Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Are there cherry trees in Cherry Springs State Park?
Cherry Springs State Park is an 82-acre (33ha)[a] 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 2,300 feet (701m). 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".[4]
The landscaping is dominated by two walks lined with mature linden trees, the branches meet overhead forming a leafy arcade. Between the two walks is a lawn, headed by a gazebo and planted with cherry trees. When the cherry trees bloom, people of Japanese ancestry come to celebrate Hanami and spread picnic blankets under the trees. The cherry bloom is preceded in spring by bulbs, beginning with snowdrops and continuing through tulips.
In 1998, continuing the legacy of the original gift of trees, the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia made a 10-year pledge to plant 1,000 new cherry blossom trees in Philadelphia. About 250 people attended a dinner at Fairmount Park’s Memorial Hall to help fund the costs of buying and planting the first 100 of Philadelphia’s new cherry trees. Following that, there was a tree planting ceremony to celebrate the installation of the new cherry trees. 
The cherry tree planting and fundraising continued for a few years at the same modest level, staying mostly within the Japanese and Japanese-American community in Philadelphia. The celebrations were lively but intimate, as the cherry tree planting project had not yet entered the public’s awareness. 
As the number of cherry blossom trees grew and the tree planting project began to attract more attention, Philadelphia started to become recognized a suitable venue for a Japanese style celebration of spring. In 2003, Subaru of America, Inc., located just across the river in Cherry Hill, NJ, increased its support of the cherry tree planting project with title sponsorship, and the Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia was born. Two days of events expanded to one full week, and grew again in 2005 to two whole weeks of Japanese cultural festivities. 
Mountain leafhopper (Colladonus montanus) overwinters on winter annual weeds, particularly near streams and canals. Adults can be plentiful on sugarbeet during late winter/spring and migrate to favored weed hosts such as curly dock or burclovers in orchards. The Mountain leafhopper is most abundant vector found on cherry but does not reproduce on cherry. The mountain leafhopper (Colladonus montanus) spreads the disease from wild herbaceous hosts to woody hosts. It is believed that it is more responsible for the introduction of the disease into cherry trees, then in transferring them from cherry tree to cherry tree in an orchard. The cherry leafhopper (Fieberiella florii) reproduces on a broad range of woody hosts. The cherry leafhopper is more important in vectoring the disease from tree to tree within an orchard, since cherry is a favored host. After a leafhopper feeds on an infected host the pathogen has to undergo a latent period. During the latent period the pathogen spreads and multiplies inside the vector. Depending on temperature and the vector, the average latent period for the cherry x disease is about a month or longer. The phytoplasma is then transmitted from the leafhopper to the tree when the leafhopper is feeding on the trees phloem. It's then spread throughout the tree becoming systemic. July through October is when the highest concentrations of pathogen are present in leaves of infected trees.
Cherry Springs State Park is on Pennsylvania Route 44 in West Branch Township, 10 miles (16km) southwest of Galeton.[11][90] The following state parks are within 30 miles (48km) of Cherry Springs State Park:[50]
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.
The Yoshino cherry was introduced to Europe and North America in 1902. The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a spring celebration in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 1912 gift of Japanese cherry trees from Tokyo to the city of Washington. They are planted in the Tidal Basin park. Several of 2000 Japanese cherry trees given to the citizens of Toronto by the citizens of Tokyo in 1959 were planted in High Park.
The Garden has more than 200 cherry trees of forty-two Asian species and cultivated varieties, making it one of the foremost cherry-viewing sites outside Japan. The first cherries were planted at the garden after World War I, a gift from the Japanese government. Each spring at BBG, when the trees are in bloom, a month-long cherry blossom viewing festival called "Hanami" is held at the Cherry Esplanade, culminating in a weekend celebration called "Sakura Matsuri". The Esplanade features two rows of cherry trees with trails and sitting areas on the side. Visitors may also sit on the field of grass between the rows of cherry trees. Cherry trees are found on the Cherry Esplanade and Cherry Walk, in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, and in many other locations in the Garden. Depending on weather conditions, the Asian flowering cherries bloom from late March or early April to mid-May. The many different species bloom at slightly different times, and the sequence is tracked online at Cherry Watch, on the BBG website.
