Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: Are there cherry trees in Cherry Springs State Park?
Cherry Springs State Park is an Pennsylvania state park in Potter County, Pennsylvania, United States. The park was created from land within the Susquehannock State Forest, and is on Pennsylvania Route 44 in West Branch Township. Cherry Springs, named for a large stand of Black Cherry trees in the park, is atop the dissected Allegheny Plateau at an elevation of . It is popular with astronomers and stargazers for having "some of the darkest night skies on the east coast" of the United States, and was chosen by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and its Bureau of Parks as one of "25 Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks".
Spring in Inokashira Park is the season of the blooming Cherry blossom trees that line the pond. Looking from the Nanai Bridge, which crosses the pond near the center, the branches of the cherry trees extending from the shore bloom so densely as to all but cover the surface of the pond. The pale color of the blossoms contrasts with the sky and water's surface. During the blooming period of cherry blossoms the park receives many visitors. In addition, on the west side of the park there are many flowers to be seen in the flowering plum grove before the blooming period of the cherry trees. On the north side of the plum grove, on the edge of the pond, there is a spring, but its flow is nowadays weak.
Awards and press recognition have come to Cherry Springs and its staff. Thom Bemus, who initiated and coordinates the Stars-n-Parks program, was named DCNR's 2002 Volunteer of the Year. In 2007 the park's Dark Sky Programming and staff received the Environmental Education Excellence in Programming award from the Pennsylvania Recreation and Parks Society. Operations manager Chip Harrison and his wife Maxine, who directs the Dark Sky Fund, received a 2008 award from the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council for "steadfast adherence and active promotion of the principles of responsible outdoor lighting at Cherry Springs State Park". The DCNR has named Cherry Springs one of "25 Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks", specifically for having the "darkest night skies on the east coast". Cherry Springs State Park was featured in the national press in 2003 when "USA Today" named it one of "10 Great Places to get some stars in your eyes", in 2006 when "National Geographic Adventure" featured it in "Pennsylvania: The Wild, Wild East", and in "The New York Times" in 2007. All these were before it was named an International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association in 2008.
When lumbermen reached the Cherry Springs area in the late 1880s, eastern white pine and eastern hemlock covered the surrounding mountains. Lumberjacks harvested the trees and sent them down the creeks to the West Branch Susquehanna River to the Susquehanna Boom and sawmills at Williamsport. Clearcutting allowed silt to choke the streams, and nothing was left except the dried-out tree tops, which became a fire hazard. As a result, large swaths of land burned and were left barren, and much of the central part of the state became known as the "Pennsylvania Desert". The Cherry Springs Hotel itself burned in 1897 and the property was abandoned.
Japan gave 3,020 cherry blossom trees as a gift to the United States in 1912 to celebrate the nations' then-growing friendship, replacing an earlier gift of 2,000 trees which had to be destroyed due to disease in 1910. These trees were planted in Sakura Park in Manhattan and line the shore of the Tidal Basin and the roadway in East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. The first two original trees were planted by first lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Chinda on the bank of the Tidal Basin. The gift was renewed with another 3,800 trees in 1965. In Washington, D.C. the cherry blossom trees continue to be a popular tourist attraction (and the subject of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival) when they reach full bloom in early spring. Just outside of Washington, D.C., the suburb of Kenwood in Bethesda, Maryland has roughly 1,200 trees that are popular with locals and tourists.
Every state has a system of state parks. State parks vary widely from urban parks to very large parks that are on a par with national parks. Some state parks, like Adirondack Park, are similar to the national parks of England and Wales, with numerous towns inside the borders of the park. About half the area of the park, some , is state-owned and preserved as "forever wild" by the Forest Preserve of New York. Wood-Tikchik State Park in Alaska is the largest state park by the amount of contiguous protected land; it is larger than many U.S. National Parks, with some , making it larger than the state of Delaware. Many states also operate game and recreation areas.Various counties, cities, metropolitan authorities, regional parks, townships, soil conservation districts and other units manage a variety of local level parks. Some of these are little more than picnic areas or playgrounds; however, others are extensive nature reserves. South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona, for example, is called the largest city park in the United States; it spans and contains of trails.
