3.   3.  The River and its Watershed 

The Lackawanna River flows for nearly sixty- (60) miles through a 350-square-mile watershed in the four counties in Northeastern Pennsylvania to its confluence with the North Branch Susquehanna River at Coxton near Pittston, Pennsylvania.  The Lackawanna rises in a series of glacial ponds and wetland bogs along the border areas of Wayne and Susquehanna counties in the glaciated plateau province of the Appalachian Mountains.

The source ponds and bogs lay in an arc approximately twelve miles to the northwest north and northeast of Forest City, Susquehanna County.  The source ponds of the West Branch Lackawanna River are Sink Hole Swamp, Lake Romobe, Ball Lake, Hathaway Lake, Fiddle Lake, Lowe Lake and Lewis Lake.  The East Branch Lackawanna River source ponds are:  Bone Pond, Independent Lake, Dunns Pond, Mud Pond, Lake Lorain, and Orson Pond.

The east and west branches of flow together at Stillwater Dam, a flood control dam constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1960 located one mile south of Union Dale along PA Route 171.  After flowing through Stillwater Dam and Old Stillwater Lake, a water supply reservoir, the river flows through Stillwater Cliffs, the Lackawanna Water Gap, and begins its thirty-nine-mile course through the Lackawanna Valley to the North Branch confluence at Pittston.

The Lackawanna Valley is the northern-most portion of the Appalachian Ridge and Valley province.  It also forms the northern half of the Lackawanna/Wyoming Syncline, a large geo-synclinal fold in the Allegheny front range which doubles back on itself to form the east and west rims of the synclinal valley. 

The confluence of the Lackawanna and North Branch Susquehanna rivers occurs at the midpoint in the fifty-five-mile long Lackawanna / Wyoming Valley. The Susquehanna River enters the valley through a water gap marked by a cut in the western rim of the syncline.  The cut creates an escarpment known as Campbell’s Ledge, which is located three-quarters of a mile north of the river confluence. 

In addition to the headwaters source ponds, several large tributary streams of the Lackawanna rise on the plateau and flow into the synclinal valley through water gaps.  Leggetts Creek rises to the west near Clarks Summit and flows through Leggetts Gap also known as The Notch in the West Mountain.  Rush Brook in Jermyn and Fall Brook in Carbondale also rise on the Allegheny Plateau to the west of the valley and flow through Rushbrook Gap and Fall Brook Gap in the West Mountain which is also known as the Lackawanna Range. 

Roaring Brook, the Lackawanna’s largest tributary rises on the Pocono Plateau along the Lackawanna, Wayne county boarder immediately west of the headwaters of the Lehigh River.  Roaring Brook flows west through Cobbs Gap in the Moosic Mountains. 

Stafford Meadow Brook and Spring Brook also rise on the Pocono Plateau and flow west through the Moosic Mountains into the Lackawanna Valley.  

The balance of Lackawanna’s tributary steams rise in springs, seeps and wetland bogs along the flanks of the West and Moosic mountain ranges. 

The Lackawanna flows for thirty-nine (39) miles from Stillwater Dam passing through Forest City, Clinton Township, Vandling, Fell, Carbondale Township and City, Mayfield, Jermyn, Archbald, Jessup, Blakely, Olyphant, Throop, Dickson City, Scranton, Taylor, Old Forge, Moosic, Duryea, and Pittston where it joins the North Branch Susquehanna River. 

3.1  Soils and Geology 

The perennial base flow of the Lackawanna is relative to hydro-geologic interactions, soil conditions and the climatic precipitation cycles in the northern Appalachian region.  The glaciated features such as the swamps, bogs, ponds and lakes at the headwaters of the river and tributary streams serve as reservoirs interrelated to regional groundwater flows.  The geological conditions and soils of the Lackawanna watershed influence the quality of ground water as well as its quantity. 

Much of the river’s flow from the glacial wetlands and ponds is recharged from groundwater stored in deposits of glacial till (boulders, cobble stones, sand and gravel deposits) and in faults and fissures in sandstone and shale strata.  The ground water is recharged by percolation of rain and snowfall from rocky less permeable soils in upland areas along the Moosic and West mountains and along the Allegheny/Pocono plateaus.  Groundwater flows along the river and lower reaches of many tributary streams are also impacted by the manmade conditions of the flooded subterranean abandoned mine network which underlies the Lackawanna and Wyoming valley as well as the enormous quantities of mine refuse, overburden piles and stripping pits forming significant surface features in the valley. 

