Trustees of Reservations

You may have noticed that I have been doing a lot more hiking than fishing lately. If you have been reading through, you can see a lot of places I have hiked have been owned by the Trustees of Reservations.  There are many types of open space to walk in. Of course there are state parks and state beaches. There are town forests and state forests. The Audubon society in many states have open land including MA and Rhode Island.

The Trustees is sort of like the Audubon Society. It is a private group of 100,000 members. They own about 100 properties. All total they own and about 25,000 acres of open space in Massachusetts ( I just read these figures on their website). The properties I have visited have for the most part been forest. If you have ever been to the North Bridge in Concord, the building to your left walking toward the bridge is the Old Manse, it is owned by the Trustees.

The Trustees do run a campground in Royalston called Tully Lake. I am going to look into that a little more. This could be a cool place to visit in the summer

Looking at a map, the Trustees have properties across the state. you will notice there is a large clump of open land along the Charles River in the Dover/ Medfield/ Sherborn area. These have been the places I have visited. They are within 45 minutes from home for me. Also I can hit multiple places with a quick lunch mixed in making for an enjoyable worthwhile day. I like the fact the Trustees keep quite a bit of the Charles accessible to the public.  Many of these reservations have a spot to land a canoe. It would be kind of neat to access these places from the river.

Like the Audubon Society, it costs money to become a member. Some of the properties are free to anyone. Others have a small fee for admission if you are not a member. Every place I have been to so far has been "free to all" however I am enjoying these trips so much I want to give back so I am going to join for a year.