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Presque Isle State Park is a 3,200 acre state park located on a sandy peninsula in Lake Erie, near the city of Erie, Pennsylvania. The park receives over 4 million visitors per year. Beachgoing, swimming, hiking, biking, in-line skating and bird watching are popular activities within the park. The park contains 13 miles of roads and 21 miles of recreational trails. A monument to Commadore Oliver Hazard Perry, a naval squadron leader during the War of 1812, sits at the far end of the peninsula.
New to the park is the Tom Ridge Environmental Center (TREC), a one-of-a-kind attraction for the Great Lakes region which opened on May 26, 2006. The center will have 7,000 square feet of interactive exhibits about local and regional flora, fauna, history and culture. The center will also offer an orientation film, a large format movie theatre, nature shop, and cafeteria, as well as a 75-foot tower overlooking Lake Erie.
In addition to these attractions, TREC will also house five classrooms for environmental education, eight state-of-the-art research labs, and an administrative hub of conservation groups and agencies. Other groups that will be represented in TREC include:
- Pennsylvania's DEP offices of the Great Lakes
- Coastal Zone Management
- Lake-Erie Allegheny Earth Force
- Purple martin Conservation Association
- PA Sea Grant
- DCNR's northwest office of the Bureau of Recreation and Conservation
- Pennsylvania Audubon
- Presque Isle Partnership
Presque Isle State Park also has visitor programs for guided kayaking, biking, fishing, hiking, historical talks and walks, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and pontoon tours.
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"Presque Isle State Park"