BirdTrout
Alder Creek, New York
5.2 mapped river miles, draining 6 square miles, in the East Branch Delaware basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 5.2 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is NYSDEC's classification of the water itself.
50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands, breaking at 58, 64 and 70°F, that the app paints. Grey is water nobody has measured.
The nearest live reading
The nearest gauge is 9.5 miles away, at Biscuit Bk Above Pigeon Bk At Frost Valley Ny — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today. A closer gauge has stopped reporting — it has sent no water temperature for 727 days, since 1 October 2024, so no number here comes from it.
Thermal classification
NYSDEC's classification of this water, reach by reach. A class, not a temperature — no July mean, because none was measured here.
| Reach | Typed miles | Band | NYSDEC type |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM 5.2–0.0 | 5.2 | cold | — |
NYSDEC has classified 5.2 of the 5.3 miles NHD carries for this stream — 99% of it. Every typed reach carries the same class, cold. The untyped reaches are not warm water — they are water NYSDEC's inventory does not reach, and the mile ranges above span only the reaches it does.
Questions about this river
- Alder Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- How to get to Alder Creek — access, parking and public land
- Alder Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
NYSDEC classification
NYSDEC classifies this water as Class B — swimming and contact recreation and Class C — fishing. More than one class appears because the classification changes along the river. The thermal bar above shows where. On those reaches DEC also designates it trout spawning waters, trout waters — which is the half of the classification that is about temperature, and the half this map paints by. The class is a designation of best usage under 6 NYCRR — what the water is protected for — and not the season and creel rules, which change yearly and live with the agency.
NYSDEC water quality classifications and standards →
Access
1 mapped NYSDEC access site within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Alder Lake At Hardenburgh (RM 2.5). 1 walk-in, 0 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 13,800 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Balsam Lake Mountain Wild Forest | state conservation department | 13,800 |
Species
NYSDEC designates this as trout water — Trout spawning waters, Trout waters — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.
Tributaries and watershed
1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
Alder Creek sits in HUC 8 02040102, the East Branch Delaware basin, and drains 6 square miles, Strahler order 3 at the mouth. 13 NHD reaches carry the name for 5.3 miles in total — more than the 5.2 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.