Fishkill Creek
Fishkill Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River in Dutchess County, New York, United States. At it is the second-longest stream in the county, after Wappinger Creek. It rises in the town of Union Vale and flows generally southwest to a small estuary on the Hudson just south of Beacon. Part of its watershed is in Putnam County to the south. Sprout Creek, the county's third-longest creek, is its most significant tributary. Whaley and Sylvan lakes and Beacon Reservoir, its largest, deepest and highest lakes, are among the bodies of water within the watershed.
While the creek is not impounded for use in any local water supply, it remains a focus of regional conservation efforts as a recreational and aesthetic resource, especially since the lower Fishkill watershed has been extensively developed in the last two decades. It flows through several local parks and is a popular trout stream. Industries and mills along it helped spur the settlement of the region.
Course
Clove and Sweezy brooks, themselves fed by tributaries named and unnamed draining the steep slopes on either side of the narrow upper Clove Valley in the town of Union Vale, drain the swamps of the valley into Pray Pond just north of the hamlet of Clove. Fishkill Creek is the pond's outflow.It follows Clove Valley Road closely at first, flowing almost due south alongside it, then swings westward into woods after receiving Christie Pond's outlet brook opposite Clove Cemetery. At a short loop in a swampy area where Bruzgul Road crosses twice, it receives another tributary, doubles back to the north around a hill to receive another one and then returns to its southward course to widen into McKinney Pond. Once it crosses Bruzgul Road again, it is in Tymor Park, Union Vale's major community center.
At the park's south end it flows into Furnace Pond, named for an iron mine that was once nearby, and then into the town of Beekman. It returns to the side of County Route 9, now Clove Valley Road, and crosses under the NY 55 state highway just west of its intersection with Route 9. As that road climbs the side of a hill, Fishkill Creek crosses to its east side.
It continues past Beekman's main park to the hamlet of Beekman, then is impounded into a new, unnamed lake near Green Haven Correctional Facility. Shortly afterwards it crosses into the town of East Fishkill. At the town line, south of the hamlet of Stormville, it receives the Whaley Lake outlet brook. It flows westerly through more woods and swamps to where it receives the Sylvan Lake outlet brook just east of the Taconic State Parkway. After crossing underneath, it parallels the parkway south on its west side, then turns west again and makes a northward bend around another hill to once again parallel County Route 9, now Beekman Road, for a short distance, then follows the hill's base to the south. From here it meanders under the Metro-North Beacon Line south of Hopewell Junction where it receives. It passes the Hopewell Recreation Center and then flows under NY 376.
It parallels another state road, NY 82, through a wooded, undeveloped area for several miles to where it receives its longest tributary, Sprout Creek, at the Fishkill town line. It widens into a series of large pools south of Brinckerhoff, at the foot of Honness Mountain where NY 52 crosses.
From here it flows more to the west-southwest, a wide stream paralleling Route 52 and the Beacon Line. It crosses under US 9 in a developed area just south of the village of Fishkill. It then turns to the southwest again and receives Clove Creek, a tributary that rises in Fahnestock State Park to the south and drains the Putnam County portion of the Fishkill watershed, just before it flows under Interstate 84.
Beyond the interstate it continues southwest alongside the base of the northern slopes of Fishkill Ridge, the northernmost end of the Hudson Highlands. It detours slightly to the north near Glenham and then resumes its southwesterly course as it flows into the city of Beacon, where it passes through the eastern section of the city in a narrow valley with the Beacon Line running along its shore. There are many rapids and waterfalls as it descends more sharply to the Hudson. Here it receives its last tributary, Dry Brook, which drains Beacon Reservoir on the ridgetop.
South of the Wolcott Avenue bridge, the shores become wooded again as it flows over Tioronda Dam and under the remains of Tioronda Bridge. Below here the creek's estuary opens up, and after being split by a small island it flows under a causeway carrying Metro-North's Hudson Line and empties into the Hudson south of Denning Point.
Watershed
Fishkill Creek's watershed is the second largest in Dutchess County after Wappinger Creek to the north. It includes almost the entire towns of Beekman and Union Vale, large portions of East Fishkill and Fishkill, sections of LaGrange and Wappinger and small areas in Pleasant Valley and Washington. The Whaley Lake basin, which also includes and Nuclear lakes, is in Pawling. In Putnam County the largest town represented is Philipstown, whose northwestern section drains into the Fishkill. A small portion is in Kent, with an even smaller portion in Putnam Valley marking the watershed's southernmost point.To the north is the Wappinger Creek watershed. The Ten Mile River basin, the only portion of New York that drains into the Housatonic River, is to the east. On the southeast are the headwaters of the Croton River, an important part of New York City's water supply, with smaller tributaries of the Hudson like Melzingah Brook and Surprise Brook rising on the southeast.