The periodic glaciations that occurred during the past 500,000 years has influenced the surface hydrologic conditions and some of the stream flow patterns of the Lackawanna Valley.  The presence of anthracite coal along the main portion of the Lackawanna Watershed is a much older legacy, dating back 300-million years in geologic time to the Paleozoic era.  Continental drift and plate tectonics created a repetitive pattern of mountain building, rising and lowering of sea beds and the emergence and disappearance of vast Everglade-like swamps. 

The vegetation of these swamps built up layers of decaying organic material or peat which was successively covered with sediments as oceans rose to submerge the swamp.  After 150 to 200-million years of this repetitive process, the area of Northeast Pennsylvania was subject to the tectonic plate movements which created the Appalachian Mountains.  The mountain orogeny caused tremendous physical pressures on the coal deposits of Northeast Pennsylvania driving out volatile organic compounds and increasing the carbonization of the coals.  This resulted in the creation of anthracite, the hardest of all coals. 

The mountain orogeny also created the unique landform which dominates the watersheds topography, the Lackawanna Syncline.  The mountain building resulted in the uplifting of the Allegheny Plateau and the folding of the Ridge and Valley province.  The Lackawanna syncline forms the Lackawanna and Wyoming valleys.  While the valleys have separate names they are actually the southern (Wyoming) and northern (Lackawanna) portions of the syncline.  The syncline is formed of convex folded rock strata similar in some ways to the bottom or trough portion of a wave.  The crest portions of the wave known as anticlines have eroded away from the ridgelines on the east and west of the valley. 

There is an anticline feature which lies under the base of the syncline and perpendicular  to its axis.  Known as the Moosic Anticline it is evident by its crest of sandstone rocks visible in the riverbed at Old Forge and at Campbell’s Ledge on the ridgeline above the Lackawanna Susquehanna Confluence.  This feature roughly along the Lackawanna-Luzerne County border also serves to divide the valley into its two parts. 

The anthracite coals are contained in the Llewellyn formation which consists of alternate layers of sedimentary rocks: sandstone, shale, coal.  The Llewellyn formation is underlain by the Pottsville, Mauch Chunk, Pocono and Catskill formations.  The Pottsville contains coal, shale, sandstone and conglomerate.  The Mauch Chunk is characterized by reddish sandstones and shales.  The Pocono formation is composed of very dense sandstones and conglomerates.  The Pocono formation outcrops along the ridge tops of the Moosic and West mountain ranges and is underlain with Catskill sandstones and shale.   The Catskill formation predominates on the outer perimeter of the watershed to the Pocono Plateau in the east and the Endless Mountains / Allegheny plateau to the north and west. 

Water gaps form some significant visual and topographic features and act as gateways to the valley.  Some of the water gaps are: 

·       The Lackawanna Water Gap at Stillwater Cliffs north of Forest City, this gap is the point of entry of the upper Lackawanna River into the synclinal portion of the watershed. 

·       Cobbs Gap in the Moosic Mountain allows passage of Roaring Brook from its headwaters on the Pocono Plateau to its confluence with the River in Scranton.

·       The Notch or Leggetts Gap allows passage of Leggetts Creek through the West Mountain to its confluence with the river in North Scranton.

·       Campbells Ledge or the Susquehanna Water Gap allows the passage of the North Branch Susquehanna River into the syncline Wyoming Valley just upstream of the Lackawanna River confluence. 

The geologic boundary of the Llewellyn and Pocono/Pottsville formations runs roughly at about 1500' elevation along the east and west flanks of the valley.  Many of the Lackawanna tributary streams have created waterfalls, serpentine rock cuts and ravines at these geologic intersections.  Some better known waterfall sites are Nay Aug Falls and Gorge on Roaring Brook in Scranton, Fallbrook in Carbondale, Panthers Bluff in Simpson and Blakely Falls on Hull Creek. 

3.2  Flora and Fauna 

The Lackawanna watershed supports a diverse temperate mixed forest with a variety of habitats influenced by location, elevation, soils and human impacts.  The watershed provides opportunities for both northern and southern forest communities.  The forest is in a secondary succession with virtually all of the native forest cut for lumber during the 19th Century. 

The forest communities transition from southern with mixed oak (chestnut) to northern with maple, ash and hickory.  Some representatives of arctic and boreal communities are also present due to elevation and soils. 