Kirsikkapuisto (English: "Cherry Tree Park", ) opened in 2007 in the Roihuvuori district of Helsinki, and is part of the Roihuvuori green area. The southern area has a fenced off dog park. In the dog park are wooden statues of dogs and a tree with a cat in it. The city department that maintains these statues has now closed and the statues are being removed as they deteriorate.
There are about 150 Cherry trees in the park that were planted following sponsorship from the Japanese community in Helsinki. In the Spring the Japanese festival of Hanami is celebrated when the trees blossom.
In the 1980s, the CCC and its work in the park were honored. Cherry Springs State Park was one of several to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Civilian Conservation Corps with a CCC reunion in the summer of 1983.[31] On May 11, 1987, the Cherry Springs Picnic Pavilion was listed on the NRHP.[28] None of the other remaining CCC structures in the park had retained its historic integrity sufficiently to be included on the NRHP.[21]
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 2002Volunteer of the Year.[66] In 2007the park's Dark Sky Programming and staff received the Environmental Education Excellence in Programming award from the Pennsylvania Recreation and Parks Society.[67] Operations manager Chip Harrison and his wife Maxine, who directs the Dark Sky Fund, received a 2008award from the Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council for "steadfast adherence and active promotion of the principles of responsible outdoor lighting at Cherry Springs State Park".[68] 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".[69] Cherry Springs State Park was featured in the national press in 2003when USA Today named it one of "10Great Places to get some stars in your eyes",[70] in 2006when National Geographic Adventure featured it in "Pennsylvania: The Wild, Wild East",[71] and in The New York Times in 2007.[53] All these were before it was named an International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association in 2008.[38]
The staff at Cherry Springs State Park did not intend for it to become an attraction for amateur astronomers; the astronomers came to them instead. In 1997or 1998Chip Harrison, the park supervisor, noticed a man looking through a telescope at the park at about 1AM.[53][61] When Harrison asked why the man had come there, the astronomer said he had noticed an isolated black patch over north central Pennsylvania on nighttime satellite photos. Cherry Springs State Park is in that patch, one of the best locations east of the Mississippi River for stargazing.[53]
From late April to May, the Lüshun International Cherry Blossom Festival is held. The main site is 203 Hill, and the other site is Longwangtang Cherry Blossom Park. It is said that the very first cherry trees were planted by Japanese soldiers stationed in Lüshun during World War II, in order to ease their homesickness. Today, the 203 Hill site has more than 3000 cherry trees, and boasts to be the largest cherry blossom park in China with the most varieties.
The famous sakura (Japanese cherry trees) of Washington line the Tidal Basin and are the main attraction at the National Cherry Blossom Festival in early spring, when the cherry blossoms bloom. Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, upon returning to Washington from a visit to Japan, initiated the idea of cherry trees in Washington, approaching the Superintendent of Public Building and Grounds (then Colonel Spencer Cosby) in 1885. Her idea was rejected; over the next 24 years, Scidmore approached every new superintendent, but the idea never came to fruition. In 1906, Dr. David Fairchild, a botanist who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, imported 75 flowering cherry trees and 25 single-flowered weeping types from the Yokohama Nursery Company in Japan. Fairchild planted these trees on a hillside on his own property in Chevy Chase, Maryland, testing their hardiness in the Washington area. In 1907, pleased with the success of the trees, Fairchild and his wife began to promote Japanese flowering cherry trees as the ideal type of tree to plant along avenues in the Washington area. Friends of family also became interested, and on September 26, arrangements were completed with the Chevy Chase Land Company to order 300 Oriental cherry trees for the Chevy Chase area.
Edgcomb and his wife received 100 acres (40ha) 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 1825and 1834, and tolls were collected for travel on the road until 1860.[10] The park is in West Branch Township, which was incorporated from Eulalia Township in 1856.[12] 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".[10] There are also at least two springs in the park.[15]
Cherry Springs began attracting stargazers in the early 1990s.[10] In 1999the "Dark Sky Fund" was established and continues "to enhance the stargazing and astronomy experience" by funding improvements at the park.[34] In 2000 Cherry Springs was officially named a "Dark Sky Park" by the DCNR,[34] 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.[2][35] The National Public Observatory picked it "as the pilot for the Stars-n-Parks program" in April 2001.[10] 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,[36] and closed it in 2007.[37] 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.)[38] 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.[39]
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,[2][10] and much of the central part of the state became known as the "Pennsylvania Desert".[16] The Cherry Springs Hotel itself burned in 1897and the property was abandoned.[10]
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.
