The Elk Creeks Watershed Association
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The Elk Creeks watershed has benefited from the actions of a number of individuals, conservation groups and agencies seeking to maintain the quality of soil, vegetation and water that form the basis of the local environment. In general, the watershed is fairly well-studied but lacks public awareness and involvement in issues related to watershed quality. The watershed is also under-represented by public and private land conservation efforts and best management practices for agriculture and forestry. The Elk Creeks Watershed Conservation Plan provides an opportunity to recognize these efforts and to identify conservation actions for the future. The Elk Creeks watershed is at a turning point in its history. From Cochranville to Oxford, and New London to the state line at Fair Hill, the centuries-old pattern of productive, family-owned farms, densely forested stream valleys, historic villages, hamlets and churches is gradually giving way to a new land use pattern - one of shopping centers, convenience stores, residential subdivisions, retirement communities, and the utilities, roads and other infrastructure required to service this new pattern. Over the past 20 years, the population living in the Elk Creeks Watershed has grown by 50%, from 20,197 to 30, 350 residents. This is more growth than the watershed has experienced in the last 300 years, and it raises some critical questions about the quality of life for local residents. Over the next 20 years this rate of growth is expected to increase, with more and more people and businesses moving to the far reaches of suburban Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Newark. The question facing communities throughout the watershed is this: how can this growth be accommodated in a way that maintains the health and quality of the land and water on which all residents depend? Will the Elk Creeks watershed lose its high quality streams, its clean, plentiful groundwater, its productive farmland, and its rich forests to an unbroken wave of suburban development? Or can the 10 communities that make up the watershed work together to guide new development to fit the landscape and to make sure that the Elk Creek and its environs remains as desirable a place to live in the future as it is today? The
sprawling pattern of land development presents a scope of impacts to land and
water that reaches well beyond the boundaries of each municipality.
The Elk Creeks Watershed Conservation Plan (the Plan) defines, for the
first time, the current condition of land use and water resources at the
watershed scale, and shapes a vision for managing growth while sustaining the
natural and agricultural environment that defines the Elk Creek watershed. The
Plan evaluates the need for protecting and restoring the most important lands
and waterways and provides strategies for municipalities and landowners to play
a vital role in balancing development and conservation in the watershed.
Click here to view a map of the Elk Creeks Watershed
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For problems or questions regarding this web contact [ecwa@elkwatershed.org].
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