Appalachian heath barrens along the Moosic and West mountain ranges are influenced by shallow soils and wind exposure.  Scrub oak, pitch pine communities thin out to acidic rocky summit communities hosting sedges and lichens.  Wetlands in the Roaring Brook and Spring Brook watersheds and in the headwaters of the Lackawanna provide habitat for some boreal forest trees such as tamarack, black spruce, and paper birch.  The wetlands also contain some bogs with a variety of plants such as pitcher plant, lady’s slipper, leather leaf, rhododendron, huckleberry and mountain laurel. 

The watershed habitat supports a variety of game and non-game aquatic, terrestrial and avian fauna. 

Common mammals are white-tale deer, black bear, raccoon, fox; mink, beaver and muskrat are numerous along the river and tributary streams.  There have been several reported sightings of river otter in the Lackawanna. 

The river corridor provides habitat for numerous waterfowl with mallard, black and wood ducks being the most commonly sighted ducks.  Great blue heron, green backed heron, and belted kingfisher are regularly seen.  Osprey, barred owl, red tail hawk, coopers hawk and sharp shinned hawk are also found in the watershed.  The Lackawanna watershed is part of the Atlantic Flyway and hosts numerous migratory species with the river corridor and wetlands being important to water fowl migrations while the ridgelines of the West and Moosic ranges are important migration corridors for both raptors and neo-tropical migratory song birds. 

The fishery of the Lackawanna provides a classic habitat for trout.  The Lackawanna was noted historically as a fishery for brook trout.  The river and its fishery habitat were nearly completely destroyed by 150-years of anthracite mining.  During the past thirty years, the river has recovered and the brook trout have reestablished.  The native brook trout, common to the river and many of its tributaries, have been displaced by the introduced brown trout as the indicator species in the main steam of the Lackawanna as well as the east and west branches and the larger tributary streams. 

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission classifies a 12-mile reach of the Lackawanna from Lackawanna Avenue in Olyphant to Fallbrook in Carbondale as a Class “A” fishery for trout.   This classification is based on a fishery study in 1992, which noted a reproducing population of brown trout and brook trout in the 12-mile reach. 

According to the fishery study the river begins a transition from a predominantly coldwater fishery to a warm water fishery at the border between the Boroughs of Throop, Dickson City, and the City of Scranton, River mile 15 and the site where Interstate 81 crosses the Lackawanna. 

Other fish common in the Lackawanna include a variety of darters and dace, small mouth bass, sunfish, crappies, carp and suckers. 

Several studies including two conducted by the Lackawanna River Corridor Association have shown that the fishery and aquatic habitat become completely degraded in the lower three miles between the Old Forge Bore Hole and the confluence. Acid and metals loading and disposition from the borehole’s 100-million gpd acid mine drainage flow are largely responsible for the loss of fishery, aquatic habitat and water quality in the lower Lackawanna. 

The Lackawanna watershed also provides habitat for a variety of amphibians such as spotted salamanders and green frogs; common reptiles are rattlesnake and snapping turtle. 

A Natural Areas Inventory of Lackawanna County was completed by the Nature Conservancy’s Pennsylvania Science Office in 1997.  This inventory identified over forty important and relatively intact natural areas ranging in size from the 6,000-acre Moosic Mountain Barrens, a ridge top dwarf tree and acidic mountain bald community to Bear Swamp, a broadleaf conifer swamp with several species of special concern.   Lackawanna County has initiated an open space study to develop management programs involving property owners, public and private conservation agencies with the long-term protection of natural habitat and open space lands.

In the upper Lackawanna watershed important natural areas have been identified in the vicinity of Mountain Mud Pond and Dunns Pond along the east branch and at Panther Bluff Creek. 

3.3  Socio-Economics and Cultural History 

The earliest human evidence in the Lackawanna watershed has been documented by the Frances Dorrance Chapter of the Pennsylvania Society of Archeology.  A dig site at the confluence of the Lackawanna and Susquehanna has produced artifacts from the pre contact Woodlands period 800 to 1400 A.D. to the Archaic 9000 B.C.  There have been other documented discoveries along the ridgelines of the valley at sites known as rock shelters.  These sites provided migratory shelter for hunting gathering groups during many prehistoric periods.  Careful investigation is suggested at undeveloped wooded sites along the watershed to determine any potential for archeological values. 

