Creek, a tributary of the St. Croix River, is located in
Washington County, Minnesota. The Valley Creek watershed
covers 18.1 square miles. The primary land uses around the
creek are agriculture and forest.
Others include grassland, rural-residential development,
and water bodies. Several key features make Valley a good
trout stream including diversity of physical habitat, mixture
of gravel and cobblestone covering the stream bottom, large
numbers of aquatic insects, stable supply of cold, clean
water, and water with a fairly high alkalinity. Valley Creek's
good habitat and clean cold water support natuarlly reproducing
populations of Brook Trout, Brown Trout, and Rainbow Trout
as well as the native Brook Lamprey, which are fairly rare
sampling sites are located in Belwin Nature Center. The
two sites are located very close together just above where
two branches meet. Each branch has a monitoring site.
Valley Branch Watershed District encompasses 64 square miles
and contains portions of the following communities: Afton,
Baytown Township, Grant, Lake Elmo, Oakdale, Oak Park Heights,
Pine Springs, St. Mary's Point, West Lakeland Township,
and Woodbury. One square mile lies within Ramsey County.
the invertebrates using a kick net.
Valley Creek Stream Team. Sandy Pederson's biology students
from Stillwater High School