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ASSESSMENT OF THE WEST BRANCH OF TUNUNGWANT CREEK’S WATERSHED

The Allegheny Institute of Natural History (AINH) is supervising the assessment of the West Branch of Tunungwant Creek’s watershed.

This study is under the auspices of the Tunungwant Watershed Association (TWA) and is being funded by a $50,000 Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Growing Greener being administered by Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development (Headwaters RC&D.)

AINH will conduct an initial watershed assessment of the West Branch of the Tunungwant Creek in McKean County, Pennsylvania and will also participate in community outreach programs to educate citizens of the value of the watershed.

During the summer of 2004, Dr. Dessie Severson, biologist and Director of AINH; Professor Isabelle Champlin, anthropologist; and Dr. Steven Robar, political scientist and Director of the Environmental Studies program, supervised three interns, Randy Abbott, Katie Burton, and Kristyn Kutzko, senior Environmental Studies majors at Pitt-Bradford.

They collected a variety of information available on the watershed and stream including weather and climate data, information on the flora and fauna, water quality data, and land use information. In addition they walked up the West Branch and several of its tributaries and plotted data relevant to the stream such as historical and currently used dumpsites; storm drains; precipitation runoff entry into the stream; ATV activity; invasive plants; streamside vegetation; artifacts of the oil and gas industry; beaver activity, abandoned railroad beds; roads; and downed trees.

Available knowledge and data is being accumulated, analyzed, interpreted and summarized by the Allegheny Institute of Natural History at the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford. Much of the data collected is geo-referenced and will be available in a geographic information system format.

As a result of this process, the status of the watershed and stream will be more clearly understood and a sampling design plan will be developed for future assessment and monitoring of watershed and stream health. This design and assessment plan would also address the goals/objectives of the TWA.