Due to the development of towns and mining sites along the floor of the Lackawanna Valley, the integrity of most of the built-up area for archeological value has been destroyed.  Horrace Holister in his seminal 1857 History of the Lackawanna Valley relates the discovery and despoliation of Lenape gravesites in the vicinity of the Tripp Homestead in Scranton.  He speculates that one of the plundered graves was that of Capouse, the Lenape Chieftain visited by the Morravian Missionary, Count Zinzandorf along Capouse Meadows on the banks of the Lackawanna in 1750.  Other evidence of past contact Native American presence was the discovery of a ca 1675 dugout canoe in Lake Quinn, Wayne County in 1996.  This site is east of the Moosic Mountain in the Wallenpaupack watershed. 

The historic record also contains the heritage of Native American paths and trails.  The Susquehanna Warrior path followed the Susquehanna from the Chesapeake to the Finger Lakes region.  The Lackawanna path and the Oquaqa path were a short cut up the valley to the Lake Otsego headwaters of the Susquehanna at present day Cooperstown, New York.  The Minisink Trail lead from the upper Delaware River along the Wallenpaupack and over Moosic Mountain into the Lackawanna and Wyoming valleys. The Minisink was later the route of Connecticut settlers who developed it into a wagon road known as the Connecticut Road.  Traces of this road are evident on Moosic Mountain today as jeep trails. 

The region was settled by people from Connecticut and the Philadelphia region between the 1760's and 1780's.  These groups fought skirmishes with one another and with Lenape and Iroquois groups during the period.  The conflicts known as the Yankee-Pennamite wars were related to conflicting land claims and sovereignty based on Royal Charters granted by English King Charles II.  These conflicts were resolved by 1787 and Connecticut relinquished its claims.  The settlers were given land title under Pennsylvania law and Luzerne County was erected. 

An important battle occurred in the valley during the American Revolution.  In July 1777 a war party of approximately 800 Loyalist Tories and 1200 Iroquois moved down river from New York and besieged the Wyoming Valley farms and settlements at Wilkes-Barre, Forty Fort and Pittston.  The war party lured the settlers’ militia out of Forty Fort and routed them along the flood plain of the Susquehanna.  After defeating this group, the party defeated other settlers in forts and blockhouses.  There was a great loss of life from savage beatings and torture subsequent to the battle.  Several hundred settlers escaped by fleeing through the Pocono Mountains to Stroudsburg and Easton or downriver to Fort Augusta at Sunbury. 

The Continental Congress commissioned John Sullivan to conduct a punitive campaign the following year.   Sullivan’s Army built a roadway through the Poconos from Easton to Wilkes-Barre and transported weapons and supplies to mount an attack up the Susquehanna and into the Finger Lakes region, the Heartland of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy.

After successive battles, Sullivan’s Army defeated the Iroquois as a fighting force and laid waste to their villages and crops.  Many Iroquois fled to the safety of British protection past the Niagara frontier.  The removal of the Iroquois as a political-military presence on the Pennsylvania - New York frontier was a strategic victory in our nation’s war of independence.  That victory had its impetus in the Lackawanna Wyoming watershed. 

Following the Revolutionary War, the region developed primarily with an agricultural economy.  Economic development was hindered by the difficulties of transportation through the mountains between the valley and coastal settlements.  The presence of anthracite coal began to attract the attention of capitalist entrepreneurs after the War of 1812.  By the 1820's, anthracite coal became recognized as both an industrial and domestic fuel, more economical and practical in its uses than wood or charcoals. 

The area’s rivers became avenues of commerce, coal was shipped down the Lackawanna and Susquehanna or taken in ox carts to the Lackawaxen, Lehigh and Delaware rivers.  The Wurts Brothers led the formation of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company in the 1820's to access coal in the northern Lackawanna Valley and ship it to ports of New York.  The D&H Canal ran from the Hudson River at Kingston up the Shawngunk Valley to the Delaware River and up the Delaware and Lackawaxen rivers to Honesdale.  Due to the impracticality of building a canal over the 2,200' high Moosic Mountain, the D&H developed an ingenious gravity railroad using stationary steam engines, hoisting cables and inclined planes to transport coal wagons over the Moosic Mountain from Carbondale on the Lackawanna River to Honesdale at the head of the D&H Canal along the Lackawaxen River. 

