The Upper Stroubles Creek watershed is approximately 3 square miles (7.8 km2), and it is heavily impacted by urbanization in Blacksburg and on the Virginia Tech campus.

The Lower Stroubles Creek watershed includes some urbanized areas on the western side of the Virginia Tech campus, but then it flows mostly through rural lands until it reaches the New River.

[2] The stream bed is made up of cobbles and pebbles with alluvia-floodplain deposits (stratified unconsolidated silt, clay, and sand with lenses).

[5] In 1937, Virginia Tech's Drillfield was constructed, which resulted in the main branch of Stroubles Creek being culverted underground.

[2] In the 1970s, the Clean Water Act prompted the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to monitor the lower portion of the stream downstream of the Duck Pond.