Last updated: February 19, 2021
Place
Information Panel: "Herring Highway"- Picnic Grove 10
NPS Photo/ R. Maher
Quick Facts
Location:
Picnic Area 10
Significance:
Information Panel
Amenities
1 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
There are two information panels in Picnic Grove 10. These panels are identical to one another. One panel is on the north side of the parking area while the other is on the south side.
There are fish that live in Rock Creek year-round, others only seasonally. They feed, rest, and some spawn in pools like these. These boulders and pools are specifically arranged to allow fish passage upstream and to create spawning habitat. In springtime, Blueback herring and Alewife migrate from the Atlantic Ocean through Chesapeake Bay to the Potomac River and on to Rock Creek. After spawning they reverse the trip heading back to the ocean, using Rock Creek as a "Herring Highway."
Please leave the rocks where they are. Future herring populations depend on these pools and channels for migration upstream to their ancestral spawning ground.
Picnic Grove 10 is 8 miles upstream from the Potomac River.
Rock Creek meanders 33 miles from its source in Montgomery County, Maryland through suburban and densely populated urban areas until it reaches the Potomac River. From there the water continues to flow 112 miles to the Chesapeake Bay and another 80 miles to the Atlantic Ocean.
There are fish that live in Rock Creek year-round, others only seasonally. They feed, rest, and some spawn in pools like these. These boulders and pools are specifically arranged to allow fish passage upstream and to create spawning habitat. In springtime, Blueback herring and Alewife migrate from the Atlantic Ocean through Chesapeake Bay to the Potomac River and on to Rock Creek. After spawning they reverse the trip heading back to the ocean, using Rock Creek as a "Herring Highway."
Please leave the rocks where they are. Future herring populations depend on these pools and channels for migration upstream to their ancestral spawning ground.
Picnic Grove 10 is 8 miles upstream from the Potomac River.
Rock Creek meanders 33 miles from its source in Montgomery County, Maryland through suburban and densely populated urban areas until it reaches the Potomac River. From there the water continues to flow 112 miles to the Chesapeake Bay and another 80 miles to the Atlantic Ocean.