Assessment Of Stream Health At Conley Run Through The...

Assessment of Stream Health at Conley Run Through the Sampling of Benthic Macroinvertebrates C.J. Laurin, C.J. Hess, M.C. Taddeo Introduction Located near Cowan, Pennsylvania, Conley Run is a tributary of Buffalo Creek that has experienced severe degradation due to agricultural activity. Specifically, the deposition of large amounts of animal wastes, pesticides, and fertilizers has resulted in significant eutrophication throughout the stream. Furthermore, bank degradation associated with the movement of livestock has caused the displacement of foreign sediments into stream habitats. These factors, among many others, have caused the lake to be considered â€Å"impaired† by PA-DEP. In response, the Buffalo Creek Watershed Alliance, the the Union County Conservation District, and the Department of Environmental Protection and Fish and Boat Commision have partnered in an effort to restore stream habitat and create a riparian buffer to protect the stream. A separate tributary of Buffalo Creek, known as Stony Run, lies upstream from Conley Run. Since it is located in a dense wooded area with little to no agricultural interference, Stony Run has experienced very little degradation in comparison to Conley Run. However, Stony Run also shares a number of similar physical characteristics with Conley Run, such as discharge, watershed area, elevation and slope. Therefore, it will serve as a reference stream for this study. The objective of this study was to assess the stream habitat quality