Cherry Springs State Park and the surrounding Susquehannock State Forest have recovered from the clearcutting of the lumber era. However, the composition of the forests has changed, so that there are now more hardwoods, including sugar maple and black cherry, and fewer eastern white pine and eastern hemlock. The park also has apple trees from the CCC orchard.[10] Over 400species of birds have been found in Pennsylvania, including 186that breed in the state.[47] Birds such as ospreys, hawks, owls, nightjars, and bald eagles have returned to the park and state forest,[3][20] and saw-whet owls have been studied in the park.[48]
The park's current rides and attractions include:
The best time to visit the village is during the cherry blossom season. This is because the flower season gives an extra special appearance to the village. The blossom season is between February and March depending on the weather conditions. A travel guide website in Taiwan states that the Cherry Blossom Festival has been held since 2001 with a series of events, and this season attracts an enormous number of visitors. The village is centered on the hundreds of cherry trees and over 2,000 cherry trees, and every year in early spring around February to March, The Sun Moon Lake, which is located to near to the village, and the village are embraced by cherry blossoms in full bloom making the area have the most cherry blossoms in central Taiwan. Also, during the cherry blossom festival period, lamplights are placed on each of the cherry trees in the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village.
The state park was founded in 1922 when the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry established the "Cherry Springs Scenic Drive" on Pennsylvania Route 44. The land where the hotel was and which became Cherry Springs State Park was purchased by the state in 1932. On May 27, 1933, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp S-136-Pa was established at Cherry Springs and built many of the park facilities. CCC Camp S-88-Pa, based at nearby Lyman Run in Potter County, also built some facilities in the park.
Cherry trees are also a defining feature of Ohio Drive. In the 1930s, a large grove of Yoshino cherry trees were planted on both sides of the street in the northwestern corner of West Potomac Park. From 1966 to 1968, more than 1,800 Yoshino cherry and other trees were planted along Ohio Drive SW in East Potomac Park. The trees were donated and planted by friends of President Lyndon B. Johnson and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in honor of Lady Bird Johnson's continuing efforts at civic beautification nationwide. A plaque commemorating the planting of these trees is located on the east shore of East Potomac Park on Ohio Drive. The cherry trees, according to the National Park Service, "are a major character-defining component of the landscape of East Potomac Park" and are also considered a contributing property to the East and West Potomac Parks Historic District.
Spring 1915 saw the Corps extensively landscape East Potomac Park for the first time, planting 46,650 shrubs and flowering plants and 203 Japanese cherry trees (or "sakura") along the roadway. Another 133 Japanese cherry trees were planted in spring 1916.
Cherry Springs Airport was a small general aviation airport which operated between 1935 and 2007 in Potter County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was built as an emergency landing field during the Great Depression on land that was part of the Susquehannock State Forest, just north of Cherry Springs State Park. It became a small airport with a sod runway and was the site of a prominent murder in 1952. In 2006 the airport land was transferred to the state park to allow expansion of amateur astronomy there, and it formally closed in 2007. The airport was located on Pennsylvania Route 44 in West Branch Township, about southwest of the borough of Galeton, Pennsylvania.
The park has had several names through the years, starting with its 1922establishment as "Cherry Springs Scenic Drive" and the associated "Cherry Springs 'Class B' public campground".[22] The 1941Pennsylvania Department of Highways official map of Potter County shows it as "Cherry Springs State Park".[30] On November 11, 1954, the Pennsylvania Geographic Board officially named it "Cherry Springs State Forest Picnic Area". Forrey's 1984<i data-parsoid='{"dsr":[31091,31132,2,2]}'>History of Pennsylvania's State Parks and the 1986NRHP nomination form still used this name, but Forrey clarified that it was "under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of State Parks".[22][28] Cupper's 1993<i data-parsoid='{"dsr":[31343,31407,2,2]}'>Our Priceless Heritage: Pennsylvania's State Parks 1893–1993 refers to it as "Cherry Springs State Park",[31] and this remains the official name as of 2009.[2]