Valley 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 in Minnesota.

Both 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.

The 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.

• High Quality Valley Creek Watershed Map (61k)
• Other Related Maps

	Gathering the invertebrates using a kick net.
The Valley Creek Stream Team. Sandy Pederson's biology students from Stillwater High School