Kimberly run preserve

Within the Kimberly Watershed above Rt. 219, small streams arise from hillside springs on farm, forest and mined lands, flowing from steeper slopes (though generally with pitches less than 20º), into the flatter, central bottomland. The smallest streams often take a direct route downslope, sometimes along field margins or property lines where they have been redirected, until they reach bottom ground. The main stem of Kimberly Run in this area meanders across this flatter land, starting Northwest then gradually curving to the Southwest and crossing into the Preserve. It accelerates with increasing slope on the West side of the preserve. After leaving SCC lands, Kimberly Run flows onto State Game Lands #50, which is a part of the Casselman River watershed, identified for acid mine drainage (AMD) cleanup.

The low central ground associated with the main stem of the stream contains most of the wetland acreage in this drainage. The largest wetland appears to be approximately 100 acres, and is shared between the Kimberly Run Preserve and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation parcel to the east. It is split by only an old roadway/berm along the property line. This wetland was expanded on the DOT side of the boundary in 2000 by the Louie-Beach Advance Wetland Mitigation Project, built to compensate for wetland losses due to highway development. The Louie-Beach portion is 40 wetland acres, with the remainder on the Kimberly Run Preserve.

Preserve Habitats and Wildlife

field

Field habitats at Kimberly Run cover some 50 acres at the western side of the preserve, although extensive fields abut the eastern side as well. These fields, unlike some others in the watershed, are not the result of strip-mining, but do have an apparently long history of agricultural use. Lower edges of the fields have springs that supply adjacent wetlands. Several small ponds were dug by USFWS in these fields in the early summer of 2002.