| Shawangunk Kill | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| Region | Hudson Valley |
| Counties | Orange,Sullivan,Ulster |
| Towns | Greenville,Mamakating,Wawayanda,Wallkill, Crawford,Shawangunk,Gardiner |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Unnamed pond |
| • location | Greenville,New York |
| • coordinates | 41°23′35″N74°36′10″W / 41.3931°N 74.6029°W /41.3931; -74.6029 |
| • elevation | 1,240 ft (380 m) |
| Mouth | Wallkill River |
• location | W ofGardiner, New York |
• coordinates | 41°41′01″N74°09′55″W / 41.6835°N 74.1652°W /41.6835; -74.1652 |
• elevation | 180 ft (55 m) |
| Length | 47 mi (76 km) |
| Basin size | 147 sq mi (380 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • average | 138 cu ft/s (3.9 m3/s) |
TheShawangunk Kill is a 47.2-mile-long (76.0 km)[1] stream that flows northward throughOrange,Sullivan andUlster counties,New York, in the United States. It is the largest tributary of theWallkill River.
It takes its name from the neighboringShawangunk Ridge, where it rises in the town ofGreenville, then flowing down into the valley. For part of its length, it forms the northwestern boundary of Orange County, with first Sullivan and then Ulster County along the other side.
From its source in Greenville, the Shawangunk flows steadily northeastward to Mill Pond, nearMount Hope, by which point it has already lost almost half its original elevation. It passes through fields and woods east ofOtisville. At the hamlet of New Vernon, it becomes the Orange-Sullivan county line and shortly thereafter receives its first named tributary, the Little Shawangunk Kill.
It begins to widen a bit atBloomingburg, and north of that community it is crossed byNY 17, the busiest road along the kill. Several miles to the north, theconfluence of another tributary, the Platte Kill, marks the point where Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties come together as the stream bends slightly towards a more eastern heading.
Pine Bush eventually rises on the east, and a few more miles north of that hamlet the kill becomes the exclusive property of Ulster County when the boundary returns to land at Orange County's northernmost point. The Shawangunk continues to meander into a wider and wider valley, populated mostly with farms andwoodlots, the mountain ridge spreading across the western sky. Finally, it curves due east and joins the Wallkill just south ofUS 44-NY 55 nearGardiner.
In the early 1990s, theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, when it was researching the fate of the former Galeville air base site (nowShawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge) found that the lower Shawangunk (from its mouth to Pine Bush) supports an unusually diverse plant and animal community for the region due to the absence of any seriousimpoundment along the upper river. It reported no less than six species of freshwatermussels, including the rare swollen wedge mussel, and 31 species of fish. Among the latter were the rareNotropis amoenus (comely shiner),Notropis stramineus (sand shiner),Percina caproedes (logperch),Lepomis auritis (redbreasted sunfish) andNoturus insignis (marginedmadtom).[2]
The study found that the region supports the only known community ofDiarrhena obovata (beakgrass) in the state. Other rare plants in the lower Shawangunk Kill includethreadfoot on submerged ledges, sharp-wingedmonkeyflower, wingstem and redrooted flatsedge along the stream itself, with Davis' sedge, swamp agrimony,Aster vimeneus (small white aster) and violet bushclover joining the beakgrass in the floodplains.[2]
Due to the minimal development (mostly agricultural) within much of its watershed, there is very little pollution.[2] In 2015 thetown council members ofWallkill, through which five miles (8.0 km) of the stream flows, enacted a law to protect the Shawangunk Kill. It bars any construction (including roads),clear cutting, dumping orseptic systems within 100 feet (30 m) of thehigh water mark.Crawford, to the north, also has in place limits on new construction and rebuilding in the stream's vicinity, and inMount Hope much of the land around it is owned by the municipality.[3]
The river bedrock is predominantlyshale, covered by silty loam soils left behind by past glaciation. The stream bed itself varies from solid rock to particulates such as gravel, sand and clay. Geologically, the Shawangunk valley is part of theRidge-and-Valley Appalachians, typified by the Shawangunk Ridge to the west and the lowerHoagerburgh Ridge to the east.[2]
North to south, going upriver
NY 52
NY 17
NY 211