Explore a landscape of broad fields and elegant double-faced stone walls, once part of a larger farm that’s still in operation today.

What makes East Over Reservation a special place? 

The rural surroundings evoke a simpler, less-pressured time in America, but that Currier & Ives feeling is belied by the fact that the Buzzards Bay watershed is facing unprecedented modern threats from development and sprawl. Preserving crucial tracts such as this helps protect land and water for everyone. 

Walk on the Wild Side

East Over's varied wildlife habitats are largely an artifact of past land uses. Today, rolling fields and abandoned pasture lands comprise well over half of East Over's acreage. Almost 40 acres of hayfields provide not only an important agricultural crop, but also habitat for grassland wildlife such as bobolinks, meadow voles, and colorful butterflies. Twelve acres of fields at East Over once used to pasture livestock are now undergoing succession toward woodland. This old field habitat supports a distinctive assemblage of wildlife species including blue-winged warbler, Eastern towhee, and cottontail rabbit. Vernal pools scattered across East Over are critical breeding habitats for a number of amphibians and reptiles, some of which are rare. 

If Walls Could Talk

The region’s earliest walls were haphazard affairs, constructed of every size and shape rock turned over by colonial farmers. By the 19th century, stone walls had become a more aesthetic element of rural architecture. Those which grace the East Over landscape are strong, double-faced, and capped by custom-quarried granite. Little wonder the two miles of rock barriers surrounding the farm took over a decade to complete. 

Trails
Miles of trails pass through a mosaic of agricultural fields, successional forests, and winding hedgerows all surrounded by quarry-stone capped double walls. A new trailhead on County Road in Marion now lets you access miles of East Over landscape. Forest trails traverse pine and oak uplands and unique wetland habitats, and provide sweeping views of active cranberry bogs. 

Opening Hours:  Year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset. 

Admission Fee: FREE

Sources:

http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/southeast-ma/east-over.html#t1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Over_Reservation