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East Harbor State Park

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East Harbor State Park is located on the shores of Lake Erie. This park includes a beach area, campground, marina, and wetland preserve areas.[1]

Trails

East Harbor's 7-mile trail system leads through the many different habitats within the park. The Middle Harbor Trail skirts the southern edge of the Middle Harbor game sanctuary and includes a stop at a bird observation blind. The short Blackberry Trail near the camp check-in station invites campers to enjoy a pleasant evening stroll. Other foot trails near the swimming beach offer the opportunity to observe the flora and fauna of a beach community.[2]

Wildlife

East Harbor lies on the fringe of Ohio's prairie marsh zone • These wetlands are remnants of the Great Black Swamp which once covered an area 120 miles long and 30 to 40 miles wide • After a period of intense lumbering and draining in the late 1800s, the swamp was nearly destroyed • Only ten percent of Ohio's original wetlands now remain • These wetlands produce more wildlife than any other type of habitat in Ohio • Reptiles and amphibians are numerous including the green frog, American toad, water snake, fox snake and painted turtle • Large numbers of ducks, geese, gulls, terns and other migratory waterfowl delight birdwatchers • Middle Harbor is a game sanctuary where black-crowned night herons, egrets, great blue herons and other shorebirds find refuge • Furbearers in the park include muskrat and red fox • Hundreds of migrating songbirds rest here before winging north across the lake.[3]

Beach

A thin stretch of sand beach juts north-ward into the waters of Erie, separating Middle Harbor from the lake. Part of this beach was damaged in 1973 by a storm, washing away a large section of the two-mile beach. The current beach is a much smaller area to the north of the park, where swimming is permitted.[4] More recently, four segemented offshore breakwaters have been constructed on the Northern section of beach, to sustain what is left of the sandy shoreline.[5]

References

{reflist} <references>[1] [3] [2] [4]

[5]

  1. ^ a b http://www.eastharborstatepark.org/
  2. ^ a b http://www.stateparks.com/east_harbor.html
  3. ^ a b http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/parks/eastharbor/tabid/733/Default.aspx Cite error: The named reference "betterDNRsite" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b http://www.beachaid-eastharbor.com/
  5. ^ a b http://nsgd.gso.uri.edu/vsgcp/vsgcpw84001_287_292.pdf
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