Leonard Creek (also known as Leonards Creek or Leonard's Creek) is a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

Bowman Creek Bowman Creek (also known as Bowmans Creek or Bowman's Creek) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Luzerne County and Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, Wyoming County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is ap ...

Luzerne County Luzerne County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeaste ...

and Wyoming County, in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Dallas Township in Luzerne County and Monroe Township in Wyoming County. The watershed of the creek has an area of . The creek is not designated as an impaired waterbody. The surficial geology in its vicinity consists of Wisconsinan Till, alluvium, Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift, alluvial fan, alluvial terrace, bedrock, and sand and gravel pits. Major

land use Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: fo ...

s in the watershed of Leonard Creek include

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

ed land and

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. The creek is one of the more significant tributaries of Bowman Creek. Leonard Creek has at times been impacted by flooding. A number of

mills Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to: As a name * Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin * Mills (given name) *Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine Places U ...

historically existed along the creek and a number of bridges have been constructed across it. The creek's watershed is classified as a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. One of its unnamed tributaries is designated as

Class A Wild Trout Waters Class A Wild Trout Waters are the highest biomass class given to streams in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. They are considered to contain the highest-quality naturally reproducing trout populations in Pennsylvania. The ...

Course

Leonard Creek begins in Dallas Township, Luzerne County. It flows in an east-southeasterly direction for more than a mile, flowing through a valley and passing several ponds. The creek then turns east-northeast for several tenths of a mile, receiving two unnamed tributaries from the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

. At this point, it turns north for roughly a mile, crossing

Pennsylvania Route 309 Pennsylvania Route 309 (PA 309) is a state highway that runs for 134 miles (216 km) through eastern Pennsylvania. The route runs from an interchange between Pennsylvania Route 611, PA 611 and Cheltenham Avenue on the border of Philadelphia ...

and leaving Dallas Township and Luzerne County. Upon exiting Luzerne County, Leonard Creek enters Monroe Township, Wyoming County. It flows north-northwest for a few miles alongside Pennsylvania Route 309, receiving two unnamed tributaries from the right and one unnamed tributary from the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

. The creek then turns northwest for several tenths of a mile, receiving one unnamed tributary from the right and one from the left before turning north-northwest. At this point, its valley becomes considerably deeper and it receives an unnamed tributary from the right. After more than a mile, the creek leaves its valley and turns north, flowing alongside Bowman Creek. After several tenths of a mile, it turns northwest and reaches its confluence with Bowman Creek. Leonard Creek joins Bowman Creek upstream of its mouth.

Hydrology

Leonard Creek is not designated as an impaired waterbody.

Geography and geology

The elevation near the

mouth A mouth also referred to as the oral is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and animal communication#Auditory, vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or in Latin), is also t ...

of Leonard Creek 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 creek's

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute ...

is between above sea level. The

surficial geology Superficial deposits (or surficial deposits) refer to geological deposits typically of Quaternary age (less than 2.6 million years old) for the Earth. These geologically recent unconsolidated sediments may include stream channel and floodplain dep ...

along a significant portion of the length of Leonard Creek consists of

alluvium Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

. In the lower reaches of the creek, this is bordered by

alluvial terrace Fluvial terraces are elongated terraces that flank the sides of floodplains and fluvial valleys all over the world. They consist of a relatively level strip of land, called a "tread", separated from either an adjacent floodplain, other fluvial t ...

, Wisconsinan

Till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

, Wisconsinan Ice-Contact Stratified Drift,

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

consisting of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

, and fill. Further upstream, all of these types of surficial geology are present. However, patches of

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

and a sand and gravel pit are present.

Watershed

The

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

of Leonard Creek has an area of . The creek passes through both 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 Noxen and the quadrangle of Center Moreland. Leonard Creek is one of the major tributaries of Bowman Creek. The main

in the watershed of Leonard Creek is

ed land. However,

land comprises a significant minority of the land in the creek's watershed. There are no drilled wells in the watershed of Leonard Creek. However, is a

pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

for

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

in vicinity of the creek. Some residential and/or commercial land infringes upon the 100-year

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

of it and its tributaries. The village of Kunkle is situated along the creek.

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 once caused significant damage to two bridges and

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Australia in Queensland and pa ...

improvements on Leonard Creek in Dallas Township, Luzerne County. However, the

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

granted funds to rebuild one bridge and some channel walls.