The park is bordered on the north by the Lakemont neighborhood in the city of Bellevue and on the northeast by the city of Issaquah. The park is bounded on the east by the 260-acre Talus Open Space. State Route 900 forms the southeastern border. Neighboring Squak Mountain looms to the southeast and the farms of May Creek valley lie to the south. To the southwest is the city of Renton. The city of Newcastle, ranging over the Newport Hills occupies the western portion of Cougar Mountain, with several smaller parcels designated the China Creek Open Space abutting the park on the west and housing surrounding the Newcastle Golf Club directly to the west. To the northwest of the Red Town Trailhead is the deep gully of Coal Creek, with its own separate park, the Coal Creek Natural Area managed by the City of Bellevue which divides Newcastle from Bellevue. A 4-1/2 mile trail through the latter continues down to I-405. The park is fully within the Mountains to Sound Greenway.The hilltops of Cougar Mountain form a rough horseshoe-shape around the Klondike Marsh headwaters of Coal Creek, which runs northwest to Lake Washington through Coal Creek Park. Long Marsh Creek, Far Country Creek, Cabbage Creek, and Wilderness Creek are tributaries of May Creek, draining the south side of Cougar Mountain to Lake Washington. Deeply etching the sandstone precipice on the north and east side, Lewis Creek, Kline Creek, AA Creek, West Tibbets Creek, and Claypit Creek carry their water to Lake Sammamish.There are five named waterfalls within or near Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park.A notice on the official Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlands Park map cautions "Due to safety hazards from historical mining activities in this park you must stay on the trails identified on this map." Copies of the map are available at the major trailheads.
There are a few trails between the "official" ones in the park and the developed properties adjacent. Some of these trails are on non-county public property or private property unlikely to be developed due to wetness or access issues.
The byway begins in Keysers Ridge and follows I-68 west to Friendsville, where Youghiogheny River Lake is located. At this point, the byway continues south along MD 42 toward US 219. The Mountain Maryland Scenic Byway followed US 219 to McHenry, which is home to Wisp Ski Resort and Deep Creek Lake State Park. The byway heads west on Mayhew Inn Road and Swallow Falls Road, coming to Swallow Falls State Park. A spur on Cranesville Road provides access to Cranesville Swamp Preserve. The Mountain Maryland Scenic Byway continues south along Herrington Manor Road and comes to Herrington Manor State Park before heading to the historic town of Oakland. From Oakland, the byway follows MD 135 through Mountain Lake Park and Deer Park, coming to the Potomac-Garrett State Forest. A detour in the state forest follows MD 560. There are also diversions along MD 495 to rural areas of the Allegany Highlands, MD 38 to Kitzmiller, and Savage River Road to the Savage River State Forest. The mainline of the byway continues to descend Backbone Mountain on MD 135 before heading along MD 36. Along MD 36, the byway passes through Lonaconing and Midland, which were company coal mining towns. The Mountain Maryland Scenic Byway continues through Frostburg before passing through Mount Savage and the Cumberland Narrows and ending in Cumberland.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Scenic Byway runs between Cumberland and Washington, D.C., following the towpath of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, a canal that operated along the Potomac River between 1828 and 1924.
Discovered in 1997 and located near one of the Big Brook tributaries, The Marlboro Tree, a massive black willow tree has been certified by the New Jersey Forest Service as a "State Champion" tree, signifying that it is the largest known tree of its species in the State of New Jersey, and the largest tree of any kind in Marlboro Township. It is about 152 years old and measures high and 19' 8" in circumference. Five grown people must hold hands to fully encircle the tree.
New York has many state parks and two major forest preserves. Niagara Falls State Park, established in 1885, is the oldest state park in the United States and the first to be created via eminent domain. In 1892, Adirondack Park, roughly the size of the state of Vermont and the largest state park in the United States, was established and given state constitutional protection to remain "forever wild" in 1894. The park is larger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon national parks combined. It is larger than the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Olympic National Parks combined.
The Catskill Park was protected in legislation passed in 1885, which declared that its land was to be conserved and never put up for sale or lease. Consisting of of land, the park is a habitat for deer, minks, and fishers. There are some 400 black bears living in the region. The state operates numerous campgrounds, and there are over of multi-use trails in the Park.
Tennessee's major industries include agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. Poultry, soybeans, and cattle are the state's primary agricultural products, and major manufacturing exports include chemicals, transportation equipment, and electrical equipment. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation's most visited national park, is headquartered in the eastern part of the state, and a section of the Appalachian Trail roughly follows the Tennessee-North Carolina border. Other major tourist attractions include the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga; Dollywood in Pigeon Forge; Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies and Ober Gatlinburg in Gatlinburg; the Parthenon, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and Ryman Auditorium in Nashville; the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg; Elvis Presley's Graceland residence and tomb, the Memphis Zoo, the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis; and Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol.
