Named after the Erie tribe, it was established to provide waterfowl and other migratory birds with nesting, feeding, brooding, and resting habitat.

The 5,206-acre (2,107 ha) Sugar Lake Division is closest to Guys Mills, Pennsylvania and is 8.5 miles (13.7 km) east of Meadville.

Beaver ponds, pools, and marshland along the creeks are bounded by forested slopes interspersed with croplands, grasslands, and wet meadows.

Over 2,500 acres (1,000 ha)of wetland, including beaver ponds, marshes, swamps, manmade impoundments, creeks and wet meadows, provide desirable habitat for a variety of migratory birds and waterfowl.

Other migrating birds include Canada geese, wood ducks, mallards, blue-winged teal, and hooded mergansers.

The most commonly seen are black bear, skunk, white-tailed deer, coyote, raccoon, beaver, fox, river otter, muskrat and woodchuck.

Other public use facilities include an auto driving route, a waterfowl and wildlife observation blind, and the Deer Run Overlook and Kiosk.

The terrain is flat to gently rolling with an environment of meadows, marshes, oxbow sloughs, and intermediate and mature forests.

At the end of the trail lies an abutment from an iron bridge that spanned Muddy Creek on what was once a plank road across the valley.

The 3 miles (4.8 km) long Deer Run Trail at the southern part of the Erie NWR loops through a variety of habitats, from fairly mature mixed deciduous and hemlock forest to meadows and brushy thickets near the refuge's ponds.

The additional 0.4-mile (0.64 km) segment passes through hardwood forests behind the headquarters and offers a couple of exhilarating downhill runs for the cross-country skier.

As with the rest of the Erie National Wildlife Refuge, the Tsuga Trail area has a variety of rich natural habitats.

Along this trail you will pass through meadows of upland grasses, wetlands with waterfowl and amphibians, mixed forests and cool, dark hemlock thickets.

The trail takes the visitor through woods, along cultivated fields and past beaver ponds with their rich aquatic habitat.

A short distance north of Beaver Run Trail on the west side of Hank's Road is a sandstone springhouse that was used to keep milk and foodstuffs cool (36-40 degrees) during much of the year.