Peace Valley Park is a 1,500 acre (6 km²) park located near Doylestown,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. It is part of the

Bucks County Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...

Park System. The park surrounds Lake Galena, a lake created by the damming of the north branch of the

Neshaminy Creek Neshaminy Creek is a United States Geological Survey. National Hydrography DatasetThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 stream that runs entirely through Bucks County, Pennsylvania, rising south of the borough of Chalfont, where its north a ...

Activities

The park provides numerous recreational opportunities including playgrounds for children, facilities for hiking, biking and fishing, and sail- and paddle-boat rentals. Barbecue and picnic areas are also available throughout the park. The park has over 14 miles of maintained biking and hiking trails, many of which (including those around the lake) are paved. Although most of the park is open to the public, access to some areas is restricted in the interest of wildlife preservation. Lake Galena freezes over most winters; ice-skating and ice-fishing are also popular during the winter months.

Nature Center

Located at the northeast end of the park (immediately on the lake) is the Peace Valley Nature Center, a facility maintained by the Bucks County Department of Parks and Recreation. The Nature Center has educational, bird-watching, and recreation facilities. The Center has a staff of 5-10 people and is partially powered by a

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...

system. Parking is available immediately adjacent to the Nature Center, which also includes a small gift shop. Carolyn "Corey" Jarin was the founder of Peace Valley Nature Center.

Wildlife

Park facilities are dedicated to both the preservation and observation of wildlife. The Nature Center has a

bird blind A bird hide (blind or bird blind in North America) is a shelter, often camouflaged, that is used to observe wildlife, especially birds, at close quarters. Although hides or hunting blinds were once built chiefly as hunting aids, they are now commo ...

open to the public year-round. The park is designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

by the

National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

. Access to some areas of the park is restricted in the interest of wildlife protection. The park is filled with hundreds of species of flora and fauna. Over 250 bird species have been sighted at the park, ranging from common sparrows to bald eagles and other

birds of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predators ...

Canada Geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), or Canadian goose, is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is o ...

commonly migrate to the park. Other common and oft-sighted fauna include

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

groundhog The groundhog (''Marmota monax''), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. The groundhog is a lowland creature of North America; it is found through mu ...

s, various species of fish, rabbits, and turtles.

References

External links

Peace Valley Nature Center websitePeace Valley Park Trail MapThe Beauty of Peace Valley
{{Authority control Parks in Bucks County, Pennsylvania Nature centers in Pennsylvania