This began a 150-year industrial legacy of resource exploitation in the Lackawanna Valley.  As the Wurts brothers’ D&H enterprises expanded down the valley in the 1840's, the Town of Carbondale grew as an urban industrial center.  By 1840 the older towns down valley which dated to the Connecticut settlement, Providence, Hyde Park and Slocum Hollow began to grow as transportation improvements advanced commercial opportunities. 

The Scranton and Platt group of iron makers established an iron works industry at the Slocum Brothers Mill on Roaring Brook a half-mile above its confluence with the Lackawanna in 1838.  After several difficult years, they secured a contract to produce Iron “T” rail for the New York and Lake Erie Railroad in 1846.  This advanced the industrial urban development of the valley as the iron works at Slocum Hollow grew to become the City of Scranton. 

The Scranton Brothers and other investors developed the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1852.  The DL&W provided an alternative means of transportation which further accelerated the valley’s development.  Later the Pennsylvania Coal Company developed a gravity rail connection to the D&H Canal at Hawley and the Susquehanna Canal at Pittston.  

The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad connected with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company also entered the valley in search of coal mining opportunities.  The Erie railroad had several routes into the Lackawanna Valley, these included the Erie and Wyoming Valley Railroad which resulted from a merger with the Pennsylvania Coal Company Gravity Railroad.  This route followed Roaring Brook.  The Jefferson Branch of the Erie followed the Lackawanna River north from Carbondale to Lanesboro in 1869, leaving the watershed as it crossed Ararat Summit. 

The New York, Ontario and Western Railway was the last railroad to develop a route into the Lackawanna Valley in 1890.  The O&W paralleled the Lackawanna River from Scranton to Union Dale.  Its gateway to the watershed was near Lake Lorain at the east branch Lackawanna headwaters. 

The demand for anthracite coal as a primary fuel accelerated as America under went the industrial revolution in the mid 19th Century.  Coal mining activities increased at a feverish pace in the watershed.  Coal, iron and rail industries were intertwined along the valley even as they competed for markets.  The impacts of the infrastructure and coal mining process caused a tremendous amount of ecological, geological and hydrological damage to the watershed.  This damage expanded with the advent of strip mining and wet process coal preparation in the early to mid 20th Century (see Appendix B). 

The production of anthracite coal peaked in 1918.  The human population of the region which had grown exponentially with large European migration in the 19th Century peaked in the 1920's. 

The human population of the Lackawanna Valley evolved into a diverse spectrum of ethnic, cultural and religious groups.  English, Welsh, Irish and German were the predominant early migration groups with Southern and Eastern European groups arriving in large numbers between the 1880's and 1920's. 

The conflicts between industrialists and the working classes in the anthracite region contributed to the evolution of the American Labor Movement.  These conflicts helped to institutionalize and legitimize collective bargaining agreements.  By the 1920's through numerous strikes in the previous fifty years, regional coal and rail workers had finally achieved a reasonable standard of living. 

The economy was still dominated by anthracite mining with silk and textile industries forming the largest alternative industry.  Iron and steel making ended in Scranton in 1902 with the transfer of the Lackawanna steel works to Buffalo, New York under the ownership of the Bethlehem Steel Company. 

The Great Depression of 1929-1940 had a profound effect on the regional economy.  The market for anthracite coal began to diminish along with employment in the mining and rail industries.  Strip mining become a more common practice as underground mining became more expensive to conduct.

Social dislocations became endemic as workers left the region for better and safer employment opportunities with manufacturing industries in nearby states. 

The out-migration increased during and after World War II and remains evident into the 2000  Census as Lackawanna and Luzerne counties continue to loose population. 

The fuel dependence of the United States shifted away from coal to oil and natural gas after the Second World War.  By 1956, the costs of mining exceeded the price per ton of underground mined anthracite coal.   In 1959, the tragic Knox Mine Disaster occurred at Pittston, the Susquehanna River broke into the underground workings and flooded all deep mines in the Wyoming Valley.  On November 1, 1960 the Hudson, Moffat and Glen Alden operations ceased underground pumping in the Lackawanna Basin creating the northern anthracite mine pool between Old Forge and Carbondale. 

On November 1, 1966, the Continental Mine at the base of West Mountain was closed ending all underground mining in the Lackawanna Valley.  This mine is now open as the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour at McDade Park, operated by Lackawanna County. 

Marginal coal strip mining and culm bank reclamation projects have occurred from time to time since the 1960's.  Numerous Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation projects have been completed based in part on the Scar-Lift program of 1970. 