The creek's valley is mostly low-lying level land, with the exception of the area above its headwaters in Union Vale. Most of its descent takes place either in its uppermost 10 miles, above Poughquag, or its lowermost 5 miles, below the village of Fishkill, both stretches of which account for each of its total drop. The average elevation within the watershed is above sea level. To the south and east are hiller regions of the Taconic Mountains, part of the Highlands Province physiographic region of the Appalachian Mountains. The highest point in the Fishkill's watershed is South Beacon Mountain, also the highest peak of the Hudson Highlands, a few miles from the creek's estuary, which is almost at sea level. In Union Vale, near the creek's source, Clove Mountain rises to.
There are of tributaries within the watershed. The longest is Sprout Creek, which flows south from Millbrook to Hopewell Junction. Within the watershed, there are also around of ponds or lakes. The largest of these is Whaley Lake, at also the largest lake in the county. The next-largest lake in the watershed, Sylvan Lake, is the county's deepest.
Water bodies and wetlands cover about 9.8% of the total watershed area. Forests cover 50%, the largest land use category in it. Most are concentrated in the northern, eastern and southern extremes. Residential and agricultural uses account for 21% and 10% respectively. Residential use is heaviest along the lower Sprout Creek and the lower section of Fishkill Creek from Fishkill to Beacon. Agricultural use is most common on the fringes of the more developed areas near the streams.
There are many parks and protected areas within the watershed. The largest is Clarence Fahnestock State Park in Putnam County; however only a portion of that park is within the Fishkill Creek basin. The largest protected area entirely within the watershed is the Sharpe Reservation straddling the county line. The Fishkill Ridge Conservation Area, on that mountain, is the largest within the area open to the public. Publicly protected areas in the watershed include James Baird State Park off the Taconic Parkway and the Taconic-Hereford Multiple Use Area nearby. Union Vale's Tymor Park near the creek's source is the largest local park. The Innisfree Garden landscape in Pleasant Valley, near the north end of the watershed, is irrigated with water pumped from Tyrrell Lake. In addition, of the Appalachian Trail runs along the southern fringe of the watershed, much of it on other protected lands or corridor owned by the National Park Service.
Of the municipalities predominantly within the watershed, East Fishkill is the most populous, with more than 25,000 residents as of the 2000 census. The town and village of Fishkill are the next largest with almost 22,000. Beacon, the third-most populous community in the watershed at almost 14,000, has the highest population density in the watershed with 2,892 people per square mile.
Climate
Based on weather reports from the Institute of Ecosystem Studies near Millbrook and Dutchess County Airport in Wappinger, both just outside it to the north and west respectively, the watershed has the humid continental climate typical of much of the Northeast. Temperatures tend to vary considerably over the year, with periods of unusual extremes of heat or cold possible.The average annual temperature recorded over a 30-year period at the airport is. Monthly means range from in January to in July. Average annual precipitation is, with minimum monthly means varying from in February to in May. An average of of snow falls in the watershed each year, with January's snowfall being the highest monthly mean. There are 6,267 annual heating degree days and 645 cooling degree days.
IES has measured precipitation acidity in the area since 1984. Rainfall in the area has an average pH of 4.27, with averages falling to 4.00 in July but rising to 4.54 in November. This means the rain in Dutchess County and the watershed is ten times more acidic than the natural 5.2 reading for precipitation.
River modifications
There are 13 dams along the creek. Five are located in Beacon, most built to serve past industry there (one is still used for hydroelectric power generation. The highest, near the city's downtown section, is tall.Three are in Beekman and two are in Fishkill, the latter built by Texaco for a research facility it ran in the area from 1931 to 2003. The dams along the upper Fishkill impound the stream into old mill ponds, such as Furnace Pond in Tymor Park, just above the site of an old iron smelter, giving the pond its name. The dams prevent the upstream movement of fish at all stages of the creek.
The oldest extant bridge over the creek is Tioronda Bridge, just above its estuary in Beacon. It was an iron bowstring truss bridge built shortly after the Civil War that carried South Avenue across the Fishkill.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, but it had deteriorated so much that by the end of the 20th century it had been closed even to pedestrians. In 2006 the city dismantled it, preserving the bowstring trusses for possible reuse on a rebuilt bridge. The abutments remain in the stream, carrying some utility pipes only.