Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River: Geologic and Soil Resources Inventory Summary
Henderson T. 2025. Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River: Geologic and Soil Resources Inventory Summary. National Park Service
This document summarizes the status of National Park Service (NPS) Geologic Resources Inventory (GRI) and Soil Resources Inventory (SRI) deliverables for Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River. It also provides information about current geology and soil resources management concerns, with a focus on identified inventory needs related to geologic heritage, geohazards, and related soil features and processes. This document is intended to assist park staff with prioritizing technical assistance or new inventory and assessment funding requests in the near term (roughly 1–5 years). The GRI hosted a baseline scoping meeting for Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River in June 2004. Baseline bedrock and surficial geologic maps were delivered to the park in 2023 and updated in 2024. The SRI delivered a legacy soil database and map in 2015, as well as an “enhanced report” in 2013. Additional soil survey reports have been published by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that include Delaware, Orange, and Sullivan counties, New York, as well as Pike and Wayne counties, Pennsylvania. The most up-to-date soil data for the park is available through Web Soil Survey. Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River’s geologic heritage is ingrained in its paleontological records, Indigenous connections, the Delaware and Hudson Canal, historic stone quarries, stratotypes, and its geologic connections to the Battle of Minisink. The geologic and soil resources inventory needs for the park include various data or GIS information related to the inventory and monitoring of cave and karst features, cultural resources, fossils, geologic resources, geohazards, stratotypes, and water quality, in addition to interpretive and management needs. Geologic hazards identified in the park include climate change, disturbed lands (e.g., abandoned mineral lands, land use changes, shale-gas development), flooding, erosion and mass wasting, radon, seismicity, swelling clays, and toxicological soil.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Henderson, Timothy
- Date of Issue
- 2025-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ERMN , GRI , NER , SRI , UPDE
- Keywords
- Geologic Features, Geologic Hazards, Geologic Heritage, Geologic History, Geologic Processes, GIS, GSRI, Map Units, Resource Management
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Glacial Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Hillslope Features and Processes , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Geomorphology | Stream/River Channel Characteristics , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Subsurface Geologic Processes | Seismic Activity , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Soil Quality | Soil Function and Dynamics , Ecological Framework: Geology and Soils | Paleontology | Paleontology