Visiting White Clay Creek
The posted cordinates will take you to a foot bridge over the White Clay Creek in White Clay Creek State Park. There are parking coordinates (at end of Wedgewood Road) that is a fee area of the park ($4 in state, $8 out of state, March 1 to Nov 30—free in winter). The park is open from 8 am to sunset, although the gate may open around 7:30 am.
After viewing the Creek, continue across the bridge to the information kiosk for the Wild and Scenic River. To complete this Earth cache you will have to answer some questions (all answers found at the kiosk) and make some observations of the creek. Send answers to CO through GC.com and then log the cache.
Cache Requirements
Questions (See the info kiosk)
1. Which branch of the Creek flows through Avondale
2. How manys square miles of land encompass the White Clay creek watershed
3. What is the dominant agricultural product of the watershed
4. List two historical remnants in the watershed.
From the kiosk, walk upstream about 70 feet and take the trail that goes down to the river.
Observation #1 Old bridge abutments
Looking downstream toward the footbridge, you can see that the foot bridge used the old abutments of a road that went to the kiosk area. About 100 years ago there was a RR station in the area of the kiosk and this was a major access road. Since flooding was always a concern, the bridge seems excessive for the current flow. Estimate the width and height of the bridge that could withstand severe flooding
Observation #2 River flows
Now, look upstream at the river channel. Describe what happens when much higher river flows occur.
National Wild and Scenic Rivers
The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was an outgrowth of the recommendations of a Presidential commission, the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission. Among other things, the commission recommended that the nation protect wild rivers and scenic rivers from development that would substantially change their wild or scenic nature. The act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 2, 1968. A river or river section may be designated by the U.S. Congress or the Secretary of the Interior. A total of 156 rivers have wild and scenic status.
Selected rivers in the United States are preserved for possessing outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, or other similar values. Rivers, or sections of rivers, so designated are preserved in their free-flowing condition and are not dammed or otherwise impeded. National wild and scenic designation essentially vetoes the licensing of new hydropower projects on or directly affecting the river. It also provides very strong protection against bank and channel alterations that adversely affect river values, protects riverfront public lands from oil, gas and mineral development, and creates a federal reserved water right to protect flow-dependent values.
Designation as a wild and scenic river is not the same as a national park designation, and generally does not confer the same level of protection as a Wilderness Area designation. However, wild and scenic designation protects rivers and related resources even in non-federal areas, something the Wilderness Act and other federal designations cannot do.
Federally-administered National Wild and Scenic rivers are managed by one or more of the four principal land-managing agencies of the federal government. Of the 156 National Wild and Scenic Rivers, the most are managed by the U.S. Forest Service, followed by the National Park Service. Thirty-eight are managed under the Bureau of Land Management's National Landscape Conservation System while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages several rivers in Alaska.
Wild and scenic rivers are assigned one or more classifications: wild, scenic, or recreational. These classifications are based on the developmental character of the river on the date of designation. Wild rivers are the most remote and undeveloped while recreational rivers often have many access points, roads, railroads, and bridges. A river's classification is not related to the value(s) that made it worthy of designation and that must be protected and enhanced by the river manager. For instance, recreation may not be an outstanding value on a river with a recreational classification nor scenery on a river classified as scenic. Notably, wild and scenic rivers receive the same standard of protection regardless of classification.
White Clay Creek
In 1991, citizens of the White Clay Creek area requested that the creek and its tributaries be considered for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The White Clay Creek study represents the first time an entire watershed was studied for designation. In 2000, the White Clay Creek and several tributaries—including parts of the East Branch and all of West Branch, Pike and Mill Creeks, and Middle Run—were added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
The White Clay Creek Scenic & Recreational River flows through southwestern Chester County, Pennsylvania, and northwestern New Castle County, Delaware. The urban center of Newark, Delaware, is located in the southern end of the watershed.
The White Clay Creek watershed is an exceptional resource in the bi-state area, renowned for its scenery, opportunities for birdwatching and trout fishing, and for its historic features, such as lime kilns and 19th century mills. Other important resources include the federally listed endangered bog turtle, the most extensive mature Piedmont forests remaining in the state of Delaware, and the Cockeysville Marble Formation, an exceptional aquifer.
The watershed is an important source of drinking water for residents in both Pennsylvania and Delaware. Part of the Christina River Basin, White Clay Creek is a critical link to the Delaware Estuary, which is nationally and internationally important. Municipalities, counties, states and federal agencies, together with private organizations and landowners, participate in maintaining the high quality of the White Clay Creek watershed through a committee representing all watershed interests. A key principle of the administrative framework is that existing institutions and authorities will play the primary roles in the long-term protection of the watershed. Watershed residents are active stewards of the river area and must be especially vigilant due to environmental impacts from the proximity of the Philadelphia and Wilmington-Newark metropolitan areas. These impacts to the watershed include pollution, fewer migrating birds, and receding forests.
Classification/Mileage:
Scenic — 24.0 miles; Recreational — 166.0 miles; Total — 190.0 miles