History

Leonard Creek was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features, encompassing the United States and its territories; the Compact of Free Association, asso ...

on August 2, 1979. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1199032. The creek is also known as Leonards Creek or Leonard's Creek. Historically, there were a number of

on Leonard Creek. Levi Hoyt constructed a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

on the creek approximately downstream of Kunkle in around 1840. A steel girder and floorbeam system bridge carrying T-337 over Leonard Creek was built in 1914 west of Beaumont and is long. A prestressed

box beam A box girder or tubular girder (or box beam) is a girder that forms an enclosed tube with multiple walls, as opposed to an - or H-beam. Originally constructed of wrought iron joined by riveting, they are now made of rolled or welded steel, alu ...

or girders bridge carrying State Route 2018 over the creek was built in 1934 and was repaired in 2007. This bridge is long and is situated in Monroe Township, Wyoming County. In 1940, a concrete

tee beam A T-beam (or tee beam), used in construction, is a load-bearing structure of reinforced concrete, wood or metal, with a capital 'T'-shaped cross section. The top of the T-shaped cross section serves as a flange or compression member in resisti ...

bridge carrying

over Leonard Creek was built in Dallas Township, Luzerne County. It is long. A concrete tee beam bridge carrying State Route 2026/Kunkle Road was built across the creek in the same year in Dallas Township and is long. A two-span concrete

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...

bridge carrying State Route 2002 was constructed across the creek in Monroe Township, Wyoming County in 1969 and is long. A two-span concrete culvert bridge carrying T318/Falls Hill Road over Leonard Creek was built southeast of Beaumont in 2009 and is long. The

of Leonard Creek experienced significant damage during

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 on January 25, 2010. However, the Wyoming County Conservation District received a $125,000 grant from 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 repair it and four other stream channels in the area. In 2012, a study was carried out on the creek and 17 others to determine the effects of

gas drilling Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for hydrocarbon deposits, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth's crust using petroleum geology. Exploration methods Vi ...

on macroinvertebrates in the streams.

Biology

The drainage basin of Leonard Creek is designated as a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. Wild

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

naturally reproduce in the creek from its upper reaches downstream to its mouth. An unnamed tributary of it in the vicinity of Beaumont is classified by the

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is an independent state agency responsible for the regulation of all fishing and boating in the state of Pennsylvania within the United States of America. Unlike many U.S. states, Pennsylvania has a sepa ...

as Class A Wild Trout Waters for

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout h ...

and

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...

from its headwaters downstream to its mouth. In 2014, Leonard Creek was stocked with

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission from the Luzerne County/Wyoming County line downstream to its mouth. The creek was stocked with

as early as the 1930s.

Great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbea ...

s and

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

s have also been observed in the vicinity of the creek. In the summer of 2012, a total of 184

macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum V ...

s from 17 genera and one other family were observed in Leonard Creek. These included five

mayfly Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the orde ...

genera, three

stonefly Plecoptera is an order of insects commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the most ...

genera, two

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

genera, two

caddisfly The caddisflies (order Trichoptera) are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the basis ...

genera, two

cranefly A crane fly is any member of the dipteran superfamily Tipuloidea, which contains the living families Cylindrotomidae, Limoniidae, Pediciidae and Tipulidae, as well as several extinct families. "Winter crane flies", members of the family Tri ...

genera, the

dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threat ...

genus '' Stylogomphus'', the

riffle beetle Elmidae, commonly known as riffle beetles, is a family of beetles in the superfamily Byrrhoidea described by John Curtis in 1830. Both adults and larvae are usually aquatic, living under rocks in fast-flowing shallow areas of streams, such as r ...

genus '' Dubiraphia'', and the

scud A Scud missile is one of a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was exported widely to both Second and Third World countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name attached to the m ...

genus ''

Hyalella ''Hyalella'' is a genus of amphipods Amphipoda () is an order (biology), order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods () range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scave ...

''. In the summer of 2012, the EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera) taxa richness was 10 and the Becks Index value was 9. The

Hilsenhoff Biotic Index The Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI) is a quantitative method of evaluating the abundance of arthropod fauna in stream ecosystems as a measurement of estimating water quality based on the predetermined pollution tolerances of the observed taxa. This bi ...

value was 3.582 and the Shannon Wiener Index value was 2.104.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Rivers of Wyoming County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Bowman Creek Rivers of Pennsylvania

Course

Hydrology

Geography and geology

Watershed

History

Biology

See also

References