Seventeen sites in the Upper Penns Creek Watershed were chosen by the Penns Valley Conservation Association and water quality data was collected at these sites by Dennis Genito and Tom Shervinskie. These sites were later visited by the Pennsylvania Native Plant Society and evaluated according to a protocol developed by the Cooperative Wetlands Center at PSU. Plant inventories in 100 meter squares were done at eight of the sites by PNPS and Floristic Quality Indexes were calculated from this information. The remaining 9 sites were visited by PSU graduate students who performed the protocol but did not do the 100 meter square plant inventories. The data which resulted was compared to the water quality data gathered by Genito and Shervinskie to determine if there was a correlation between water quality and intact native plant habitat. A correlation between the data would show that FQAIs can be used as another way of measuring good habitat which supports the conditions for high quality water. These correlations are discussed in the work on this website by Sarah Miller and Jen Rubbo. Each of the site pages which follow will give you basic information about the site and several photos of it. The Habitat Assessment Scores on the pages were computed by Genito and Shervinskie using EPA’s Rapid Bioassessment Protocols for use in Wadeable Streams and Rivers, which rated the stream based on ten visual characteristics: Epifaunal Substrate/Available cover, Embeddedness, /Velocity/Depth Combinations, Sediment Deposition, Channel Flow Status, Channel Alteration, Frequency of Riffles, Bank Stability, Bank Vegetative Protection, and Riparian Vegetative Zone Width. The FQAI scores were computed using the site survey plant list generated by Joe Isaac and PNPS volunteers and the methods described in the papers from Ohio and Illinois listed in the resource material on this site.