page_title: Briar Creek (Susquehanna River tributary)
section_title: Watershed
hierarchical_section_title: Briar Creek (Susquehanna River tributary) / Watershed
caption_attribution_description: English: Briar Creek Lake in August. View is from the west. The lake's dam can be seen in the background.
context_page_description: Briar Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is 7.77 miles in length. The stream has a watershed area of 33.0 square miles. It flows through Briar Creek Township and the borough of Briar Creek. The area near the creek was originally inhabited by the Lenni Lenape and the Shawanese. European settlers arrived in the 1770s.
  Briar Creek has two named tributaries: West Branch Briar Creek and East Branch Briar Creek. The discharge of Briar Creek ranges from 0.06 to 50 cubic feet per second. The water temperature of the creek ranges from 32 °F to 80.96 °F. The rock in the watershed mostly consists of sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, limestone, and shale.
  There are Pennsylvania State Game Lands in the watershed, as well as a lake known as the Briar Creek Reservoir. In the lake, the most common species of fish is yellow perch.
context_section_description: The Briar Creek watershed has an area of 33.0 square miles (85 km²). It is located in Columbia County and Luzerne County. There are six communities that are fully or partly within the watershed: Briar Creek, Briar Creek Township, North Centre Township, Orange Township, and Berwick in Columbia County and Salem Township in Luzerne County. A total of 1.04 square miles are located in Briar Creek, 16.48 are located in Briar Creek Township, 12.04 are located in North Centre Township, 0.22 are located in Orange Township, 1.24 are in Berwick, and 1.94 are in Salem Township. As compared to other watersheds with the same size and land use, the Briar Creek watershed has been given a B rating by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. According to the Briar Creek Coldwater Conservation Plan, this indicates that "residents in the watershed are working to improve and/or conserve resources in the area".
  A total of 8678 acres, or 41% of the Briar Creek watershed is forested land. Much of this is on Knob Mountain or belongs to the Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 55. A total of 7210 acres, or 34% of the watershed, is farmland and 1143 acres, or 6% of the watershed, is urban land. Most of this is in the southeastern part of the watershed. A total of 3984 acres, or 19% of the land in the watershed, is non-agricultural grassland.
  There are approximately 44.23 miles (71.18 km) of streams in the Briar Creek watershed. The watershed is made up of seven smaller watersheds, or sub-watersheds. A 53-acre lake known as the Briar Creek Reservoir is also situated on a tributary to Briar Creek. The lake, which is manmade, was constructed for flood control purposes in the early 1970s. It is also used for fishing and boating.
caption: Briar Creek Reservoir in August
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