Spring Creek and its numerous small tributaries drain approximately 26.9 square miles (17,239 acres). The Spring Creek Watershed is a subwatershed of the Upper Fox River Basin. As was the case in Flint Creek, prior to European settlement, Spring Creeks ecology was a balanced ecosystem with a diversity native plants, and animals. With the arrival of settlers, ecological conditions changed dramatically, as prairies were plowed, streams channelized, and wetlands drained for farming. Urban development’s by-products included streambank erosion, growth of invasive species, degraded stream habitats, nutrient run off, and sediment accumulation. Water quality declined.
While Spring Creek has not degraded to the extent that Flint Creek has, in part due to the large expanses of both private and public open space. Most of the open space and 75% of the watershed is located in Barrington Hills. Spring Creek has benefitted from those large residential lots and the land owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve District. There are development pressures in the southern portion of the watershed in South Barrington and Hoffman Estates, in the west with Carpentersville, East Dundee, and Algonquin, and in the northern tip of the watershed in Fox River Grove.
The Spring Creek Watershed is also important as the western portion is a “rapid recharge” area – precipitation infiltration to the shallow aquifers can occur in hours, days or weeks. This area depends on the network of shallow aquifers for drinking water. See more on this in the Groundwater Section.
The land in Spring Creek was farmed, historically, and is not unscathed. See the pictures below.