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Wildlife draws visitors to Moraine State Park

Birds, fish, even coyotes and bears in residence

PORTERSVILLE — There is certainly no shortage of wildlife to be discovered by visitors of Moraine State Park and its gem of Lake Arthur.

“The story of Moraine is pretty interesting in the way the land used to be before it was a park,” said Moraine park manager Dustin Drew.

When being transformed into the 16,725-acre park it is today, Moraine State Park was once filled with some small, even abandoned towns, train tracks and hundreds of gas wells and coal mining sites.

Buildings were demolished down to the foundation. Mines and wells were meticulously counted and capped.

“How the forests have grown up, it's really quite a turnaround,” Drew said. “It's nice to see that we have that wildlife habitat here now.”

Drew said the park draws a lot of people for its variety of birds and fish, but the banks of Lake Arthur and the hiking trails that branch throughout the park are also ideal for spotting wildlife.

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Larger animals also call the park home, including foxes, coyotes and even black bears.

Drew said an unwanted encounter with larger animals can be easily remedied and should not alarm visitors.

“If you make some noise, they'll generally turn around an run the other way, and that holds true with a lot of other animals,” he said.

For more information about wildlife in the park, which hosts about 2 million visitors each year, visit www.dcnr.pa.gov.

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