The legacy of mining has left many environmental scars.  Vast acreages of the valley are affected by strip mine overburden piles, pits and un-vegetated coal waste banks also known as culm dumps.  Over a dozen major acid mine drainage outfalls discharge between 1 and 150-million gallons per day into the river and tributary streams. 

The mining legacy has also provided the background for the growth of two large municipal waste landfills and related rock quarrying operations, Alliance in Taylor and Keystone in Dunmore.  These entities as part of the interstate waste disposal industry continue to influence the economic and cultural variables of the watershed and its human and natural communities.    

The regional transportation infrastructure has undergone significant changes in the 20th Century.  The extensive railroad network shrunk as coal shipments diminished.  The automobile and trucking  culture gradually over took rail as the publics transportation choice.  By 1970, the Phoebe Snow, the Lackawanna Railroads flagship streamline Pullman train between New York and Chicago was  history.  Contractors were hard at work pouring concrete and blasting mountainsides to complete the interstate highway system in Northeast Pennsylvania. 

The population of the Lackawanna Watershed in the year 2000 is estimated to be approximately 240,000 (based on 1990 projections for Lackawanna County and estimates for adjacent areas of Wayne, Susquehanna and Luzerne within the Lackawanna Watershed boundaries). 

Some significant employment statistics are as follows: *   

* Sources:  1990 Census Data, Pa Dept. Labor and Industry, Harris PA Industrial Directory, Scranton Times, Scranton Chamber of Commerce, Lackawanna River Corridor Association.  Some figures rounded to nearest hundred and updated with year 2000 estimates by LRCA staff.

The communities in Lackawanna Valley engendered their own recovery from the anthracite industry beginning in 1942 with the Scranton Plan.  Local chambers of commerce, business and local governments have cooperated to create an economic diversity of manufacturing, logistical and presently, high tech industries.  This economic growth has expanded at the beginning of the 21st Century with a larger role for the information industry and institutions of higher education.  The recently developed Great Valley Initiative promotes the area’s communications and technological infrastructure and quality of life issues such as small town values, open space-natural areas and recreational opportunities as a foundation for smart economic growth. 

The Lackawanna River Corridor Association (LRCA) and the Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority (LHVA) evolved in the 1990's to develop future oriented programs based on the cultural and environmental heritage of the watershed.  Educational and recreation programs tied to cultural tourism, environmental management technologies, and stewardship of natural and cultural resources are helping to preserve and recreate the regions environment and heritage.  The LRCA, LHVA and the Rail Trail Council of Northeast Pennsylvania (RTC) are working collaboratively to acquire abandoned rail corridors and develop pedestrian bicycle recreational trails along the Lackawanna River. 

The LRCA continues its work with the community to advance the stewardship of watershed and river corridor resources.  Many municipalities in Lackawanna County have comprehensive plans, zoning, land use and subdivision regulations, these include stream corridor building setbacks, flood plain ordinances and storm water management regulations.  In the upper Lackawanna watershed, Forest City Borough and Herrick Township in Susquehanna County have comprehensive zoning plans and regulations.  Few of the rural townships have comprehensive plans, relying instead on county plans and ordinances to regulate land use and development. 

The construction of the Governor Robert Casey (Lackawanna Valley Industrial) Highway between Interstate 81 and U.S. Route 6 in Carbondale between 1995 and 2000 brought federal and state funding to support updates of comprehensive plans and ordinances in twelve Lackawanna Valley municipalities.  With the participation of the Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission (LCRPC), the municipalities are working with planning consultants to develop a unified land use and subdivision program based on a transportation and land use planning process which involved diverse community interests.  The new ordinances and plans may help to promote reclamation of mining sites for infill redevelopment, the creation of greenway corridors and buffer zones along waterways and the conservation of natural areas.   

Subsequent development activities and proposals to extend sewer service into previously   undeveloped watershed lands and ridge top natural areas highlight concerns that planning and zoning alone cannot and will not protect essential watershed water quality and natural habitat values.  Recent involvement of land trusts and conservancies such as The Nature Conservancy may provide alternative and complimentary land management strategies to assist in maintaining a sustainable watershed habitat. 

As previously mentioned, a natural areas inventory was completed in Lackawanna County in 1997, Wayne County was surveyed in 1991.  Other natural areas and scenic or historic sites have been identified throughout the watershed by biologists, archeologists, property owners, conservation, civic and educational organizations.