The temperatures at Laurel Summit State Park are generally several degrees cooler than the surrounding towns in the valleys.

[1] The area in and surrounding Laurel Summit State Park is now a thriving second growth forest.

The passing steam locomotives of the Pittsburgh, Westmoreland and Somerset Railroad would ignite this dry brush causing massive wildfires that swept through the mountains and valleys.

In 1909, after the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania had purchased the land from the lumbermen, Forester John R. Williams reported, "I should say that fully three-fifths (60%) of the reserve had been burned since the lumbering was done.

The current population of deer in Pennsylvania are descended from the original stock that was introduced in 1910 after the lumbermen had moved out of the area.