Five of the healthiest watersheds outside the Adirondacks are located in Cattaraugus County, N.Y. — in and around Allegany State Park.
Most of the subwatersheds in the rest of the county are in pretty good shape too, according to a new report issued by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The Statewide Riparian Opportunity Assessment report was compiled over 22 months from data including Water Assessment by Volunteer Evaluators and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Trees for Tribs Program.
Subwatersheds and catchment areas scored between -0.73 to 0.88. The scores indicate an ecological health value minus any ecological stress indicators. Higher scores indicated a more ecologically healthy watershed.
Lower ranked subwatersheds “should not be interpreted as bad,” the report warned. The rankings are relative and there could be “ecological benefit or other values not detected by our analysis.”
The DEC plans to use the scores as an indication whether areas of subwatersheds need a more protective canopy over streams, or protective buffers from agricultural runoff or other disruptive human actions.
The five top streams in Cattaraugus County and their numerical value under the study’s parameters are:
Tunungwant Creek — 0.72.
Red House Brook — 0.76
Quaker Run — 0.80.
Wolf Run — 0.76.
Willow Creek — 0.76.
With the exception of the Tunungwant Creek, which originates in McKean County and flows through a refinery in Bradford, the streams all originate in Allegany State Park.
Jay Bailey, Allegany Region director for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said, “Part of New York State Parks’ mission is to be a responsible steward of the state’s natural resources under the agency’s jurisdiction.”
He said most of Allegany State Park’s considerable landmass was designated as preservation area under the 2010 master plan.
Since four of the streams rise in the nearly 100-year-old state park that shares a border with Pennsylvania, it’s not surprising that their subwatersheds rank so high, according to Brian Davis, district field manager for the Cattaraugus County Soil and Water Conservation District.
“The Tunungwant Creek surprises me a little with the oil business just upstream in Bradford,” Davis said.
But as far as the other streams in the park, Davis said, “They are all running out of the park, where it’s nearly all wooded.”
He added because there’s no agricultural land in the park and no timber cutting, that’s good for the water quality.
“It’s probably very similar to the Adirondacks,” he added. “There’s also good native soils and the park is in a non-glaciated area.”
Eric Wohlers, director of the Cattaraugus County Health Department’s Environmental Health Division, said he wasn’t surprised the subwatersheds in Allegany State Park ranked so high in the state.
“Allegany State Park is the largest state park outside the Adirondacks,” Wohlers said. “There’s a lot of protected land there and not much human activity.”
The area’s past oil and gas production and the once clear-cut forests of the state park do not seem to have diminished the watersheds or the water quality.
Quaker Run’s score of 0.80 is only eight/hundredths of a point off the highest score in the state recorded in the Adirondacks.
There are about 50 subwatersheds and catchments clustered in the Adirondack Mountains far from human habitation.
The ecological health of the subwatersheds is determined by a combination of canopy cover, natural cover, floodplain complexes, functional river networks, ecological significance, the presence of brook trout and native fish richness.
Ecological stress indicators include: erosion index, impervious surfaces, topographic wetness index and water impairments and subtract from the composite health score.
The Statewide Riparian Opportunity Assessment program’s goal is “to support the identification and prioritization of riparian sites for restoration or protection, in support ofNew York DEC’s Trees for Tribs program,” where volunteers “plant native trees and shrubs in riparian buffers to improve wildlife habitat, water quality, climate resiliency, and to provide flood protection.”
The composite scores for subwatersheds range from a low of -0.73 to a high of 0.88 out of a total possible score of 1.
Outside of Allegany State Park, the composite scores of the subwatersheds drop off, but generally remain above average levels, the state Riparian Opportunity Assessment map shows.
The Olean Creek subwatershed had the lowest composite score in the Olean area, 0.05. The subwatersheds of its headwaters — Oil Creek and the Cuba Lake Outlet — were 0.09 and 0.13 respectively.
A sampling of other Olean-area subwatersheds showed the following composite scores:
Chipmonk Creek — 0.51.
Five Mile Creek — 0.22.
Four Mile Creek — 0.35.
Haskell Creek — 0.18.
Dodge Creek — 0.24.
Salamanca-area subwatersheds outside Allegany State Park ranged from a high of 0.71 in Windfall Creek to 0.43 in Wright’s Creek and Coldspring Creek. Other area subwatersheds composite scores were: Bucktooth Run, 0.61 and Lower Great Valley Creek, 0.50.
Six of the top 10 subwatersheds in the Eastern Lake Erie watershed were located in Cattaraugus County outside of the state park. They are:
Waterman Brook, East Otto — 0.36.
Big Indian Creek, Perrysburg — 0.33.
Thatcher Brook, Gowanda — 0.31.
Mansfield Creek, Mansfield — 0.31.
Buttermilk Creek, Otto — 0.25.
South Branch of Cattaraugus Creek, Persia — 2.32.
None of the subwatersheds in Cattaraugus County were in the bottom 10 in the region.
Davis, who heads the Cattaraugus County Soil and Water Conservation District, noted that Mansfield Creek is a protected trout stream with good water quality despite its location in an active agricultural area.
“The farmers are doing a good job to keep erosion under control and avoiding agriculture runoff” which can add too many nutrients to stream systems, Davis said.
Wider riparian buffers can also help improve a stream’s quality and that of the surrounding watershed.
The New York Natural Heritage Program of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry developed the project for DEC’s Division of Lands and Forests.
Site selection for protective and restoration activities can be prioritized from the information in the report. DEC Officials will be looking “for areas where a little restoration may have a large impact,” the report stated.
