BirdTrout

Oswegatchie River Watershed, New York

2,609 miles of mapped stream across 1,050 square miles of drainage in St. Lawrence, Lewis, Herkimer, Jefferson counties, in 100 named streams. New York designates 343 of those miles as trout water, on 65 streams.

Open in BirdTrout
Map key
Public land — where the bank is open to walk and fish
USGS gauge — live water temperature
Water temperature — the colour of every stream in the basin

50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands the app paints. On this map the colour is NYSDEC's own classification of the stream, not a measurement, except at the gauge dots, which read live. Grey is water NYSDEC has not typed.

The watershed in numbers

HUC8 04290003 in the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset. Every figure below adds up the river pages in this basin — same records, one basin at a time.

2,609 mi
of mapped stream
9,069 NHD reaches
1,050 sq mi
drainage area
672,083 acres
202,574 ac
public land
30.1% of the basin · 19 units

Cold, cool and warm water

NYSDEC classifies every surface water in New York under 6 NYCRR Parts 800-941, and the class is a best usage — what the water is protected for — rather than a temperature. The temperature statement is the (T) or (TS) suffix beside it: the water DEC designates for trout, or for trout spawning, which 6 NYCRR 704.2(b) protects with a 70 °F ceiling on any discharge. That suffix is what this page counts and what the map paints by; the class letter is printed beside it and is not a thermal grade. It covers 23% of this basin's stream miles (601.7 of 2,609); the rest is untyped and is drawn grey on the map above.

601.7 of the 601.7 typed miles in this basin — 100% — are cold or cold-transitional water. Every typed reach carries the same class, which is as likely to be the coverage as the water: NYSDEC has typed 23% of it.

Every named stream in the basin

All 100 of them, longest first. 4 have a page of their own and are linked; the rest are in the app. The class column is NYSDEC's designation of that stream. "Now" is the live USGS reading where a gauge stands in that stream.

