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Cacapon Watershed Map Home Up
North River Study Area or click on one of the subwatersheds in the table.
Lost River Study Area or click on one of the subwatersheds in the table. 
The North River watershed is used as a comparison to the Lost River basin. The North River is similar in characteristics and size to the Lost River, but has much less integrated poultry and associated agriculture; it was included to establish nutrient water quality patterns in a low intensity agricultural basin. You can see this pattern if you compare the North River Area Land Use map above to the Lost River Area Land Use Map, particularly if you compare intensive agriculture indicators such as the number of poultry houses (yellow lines) and row crop land (red areas). You can also see that agriculture in the North River is less confined to narrow river valleys than in the Lost River, and therefore agricultural land in the North River Area is in less direct proximity of rivers. See the map above for a visual. North River Area Facts and FiguresThe North River, the largest tributary of the Cacapon River, is slightly larger than the Lost; it drains 205 square miles - 30% of the total Cacapon drainage area. Agriculture in this watershed is less intense than in the Lost River basin and mostly consists of pasture/hayland and cattle. Poultry houses (appx. 40) and feedlots are located at low density throughout the watershed; many of the poultry houses are located on ridges well away from the floodplain. A woody riparian corridor, ranging from a narrow band of trees to hundreds of feet wide, exists along much of this river’s length in contrast to the mostly denuded banks observed along the upper 2/3's of the Lost River mainstem’s . One tributary and six mainstem sites were selected for water quality comparisons to the Lost River.
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