Millard 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 ...

of Tunkhannock Creek in

Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania Susquehanna County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 38,434 Its county seat is Montrose, Pennsylvania, Montro ...

. It is approximately long and flows through Harford Township and Lenox Township. The watershed of the creek has an area of . The creek is not designated as an impaired waterbody. The surficial geology in its vicinity includes Wisconsinan Till, alluvium, wetlands, lakes, bedrock, and alluvial fan. The dominant

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 creek's watershed include forested land and agricultural land. A number of bridges have been constructed over the creek. Its drainage basin is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery.

Course

Millard Creek begins in a small unnamed pond to the south of a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

in Harford Township. It flows south-southwest for a few tenths of a mile before turning south-southeast for several tenths of a mile, entering Lenox Township. Here, the creek turns south-southwest for several tenths of a mile before turning east and then southeast and then south-southwest. After several tenths of a mile, it passes through a wetland and a lake before turning south. For the next several tenths of a mile, it flows alongside Jeffers Hill before passing through a wetland and Jeffers Pond. The creek then turns southwest for a short distance before turning south-southeast. After several tenths of a mile, it passes through another wetland and turns southeast for a few tenths of a mile before receiving an 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 ...

. It then turns south for several tenths of a mile, beginning to flow alongside Pennsylvania Route 167 on one side and Hickory Ridge on the other side. The creek then turns southeast for a few tenths of a mile before turning east-southeast and crossing Pennsylvania Route 92. A short distance further downstream, it reaches its confluence with Tunkhannock Creek. Millard Creek is approximately long. It joins Tunkhannock Creek upstream of its mouth.

Hydrology

Millard Creek is not designated as an impaired waterbody. The total

sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

load in Millard Creek is per year. Cropland is by far the largest contributor, accounting for per year.

Deciduous forest In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...

an hay/pastures/grass contribute per year respectively. The annual sediment load contributed by

coniferous forest Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...

is , while comes from mixed forest and comes from high-intensity development. The annual

nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...

load in Millard Creek is . A total of per year comes from cropland, while comes from

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

and comes from

septic system Onsite sewage facilities (OSSF), also called septic systems, are wastewater systems designed to treat and dispose of effluent on the same property that produces the wastewater, in areas not served by public sewage infrastructure. A septic tank a ...

s and comes from hay/pastures/grass. Deciduous forests contribute per year, coniferous forests contribute , mixed forests contribute , and high-intensity development contributes . The total

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

load in Millard Creek is . Annually, comes from cropland, comes from groundwater, comes from hay/pastures/grass, and comes from deciduous forest. A total of per year comes from coniferous forest, mixed forest and high-intensity development contribute each, and septic systems contribute per year. Point source pollution does not contribute any nitrogen, phosphorus, or sediment to Millard Creek.

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 Millard 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 near 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 above sea level. The geology in the entire watershed of Millard Creek consists of

interbedded In geology, interbedding occurs when beds (layers of rock) of a particular lithology lie between or alternate with beds of a different lithology. For example, sedimentary rocks may be interbedded if there were sea level variations in their sedimen ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

of the

Catskill Formation The Devonian Catskill Formation or the Catskill Clastic Wedge is a unit of mostly terrestrial sedimentary rock found in Pennsylvania and New York. Minor marine layers exist in this thick rock unit (up to ). It is equivalent to the Hampshire Fo ...

. The surficial geology in the vicinity of Millard Creek mostly consists of a

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 ...

known as Wisconsinan Till. However, patches 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 ...

s, and lakes occur along some areas of the creek and the surficial geology on some nearby hills include

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 ...

. There is also a patch 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 ...

near the mouth of the creek.

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 Millard Creek has an area of . The stream is entirely within 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 Lenoxville. Its mouth is located within of Glenwood. The main

in the watershed of Millard Creek is

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, which occupies nearly in the watershed.

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 occupies slightly over and urban land occupies only a very small part of the creek's watershed. The watershed of Millard Creek is relatively long in a north-south direction and relatively narrow in an east-west direction.

History

Millard 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 1181198. 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 2039 over Millard Creek in Lenox Township was built in 1951 and repaired in 2010 and is long. 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 Pennsylvania Route 92 over the creek in Lenox Township was built in 1959 and is long. In 2001, Millard Creek was used as the reference watershed for the total maximum daily load for South Branch Wyalusing Creek.

Biology

The drainage basin of Millard Creek is designated as a 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 Millard Creek from its mouth upstream for . The designated use of the creek is

aquatic life An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem found in and around a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms—aquatic life—that are dependent on each other and on their environm ...

References

External links

Image of Millard Creek
{{authority control Rivers of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Tunkhannock Creek Rivers of Pennsylvania