Stream Miles Class Now Designation
Oswegatchie River 153.1 Cold — Class A — drinking water source, Class C — fishing
West Branch Oswegatchie River 66.7 Cold — Class C — fishing
Middle Branch Oswegatchie River 46.0 Cold — Class C — fishing
Little River 26.7 Cold — Class C — fishing
Beaver Creek 26.0 untyped — —
Sawyer Creek 20.9 Cold — Class C — fishing
Matoon Creek 17.0 untyped — —
Indian Creek 15.2 untyped — —
Stammer Creek 13.9 Cold — Class C — fishing
Boland Creek 12.4 untyped — —
Greenwood Creek 11.9 Cold — Class C — fishing
Cook Creek 10.8 untyped — —
Cold Spring Creek 10.1 Cold — Class C — fishing
Yellow Creek 9.9 Cold — Class C — fishing
South Creek 9.9 Cold — Class A — drinking water source, Class C — fishing
White Creek 9.9 untyped — —
Big Creek 9.8 Cold — Class C — fishing
Vrooman Creek 9.5 untyped — —
Shingle Creek 9.2 untyped — —
Brandy Brook 9.0 Cold — Class A — drinking water source, Class C — fishing
Barter Creek 8.9 untyped — —
Skate Creek 8.8 Cold — Class C — fishing
Sixmile Creek 8.8 Cold — Class A — drinking water source
Lisbon Creek 8.8 untyped — —
Fish Creek 8.7 Cold — Class C — fishing
Gulf Stream 8.6 Cold — Class C — fishing
Malterna Creek 8.5 untyped — —
Browns Creek 8.4 Cold — Class C — fishing
Tamarack Creek 8.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
South Branch Beaver Creek 8.0 untyped — —
Paddy Brown Brook 7.9 Cold — Class C — fishing
Gulf Creek 7.6 untyped — —
Palmer Creek 7.4 Cold — Class C — fishing
Anderson Creek 7.4 untyped — —
Jenny Creek 6.7 Cold — Class C — fishing
Turnpike Creek 6.6 Cold — Class C — fishing
East Creek 6.4 Cold — Class A — drinking water source
Robinson River 6.3 untyped — —
Blanchard Creek 6.2 Cold — Class C — fishing
Pork Creek 6.1 untyped — —
Sucker Brook 6.0 Cold — Class A — drinking water source, Class C — fishing
Chair Rock Creek 6.0 Cold — Class A — drinking water source
Glasby Creek 5.9 Cold — Class C — fishing
Wolf Pond Outlet 5.9 Cold — Class C — fishing
Hogs Back Creek 5.8 Cold — Class C — fishing
Hawkins Creek 5.8 untyped — —
Merrill Creek 5.8 untyped — —
Trout Lake Creek 5.4 Cold — Class C — fishing
Meadow Brook 5.4 untyped — —
Toothaker Creek 5.4 Cold — Class C — fishing
Mink Creek 5.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
Church Brook 5.3 untyped — —
Peavine Creek 5.2 Cold — Class A — drinking water source, Class C — fishing
Bonney Creek 5.2 untyped — —
Wolf Creek 4.7 Cold — Class C — fishing
Scuttle Hole Creek 4.2 Cold — Class C — fishing
Desert Creek 3.9 Cold — Class C — fishing
Island Branch 3.9 untyped — —
Little Otter Pond Outlet 3.8 Cold — Class C — fishing
Alice Brook 3.8 untyped — —
Robinson Creek 3.7 untyped — —
Blue Swamp Creek 3.6 Cold — Class C — fishing
Shaw Brook 3.5 Cold — Class C — fishing
Elijah Creek 3.5 Cold — Class C — fishing
Welch Creek 3.4 Cold — Class C — fishing
Bassetts Creek 3.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
Mott Creek 3.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
Hall Creek 3.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
Bennett Brook 3.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
Mullins Marsh Creek 3.2 untyped — —
Moncrief Creek 3.2 Cold — Class C — fishing
Black Creek 3.2 Cold — Class C — fishing
Clear Creek 3.1 Cold — Class C — fishing
Tooley Pond Outlet 3.0 Cold — Class A — drinking water source
Pins Creek 2.9 Cold — Class C — fishing
Mud Creek 2.7 untyped — —
Panther Creek 2.5 Cold — Class C — fishing
Pine Creek 2.5 Cold — Class C — fishing
Burning Creek 2.4 Cold — Class C — fishing
Silver Dawn Creek 2.4 Cold — Class C — fishing
Streeter Lake Outlet 2.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
Massawepie Creek 2.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
Buckhorn Creek 2.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
Kimball Creek 2.3 untyped — —
Bowman Creek 2.3 untyped — —
Thomas Brook 2.3 Cold — Class A — drinking water source, Class C — fishing
Birch Brook 2.3 untyped — —
Buck Brook 2.2 Cold — Class C — fishing
Sand Lake Outlet 2.2 Cold — Class C — fishing
Dead Creek 2.1 untyped — —
Twin Lake Stream 2.1 Cold — Class C — fishing
Oswegatchie Creek 1.8 Cold — Class C — fishing
Compos Creek 1.5 untyped — —
Hammer Creek 1.4 untyped — —
Coyer Creek 1.4 Cold — Class C — fishing
Lees Creek 1.3 Cold — Class C — fishing
Sitz Creek 1.2 untyped — —
Cage Lake Outlet 1.1 untyped — —
Compo Creek 1.1 Cold — Class C — fishing
Indian River 0.0 untyped — —

Public land in the watershed

202,574 acres in 19 units, which is 30.1% of the 672,083 acres the basin covers. Private inholdings carried in the same source file are excluded, here and on the map.

Managing agency Acres Share Units
State conservation department 201,691 100% 17
City and township land 579 0% 1
County land 304 0% 1

The biggest named blocks of it, each with its own page — the streams on that ground, what is open to hunt on it, and where the access sites are.

Neighbouring watersheds

The subbasins that share a boundary with this one and carry coldwater streams.