It is classified as one of the five great cherry trees of Japan (日本五大桜) and one of the three giant cherry trees of Japan (日本三巨大桜). It was designated a national treasure in 1922. Polls frequently rank it as the number one tree in all of Japan.
In 1924, the Cherry Lane Theatre was established. Located at 38 Commerce Street, it is New York City's oldest continuously running Off-Broadway theater. A landmark in Greenwich Village's cultural landscape, it was built as a farm silo in 1817, and also served as a tobacco warehouse and box factory before Edna St. Vincent Millay and other members of the Provincetown Players converted the structure into a theatre they christened the Cherry Lane Playhouse, which opened on March 24, 1924, with the play "The Man Who Ate the Popomack". During the 1940s The Living Theatre, Theatre of the Absurd, and the Downtown Theater movement all took root there, and it developed a reputation as a showcase for aspiring playwrights and emerging voices.
In the U.S., the most well-known place for travertine formation is Yellowstone National Park, where the geothermal areas are rich in travertine deposits. Wyoming also has travertines in Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis. Oklahoma has two parks dedicated to this natural wonder. Turner Falls, the tallest waterfall in Oklahoma, is a cascade of spring water flowing over a travertine cave. Honey Creek feeds this waterfall and creates miles of travertine shelves both up and downstream. Many small waterfalls upstream in the dense woods repeat the travertine-formation effect. The city of Davis now owns thousands of acres of this land and has made it a tourist attraction. Another travertine resource is in Sulphur, Oklahoma, east of Turner Falls. Travertine Creek flows through a spring-water nature preserve within the boundaries of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Scenic Byway heads east on MD 478 into Brunswick, which is the location of the Brunswick Heritage Museum and a Visitor Center. The byway continues along MD 464 to Point of Rocks, which is where the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad met the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. From here, the byway follows MD 28 across the Monocacy Natural Resource Management Area, with a spur leading to Sugarloaf Mountain. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Scenic Byway heads south on MD 109 into Poolesville, where the John Poole House and the Seneca Schoolhouse is located. A side route on the byway heads west to the White's Ferry across the Potomac River. Another branch off the byway runs through areas protected by the Montgomery County, Maryland Agricultural Reserve, with the road continuing along MD 118 to Germantown, a small town with antique shops. The mainline of the byway continues through Seneca Creek State Park and picks up MD 190, continuing along the canal towpath. The byway turns south onto Falls Road and comes to the Great Falls of the Potomac River. From here, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Scenic Byway heads east along MacArthur Boulevard before continuing onto the Clara Barton Parkway. The road has access to the Clara Barton National Historic Site before reaching Washington, D.C. and continuing to Georgetown.
The Marlboro Tree, located in Marlboro Township, New Jersey is certified by the State of New Jersey as the largest known example of this tree in the state. It is about 152 years old and measures in height and in circumference. Five grown people must hold hands to fully encircle the tree.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp in 1935 at the present park site. The National Park Service (NPS) which managed the camp, proposed to help Oklahoma to develop a system of state parks, using CCC workers who were already trained in all aspects of park development. The state legislature created the Oklahoma Parks Commission, State Fish and Game Commission, under the auspices of the Oklahoma Fish and Game Commission, to manage the newly created system, and provided funding of $10,000. The City of Altus and private donors bought of land for the park. NPS spent about USD500,000 building roads, trails, rest rooms and other amenities. Quartz Mountain became one of the first seven state parks in Oklahoma when the NPS turned the completed project over to the state in 1937.
The St. Croix river valley was inhabited by Dakota and Ojibwe tribes. European trappers commercialized the fur-trade in the 17th century. Extensive logging took place in the mid-19th century; white pines were the target and most other tree species were ignored. Once the white pine was gone the lumber companies were happy to sell, and a lumber baron named William O'Brien bought up much of the land for his personal estate. In 1945, 20 years after William O'Brien's death, his daughter Alice offered along the riverfront to the state. The donation was eagerly accepted, as Minnesota did not yet have a state park near the Twin Cities, and the park was ratified by the legislature two years later. The proximity to the metro area was a mixed blessing. Land was added to the park at every opportunity, to reduce crowding and to prevent housing developments from being built right up to the boundary. In 1958‚ S. David Greenberg donated Greenberg Island in memory of his parents. Accessible only by canoe‚ the island has become a haven for wildlife and wildflowers. The park was expanded into the bluffs west of Highway 95 and a second campground added. A large tract was added in 1973, leapfrogging a rail line, and another came in 1986. William O'Brien remains one of the top five most-visited state parks in Minnesota.
