22 Facts About Esopus Creek

The renewed Esopus Creek attracted the attention of fast-growing New York City, which was able to acquire land and build the reservoir and tunnel after overcoming local political opposition.

The lower Esopus Creek is mainly an aesthetic and ecological resource, although the estuary at Saugerties is a popular bass fishery.

Esopus Creek is usually discussed as an upper and lower stream divided by the reservoir.

South of the Portal, what is the "big" portion of the upper Esopus turns southeast after Broadstreet Hollow Creek, with one smaller northern channel remaining closer to the road while the larger southern one bends closer to the base of Garfield Mountain, forming another one-mile portion of the Slide Mountain Wilderness boundary; the two converge at a public parking lot used to put in canoes and kayaks.

Upper Esopus Creek watershed is rugged and 95 percent forested, with 58.

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Esopus Creek was one of three valleys that trees followed into the Catskills, as revegetation of the mountain slopes took place in the glaciers' wake.

Esopus Creek would be important to the area's early European colonization.

Settlement's location above the point where the Esopus Creek came out of the Catskills made it an ideal trading post for Indians responding to the European demand for beaver pelts to make the beaver hats then in vogue.

Bishop's Falls House, run by that family on the Esopus Creek near that feature, was a popular destination, expanded to accommodate 135 guests in 1905, earning the proprietors $3,000 that summer.

Anglers of the era who ventured into the Esopus Creek valley were advised by guidebooks and magazine articles touting the Catskills' trout populations to bypass the main stream in favor of the tributaries, since the Esopus Creek itself was generally too warm for brook trout, the favored species at that time, and still too polluted by runoff from the tanneries.

Esopus Creek's visit attracted much attention locally, with residents lining the Ulster and Delaware's rails to see him and huge crowds waiting to shake his hand at stations.

Residents in the Esopus Creek valley attempted to block the project, objecting to the dislocation the proposed reservoir would require, forcing out the population of seven hamlets and relocating the Ulster and Delaware.

In March 1980 the upper Esopus Creek flooded significantly for the first time in years following a heavy storm.

The Allaben gauge recorded its all-time heaviest flow of 21,700 cubic feet per second, whose recurrence interval was estimated to be 30 years, and the upper Esopus Creek experienced similar effects as it had in 1980, severely impacting the stream's brown trout population that year, since the species spawns in the spring.

Downstream of that reach, the Esopus did not cause the damage it had in 2005, which has been attributed to the reservoir holding the waters back; only near the Saw Kill and Plattekill Creek confluences was flooding severe.

Much of it outside the Esopus Bend Nature Preserve is private property; the portion near Saugerties has been open to the public only once a year when the Esopus Creek Conservancy held its annual Decks and Docks on the Esopus fundraiser.

From Tannery Brook to the Ashokan Reservoir dam, the Esopus Creek remains Class B, albeit slightly impacted, with equivalent weed growth in many portions.

From Allaben to Winnisook Lake the upper Esopus is class C water due to emissions from Pine Hill's wastewater treatment plant via Birch Creek.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency studied 25 sites along the Esopus Creek, and found that most sites were near the 50-year flood level.

In 2011 a study of the lower Esopus Creek found no significant effect on benthic macroinvertebrates at several points in the stream over the previous four years, the period when complaints about the turbidity caused by the reservoir releases began.

Upper and lower Esopus Creek have different conservation and management issues as a result of the reservoir's intervention.

Conservation and management efforts in the lower Esopus Creek are not as coordinated as they are in the upper stream, and there is no stream management plan.