Valley Creek flows through the historic Village of Valley Forge to its confluence with the Schuylkill River just downstream, and once served as the primary source of water and power for a bustling town. It is now one of the park’s most important natural resources and is designated an Exceptional Value Watershed and a Class A Wild Trout Fishery, remarkable qualities in such an urbanized region. Valley Creek is cleaner than at any time in the last 300 years, but the threats it faces have changed over time. Once polluted by raw sewage and toxic chemicals, it is now degraded by sediment and warm temperatures that harm aquatic habitat, caused by paving and building on lands upstream of the park. As open land where rainwater can sink in has diminished, floods have become more frequent and intense, bringing warm water, sediment from collapsing stream banks, and roadway pollutants such as oil. These raging waters also wash out archaeological resources along the creek and threaten the Covered Bridge and Washington’s Headquarters.
