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Skippack and Perkiomen Creeks
The Skippack Creek is a major tributary of the Perkiomen Creek including 106.5 miles of streams and tributaries and draining a 55.5 square-mile area. Historically, the Skippack Creek watershed served a productive farming community but in the last 50 years the area has rapidly suburbanized. Today, the forests, wetlands, streams and meadows that provide “ecosystem services” such as ground water recharge, stormwater controls and animal habitats, are being replaced by residential communities.
Agricultural soils of statewide importance are concentrated along the Skippack Creek and supported early farming settlements, and about one-third of the Skippack Creek watershed remains in agricultural use today. In addition, the 3,278 acres of the Evansburg State Park is home to a small population of plant species of special concern.
Human activities have had widespread impacts on the Skippack and Perkiomen Creeks, including increasing pollution, sedimentation and erosion associated with stormwater runoff from urbanizing landscapes, as well as point sources of discharge. Dams, created to enhance industrial development more that a century ago, still impact the creek through impoundment, flow alteration, and flow variability. While Evansburg State Park’s intact forests protect about half of the main stem of the Skippack Creek, loss of forest cover in the headwater and upstream segments of the creek exacerbates point and non-point source pollutants.
WE NEED TO ACT
Time is running out for the natural areas and open spaces that remain in the Skippack and Perkiomen Creek watersheds. Development pressures are extreme and the remaining undeveloped lands are the most fragile. This development threatens to change the face of the Skippack Creek and its tributaries forever. Water quality in the Skippack Creek now only supports stocked fish. Increasing sedimentation and effluent discharges may even threaten them.
FACTS & FIGURES
Total Acres: 20,000
Developed Acres: 7,000
Protected Acres: 5,000
Additional Protected Acres Goal: 4,000
Data current as of July 2006
RESOURCE FEATURES
- Woodlands with diverse flora and fauna
- Farmlands with soils of statewide importance
- Parks and interconnected regional trails
SPECIAL DESIGNATIONS
TREASURES
- Evansburg State Park
- Central Perkiomen Valley Park
- Lower Perkiomen Valley Park
- Mill Grove
COUNTIES
Montgomery
MUNICIPALITIES (all or part)
Collegeville, Green Lane, Lower Frederick, Lower Providence, Lower Salford, Marlborough, Perkiomen, Schwenksville, Skippack, Towamencin, Trappe, Upper Frederick, Upper Providence, Upper Salford, Worcester
WATERSHEDS/SUB-AREAS
East Branch Perkiomen Creek, Perkiomen Creek, Schuylkill River, Skippack Creek, Swamp Creek, Unami Creek
GROWING LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS ACTIVE IN THE AREA
Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy, Montgomery County Lands Trust
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