Connoquenessing Watershed Alliance

The CWA is looking forward to a busy 2024 after starting on some ambitious projects in 2023. Here’s a preview of things to come:

— A new stream improvement project in conjunction with Penn Township at the intersection of Rockdale and Dodds Road. This project will see the enhancement of over 500 feet of stream corridor.

— Installation of a real-time stream flow gauge along Thorn Creek. The CWA is working with a national consultant to develop a gauge to provide water quality data in real time.

— An inventory of all the CWA projects with maintenance needs. The CWA will be assessing all current habitat devices to determine the need for maintenance, as well as plan for future devices to increase habitat and water quality.

The CWA completed another instream habitat improvement project this fall on Thorn Creek. The project consisted of a five section modified mud sill with extended sill logs for increased fish habitat. In addition, cross logs were installed on a tributary to provide grade control and thermal refuge for cold water species during the summer months.

Over the last several years, the CWA has been stocking tagged trout throughout the watershed in hopes to gain some insight on how fish move in our waterways. If you are an angler visiting one of the local waterways, be on the lookout for tagged rainbow trout. These fish have a metal clip attached to the gill plate with a four digit number engraved on it.

If you catch a tagged fish, please take a picture of the fish and note the location where you caught it. We encourage catch and release angling for these fish, as this allows multiple data points to be generated as fish are caught multiple times. Tag number and location information can then be reported to the CWA Facebook page or by email at [email protected].

A compilation of some of the work completed on Sullivan Run in Alameda Park this past summer. In conjunction with the Large Woody Debris installation from 2020, we are looking forward to seeing the effect on watershed health these projects had. Special thanks to our partners – PA Fish and Boat Commission, Butler County Parks and Rec, Butler County Conservation District, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, and Phil Hay and Sons Excavating.

Attention anglers. Please help out the CWA this year by reporting any tagged rainbow trout that you catch in the Connoquenessing Creek Watershed. More information can be found on signs like these found along Trout Stocked Waters throughout the region.

In order to best keep our members and friends informed of current projects and news, the CWA has brought back our newsletter, The Monitor. Inside this edition, you can find news of our latest stream restoration projects, partnership activities in our local area, and upcoming plans for our group.

Monitor Winter 2021

While going through historical projects and data of the CWA, we were able to digitalize the original Bacteria Monitoring Survey within the watershed in 2006. This was a fantastic project that culminated in this excellent report on the health of some of the streams in the watershed.

Link to the updated Paddlers Guide to the Connoquenessing by CWA founding member Bruce Kemp.

Paddlers Guide to the Connoquenessing

This year’s Thorn Creek Habitat Improvement Project wrapped up on Sunday, August 4, 2019 with the planting of 200 live stakes of native riparian shrub species on the newly installed habitat devices. During the two week construction period, work crews from the CWA, PA Fish and Boat Commission, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, CN Railroad, Penn Township, and Phil Hay and Sons Excavating installed over 1400 feet of instream habitat devices. These devices included 25 sections of mud sill, 3 root wad deflectors, 7 log frame deflectors and a log cross vane. All of these devices will serve to stabilize the stream bank, provide overhead cover, and move pressure from the primary water current away from eroding stream banks.

The next phase of the CWA’s Stream Habitat Improvement Project will begin on Monday, July 22, 2019 and will last approximately two weeks. During this time, over 1200 feet of instream habitat improvements will be constructed on Thorn Creek in Penn Township just east of the Route 8 bridge. Stop by and see how we are working to improve the watershed!