probable (Northkill) and actual (Birch) bank damage produced by the large storms described above. In the case of your pic, the color in your pic could also be from a very dilute mix of natural forest tannins and water plus a bit of sediment. My point isn’t that I know what caused cloudy conditions in the Northkill…only that it’s not a complete surprise and not alarming.

 

[Solitariolupo]

You know what they say you never step foot in the same creek twice.

 

[moodyblues]

You know what they say you never step foot in the same creek twice.

Especially that one.

 

[moodyblues]

That doesn’t look very “muddy” to me and is the color that I have in a number of Pa mountain freestoners after heavy rain.

Northkill and Birch Ck down the ridge have been subject to quite substantial habitat changes throughout the years due to locally intense storm events. In the mid-1980’s next to the SGL gate, a large storm caused rocks transported by the Northkill to pile so deeply at that location that for about 10 ft the stream itself was buried by the rock pile when flows dropped to normal summer levels. Likewise, Birch Ck blew out of its channel and flowed through the woods during a substantial storm cir 2015. It ripped up all of the stream’s banks and created tremendous log jams in the forest and in the creek. Very few brook trout remained. In both cases I have to believe that with such forces the streams became quite muddy and probably clouded up a bit with lesser storms that followed given the probable (Northkill) and actual (Birch) bank damage produced by the large storms described above. In the case of your pic, the color in your pic could also be from a very dilute mix of natural forest tannins and water plus a bit of sediment. My point isn’t that I know what caused cloudy conditions in the Northkill…only that it’s not a complete surprise and not alarming.

That storm that caused all of the flooding here in Berks County in July a few years back also altered that creek, along with a lot of others.

 

[goose54cdd]

Mother nature rearranges our streams all the time. Sometimes little and sometimes a lot.

 

[moodyblues]

Mother nature rearranges our streams all the time. Sometimes little and sometimes a lot.

So does man, I'll go with mother nature and trust that it's the way it's meant to be over time. Meanders are good!

 

[skiltonian]

I used to get brookies out of the NK but nothing the last two trips. Is it me?

 

[k-bob]

I haven't been to the Northkill in a long time. But agree w/ OP that hemlock loss can worsen headwaters-trib erosion as the tree's streamside roots die:

"Hemlocks often reside along streams, their vast root systems helping to stabilize water levels and prevent erosion. Their thick evergreen branches provide unparalleled, cooling shade."

Is your trout fishing in trouble? Saving the state tree may be the answer

Millions of hemlock trees have been wiped out by the woolly adelgid pest. Staving off further destruction may be needed to save native trout.

www.ydr.com

I recall fishing a tiny/ step-across trib slightly north of the northkill called wert's hollow -- do not recommend btw!, truly a nano-stream -- and it had some brookies but also some suffering hemlocks along its course.