Bright Creek Park Association (BCPA) is a private fishing and hunting club that was established on February 21, 1890 by a small group of men from Philadelphia. The club’s founders had noticed the deterioration of the Brodhead Stream watershed and were seeking access to higher quality, less crowded streams.
Throughout its history, Bright Creek has been at the forefront of fish and game conservation efforts in the eastern Pennsylvania region, preceding the establishment of the Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission. We are committed to understanding and protecting the Bright Creek fishery. Fishing the network of streams on our nearly 5000 acre property is particularly important to our thirty club owner-members. Additionally, one third of the membership uses the property for hunting deer, grouse, turkey, bear and waterfowl, and all enjoy nature observation and other outdoor recreation.
The property is located within an expanse of relatively unbroken deciduous forest. There are no public roads extending from Route 402 to the east, I-84 to the north, Routes 390 and 447 to the west and Snow Hill Road to the south. This roadless area includes tens of thousands of forested acres on the Pocono Plateau featuring continuous oak, hickory, northern hardwood, and conifer timber types. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources State Forest System manages the majority of this area, but there are also numerous large and small hunting clubs and owners who contribute to the collective maintenance of the resource for hunting and fishing activities.
BCPA’s property lies almost entirely within the watershed of “Brights Creek,” a tributary of the Bushkill Creek as it flows in a southeasterly direction toward the Delaware River. Bushkill Creek is a designated “High Quality, Cold Water Fishery with Migratory Fish (HQ-CWF, MF),” according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Chapter 93 stream designation (this is the second highest category of protection). Stony Run, a small brook on the western edge of the Bright Creek Property, is designated as an “Exceptional Value Stream” (this is the highest category of protection). Stony Run feeds Brodhead Creek which discharges into the Delaware River in Stroudsburg, PA. The Exceptional Value designation signifies a relatively undisturbed drainage with water quality capable of sustaining the most sensitive aquatic plants and animals.
