Open Space and Walking Trails around Town

The Town of Ashland is full of beautiful walking trails and open space!

 

Conserving open spaces are an important facet of a town’s quality of life. There are benefits to both the health of community members and the climate of the community. Having an outdoor place to explore has long-term health benefits, the open spaces contribute to keeping temperatures cooler, enhance property values, and more. The graphic below highlights the various ways conserving open space provides economic benefits to Massachusetts communities like ours.

Take a look at the graphic here, or visit massland.org/naturesvalue to learn more.

Locally, for years Ashland has benefited from large parcels of conserved open space in the Town Forest, Ashland State Park, and Hopkinton State Park (a portion of which is in Ashland). But more recently, the town has taken an active role in protecting land from private development by acquiring properties. Beginning in 2010, Town Meeting successfully voted to purchase Warren Woods. Since 2016, these conservation efforts continued by acquiring other large acreage sites such as the Girl Scout Property, a large portion of the Rail Transit District, parcels abutting the Town Forest, land abutting Tri Street, as well as smaller sites such as Cadilac Paint and the Valentine Property. In total, almost 350 acres have been conserved and protected from development in the last twelve years.

Although acquiring some of the parcels featured on this page have cost the town money, we feel like it is money well spent. We hope you agree.

Quick Links