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Saranac River, New York

14.9 mapped river miles, draining 604 square miles, in the Saranac River basin watershed.

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Map key
Public land — where the bank is open to walk and fish
USGS gauge — live water temperature
Water temperature — the colour of the river, and of every dot on it

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.

Thermal classification

There is no USGS gauge within 40 miles of this stream in the record this site holds, so there is no live temperature on this page and no measured July mean. Everything below the bar is NYSDEC's own classification of the water.

NYSDEC's classification of this water, reach by reach. It is the same classification the map paints from, and it is a class, not a temperature: no July mean appears on this page because none was measured on this water.

Reach Typed miles Band NYSDEC type
RM 14.9–0.0 50.8 cold —

NYSDEC has classified 50.8 of the 83 miles NHD carries for this stream — 62% 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.

NYSDEC classification

NYSDEC classifies this water as Class A — drinking water source, Class AA — drinking water source, 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 →

Public land on the river

6 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 2,017 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.

Unit Owner Acres
Saranac River — Public Fishing Rights Easement NYSDEC 252
City Of Plattsburgh Land city land 1,638
Imperial Mills Dam state conservation department 7
Macdonough Park city land 2
Town Of Schuyler Falls Land city land 116
Champlain Park city land 1

Tributaries and watershed

1 named stream meets this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.

Saranac River sits in HUC 8 04300106, the Saranac River basin, and drains 604 square miles, Strahler order 6 at the mouth. 168 NHD reaches carry the name for 82.6 miles in total — more than the 14.9 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.