Shaver's Creek Environmental Center
Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center can be found between State College and Huntingdon Pennsylvania in the Stone Valley Recreation Area. This is part of the Penn State Experimental Forest. The Center operates on 7,000 acres (28 km2) and contains 72-acre (290,000 m2), freshwater Lake Perez. Each year more than 100,000 people visit the Center, which is open daily from February 1-December 15 (excluding Thanksgiving). The Environmental Center contains an amphitheater; classrooms; Welcome Center and Pennsylvania Nature Book and Gift Shop; herb and flower gardens; picnic areas; raptor center; and other displays and exhibits. The Center describes its mission as follows: “Shaver's Creek Environmental Center is committed to extending the University's Outreach mission of instruction, service, and research. Through quality programs, we teach, model, and provide the knowledge, values, skills, experiences, and dedication that enable individuals and communities to achieve and maintain harmony between human activities and the natural systems that support all living species."
Shaver’s Creek Outdoor School is a 50-year-old program that aims to provide upper elementary school-aged children with a positive outdoor experience. Outdoor School is a four-day, three-night residential program in which Penn State students give hands-on lessons in topics of outdoor education. Students come from Centre, Huntingdon, Mifflin, and other central Pennsylvania areas. They have the unique opportunity to live in cabins on the property of Camp Blue Diamond in Petersburg, Pennsylvania, and are given first-hand experience with wildlife, night hikes, campfires, family-style meals, and living things lessons.
The Shaver’s Creek Raptor center houses over 20 birds of prey, all of which have sustained permanent injuries which make them unfit for release back into the wild. The only exception is the American kestrel, who was an illegally raised pet prior to finding a place with Shaver’s.
The Raptor Center at Shaver’s Creek is open to the public daily from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm during the months of March through December. Visitors are offered packets on the natural history and biography of each raptor to enable self-guided tours. Also available is a Birds of Prey Show that runs each Saturday and Sunday from 2:00 – 4:00 pm during April through November.
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