Yellowstone National Park has one of the world's largest petrified forests, trees which were long ago buried by ash and soil and transformed from wood to mineral materials. This ash and other volcanic debris are believed to have come from the park area itself as the central part of Yellowstone is the massive caldera of a supervolcano. The park contains 290 waterfalls of at least , the highest being the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River at .
Chiribiquete National Natural Park () is the largest national park in Colombia and the largest tropical rainforest national park in the world. It was established on 21 September 1989 and has been expanded twice, first in August 2013 and then in July 2018. The park occupies about and includes the Serranía de Chiribiquete mountains and the surrounding lowlands, which are covered by tropical moist forests, savannas and rivers.
River Bend Park is a county regional park located near where the river bends in Rancho Cordova. It is accessible by taking the Bradshaw Road exit off of Highway 50. It was formerly known as Goethe Park but due to controversy surrounding C.M. Goethe, the park was renamed in 2008. It is one of Sacramento County's oldest regional parks and was one of the three original areas along the parkway that the county acquired between 1961 and 1964. Located on the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail, it is just across the Harold Richey Bicycle Bridge from William B. Pond Recreation Area.
Cherry Springs State Park is on Pennsylvania Route 44 in West Branch Township, southwest of Galeton. The following state parks are within of Cherry Springs State Park:
Cherry Springs began attracting stargazers in the early 1990s. In 1999 the "Dark Sky Fund" was established and continues "to enhance the stargazing and astronomy experience" by funding improvements at the park. In 2000 Cherry Springs was officially named a "Dark Sky Park" by the DCNR, and that same year it became part of the Hills Creek State Park complex, an administrative grouping of eight state parks in Potter and Tioga counties. The headquarters for Cherry Springs are at nearby Lyman Run State Park. The National Public Observatory picked it "as the pilot for the Stars-n-Parks program" in April 2001. The DCNR acquired the Cherry Springs Airport in 2006 "to expand the overall Dark Sky observation area and allow for increased programming opportunities" at the park, and closed it in 2007. On June 11, 2008, the International Dark-Sky Association named Cherry Springs State Park the second "International Dark Sky Park". (The first was Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah.) In 2018, the section of Pennsylvania Route 44 passing through the park was named Highway to the Stars, following an effort led by photographer Curt Weinhold, a Potter County resident, and legislation sponsored by State Representative Martin Causer and approved by Governor Tom Wolf.
Edgcomb and his wife received of land in exchange for building the hotel and running it for three years. When the contract expired in 1821, they sold their land and left the area, but the hotel and land that Edgcomb had cleared became known as "Edgcomb's Clearing". The Jersey Shore and Coudersport Turnpike was constructed along the wagon path between 1825 and 1834, and tolls were collected for travel on the road until 1860. The park is in West Branch Township, which was incorporated from Eulalia Township in 1856. A post office was opened at Edgcomb's Clearing in 1873; the locals petitioned the United States Post Office to change the name to "Cherryville", for a nearby group of Black Cherry trees. However, since there was already a Cherryville, Pennsylvania, post office in Lehigh Township in Northampton County, the name "Cherry Spring" was chosen as a compromise. In time an "s" was added, hence the name "Cherry Springs". There are also at least two springs in the park.
Cherry Springs State Park was named Pennsylvania's first dark sky park by the DCNR in 2000. The adjoining Cherry Springs Airport, built in 1935, was closed and its land was added to the park in 2006, to expand its stargazing area. On June 11, 2007, the International Dark-Sky Association named it the second "International Dark Sky Park"; under optimum conditions the Milky Way casts a discernible shadow. Cherry Springs has received national press coverage and hosts two star parties a year, which attract hundreds of astronomers. There are regular stargazing and educational programs for the public at the park, and the Woodsmen's Show attracts thousands each summer. Cherry Springs also offers rustic camping, picnic facilities, and trails for mountain biking, hiking, and snowmobiling. The surrounding state forest and park are home to a variety of flora and fauna.