Section 1. The Watershed Today

COMMUNITY AND RIVER CONSERVATION PLANNING
In the Schuylkill watershed and throughout Pennsylvania, individual municipalities are responsible for land-use planning and decision-making. While capable of making good decisions within their own jurisdictions, it is difficult for municipalities to consider watershed and other concerns beyond their own boundaries. Recent changes in Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code provide more tools and incentives for coordinated inter-municipal planning and zoning, thereby allowing them to consider the watershed impacts of their land-use decisions. However, with more than 235 municipalities in the watershed, this is not an easy task. Therefore, watershed planning initiatives extending beyond municipal and county boundaries are critical to the future of the Schuylkill watershed.

In 2001, with funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and The William Penn Foundation, a team of nonprofit organizations completed a river conservation plan for the entire Schuylkill watershed. Led by The Conservation Fund, Natural Lands Trust and The Patrick Center for Environmental Resources, the plan summarizes conditions and trends, identifies major issues and presents broad recommendations for watershed protection (see www.schuylkillplan.org for more details). DCNR has also provided the stimulus and funding for other river conservation plans for a number of Schuylkill tributaries. Nonprofit organizations have played important roles in those efforts.

 

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Site Design: Tevlin & Clarke

Figure 6.
1990-2000 Population Change,
by Municipality
Source: 2000 U.S. Census

 

Schuylkill Tributaries with River Conservation Plans Listed in the River Conservation Registry

• Tulpehocken Creek and Cacoosing Creek 1996
• French and Pickering Creeks 1998
• Wissahickon Creek 2000
• Schuylkill River Basin 2001
• Tulpehocken Creek Watershed 2001

Source: Pennsylvania River Conservation Registry, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation, DCNR. November 2001.

NOTE: Many other river conservation plans have been completed or are in progress for tributaries such as Manatawny Creek, Pigeon Creek, Stony Run Creek, Upper Perkiomen Creek, Perkiomen Creek and Maiden Creek, but they had not been added to the Registry as of November 2001.