Cranberry Run is a tributary of

Catawissa Creek Catawissa Creek (colloquially known as The Cat) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River in east-central Pennsylvania in t ...

Columbia County, Pennsylvania Columbia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,727. Its county seat is Bloomsburg. The county was created on March 22, 1813, from part of Northumberland County. It ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Beaver Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of . The stream is considered to be a Coldwater Fishery. The main rock formations in the stream's watershed are the Mauch Chunk Formation and the Pocono Formation and the main soils are the Leck Kill soil and the Hazleton soil.

Course

Cranberry Run begins on Catawissa Mountain in Beaver Township. It flows northeast in a valley for over a mile, getting within several hundred feet of the border between Columbia County and Schuylkill County. The stream eventually turns roughly north, crosses Bunker Hill Road, and flows between Catawissa Mountain and Bunker Hill, getting further from the county line. After crossing Cranberry Run Road, it turns northeast and reaches its confluence with Catawissa Creek after a few hundred feet. Cranberry Run joins Catawissa Creek upstream of its mouth.

Tributaries

Cranberry Run has no tributaries, named or unnamed.

Hydrology

A total of of Cranberry Run is considered to be impaired by atmospheric deposition due to pH. It also experiences some form of pollution. The stream is highly acidic and affected by acidic precipitation. Its pH is 5.8 and the total concentration of

alkalinity Alkalinity (from ) is the capacity of water to resist Freshwater acidification, acidification. It should not be confused with base (chemistry), basicity, which is an absolute measurement on the pH scale. Alkalinity is the strength of a buffer s ...

is 0 milligrams per liter. The cranberry bogs at the headwaters of the stream may contribute to its acidity. The concentration of

water hardness Hard water is water that has a high mineral content (in contrast with "soft water"). Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum, which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicar ...

in the stream is 4 milligrams per liter. At 1:25 P.M. on June 24, 1997, the air temperature in the vicinity of Cranberry Run was . The water temperature of the stream at that time was . The

specific conductance Electrical resistivity (also called volume resistivity or specific electrical resistance) is a fundamental specific property of a material that measures its electrical resistance or how strongly it resists electric current. A low resistivity in ...

of the stream is 22 umhos.

Geography and geology

The elevation near the mouth of Cranberry Run is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The elevation of the stream's source is approximately above sea level. The lower reaches of Cranberry Run are on rock of the

Mauch Chunk Formation The Mississippian Mauch Chunk Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia. It is named for the township of Mauch Chunk, now known as borough of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania and for nearby Mauch Chunk Ridge where th ...

. The upper reaches of the stream is on rock of the

Pocono Formation The Mississippian Pocono Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, in the United States. It is also known as the Pocono Group in Maryland and West Virginia, and the upper part of the Pocono Formation is somet ...

. The lower reaches of the stream are on Leck Kill

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

and the rest of the stream is on Hazleton soil. A small hill known as Bunker Hill is located near Cranberry Run. Catawissa Mountain is also in the vicinity of the stream. Very few areas along the stream are prone to

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, 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 of significant con ...

ing. Cranberry Run has a high gradient of 86.8 meters per kilometer. It is also a small stream, with a width of 2.7 meters.

Watershed, history, and etymology

The watershed of Cranberry Run has an area of . A large portion of the watershed is in Beaver Township, Columbia County. However, a small area of it is in Roaring Creek Township, Columbia County and a substantial portion is in North Union Township, Schuylkill County. The headwaters of the stream are in Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 58, as are part of the rest of the stream. Most of the watershed is forested, but there is some

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

land in the lower reaches of the watershed. Ten percent of the length of Cranberry Run is within 100 meters of a road. 15 percent of the stream's length is within 300 meters of a road and 19 percent is within 500 meters of one. In 1990, the

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of the watershed was 10 people per square kilometer. Cranberry Run is very close to Klingermans Run and the two streams have similar geologies and land uses. Cranberry Run is in the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

quadrangle of Shumans. Cranberry Run's name comes from the fact that it is in the vicinity of a

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

and that

cranberries Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to long and in height; they have slender stems that are not t ...

were historically grown near the stream.

Biology

Cranberry Run 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 a coldwater fishery. However, no fish have been observed in the stream and it is incapable of supporting fish life due to

acid precipitation Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but aci ...

. Wild brook trout have historically inhabited the stream. There are natural cranberry bogs in the headwaters of Cranberry Run.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Columbia County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Catawissa Creek Rivers of Pennsylvania