Press Release: Mount Grace Conserves 200 Acres at Eagleville Barrens, Expanding Public Recreation Along Lake Rohunta
ORANGE — Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust is proud to announce the acquisition of the “Eagleville Barrens” property, nearly 200 acres of diverse woodlands and wetlands along the shores of Lake Rohunta in Orange and New Salem. Open to the public, this conservation and recreation area will provide opportunities for hiking, hunting, and other outdoor recreation. Remarkably, the land also has the potential to be restored to a pine barren habitat – a globally rare ecosystem that supports many rare and threatened species.
“Walking the log roads, seeing bobcat and turkey tracks, and arriving at the snow-covered lake all make for a magical journey full of potential,” says Emma Ellsworth, Executive Director at Mount Grace. “I am grateful for the extraordinary collaboration between Kestrel Land Trust, W.D. Cowls, the Trustees of Reservations, and Lyme Timber that made this project possible.”
The parcel was a generous gift to Mount Grace and included a significant financial contribution to support stewardship of the property. In 2024, Kestrel Land Trust initiated the conservation project with W.D. Cowls—an Amherst, Massachusetts–based timber company and the former owner of the land along Lake Rohunta. With assistance from Lyme Timber and The Trustees of Reservations, Mount Grace advanced the project and, in December, officially accepted the transfer of the deed—permanently conserving the land.
Long managed as a working forest by W.D. Cowls, the property features a network of forest roads that lend themselves nicely to the creation of accessible, multi-use trails for people of all abilities. “The Eagleville Barrens and Lake Rohunta are also well-known regional birding hotspots, with exceptional diversity of birds, butterflies, and dragonflies,” says Dave Small, Director of Conservation at Mount Grace. “By permanently protecting this land, we’re ensuring that future generations can explore, study, and steward one of the North Quabbin’s most ecologically rich landscapes.” Continued design and planning will support the development of a robust trail network, with the potential to create one of the longest accessible trails in the North Quabbin region.
Plans to Restore a Rare, Fire-Influenced Habitat
In 2025, Mount Grace staff surveyed the land and were excited to find a mix of oak and lowbush blueberry growing amongst stands of white pine and eastern hemlock. The extremely poor, sandy soils contain lots of gravel – an indication of glacial outwash that was typical of the region following the melting and retreat of glaciers at the end of the last ice age, roughly 10,000 years ago.
Historically, this landscape was likely dominated by pitch pine, scrub oak, white oak, blueberry, huckleberry, and warm-season grasses such as bluestem. These so-called barrens habitats looked more like open woodlands or savannah than the closed-canopy forest currently present — and, most importantly, they were shaped by periodic fire. Over time, fire suppression and land conversion have gradually reshaped the forest and diminished the quality of habitat available to rare and threatened wildlife.
“This landscape can be restored to a barrens community,” says Matt DiBona, Director of Land Stewardship at Mount Grace. “In doing so, we will provide important habitat for declining species such as Eastern whip-poor-will and Barrens buckmoth.” Initial forestry work will focus on tree removal and reducing fuel loads in preparation for the eventual reintroduction of fire to the landscape through controlled burns.
About the Partners
- The Lyme Timber Company: Founded in 1976, The Lyme Timber Company is a private timberland investment management company that focuses on forest-related investments in the US and Canada. The Company’s current portfolio includes approximately 1.3 million acres of third party certified working forest in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Lyme is a leader in land conservation, sustainable forest management, and ecosystem services, having conserved over 800,000 acres of working forest over the past 20 years. Learn more at: https://www.lymetimber.com/about/
- Kestrel Land Trust: Kestrel Land Trust was founded in 1970, and has conserved more than 32,000 acres of wildlands, woodlands, farmland, and riverlands in the Valley in partnership with willing landowners, communities, and state and federal agencies. Kestrel’s strategic priorities are guided by science, inspired by the desire to make conservation meaningful to communities, and designed to build momentum to conserve more land with landowners and partners. Learn more at: https://www.kestreltrust.org/about/
- The Trustees of Reservations: The Trustees is one of the oldest land conservation organizations in the U.S. It has protected over 47,000 acres and cares for more than 120 special places of exceptional scenic, historic, and ecological resources across Massachusetts. Partnering with other organizations to further the conservation of large landscapes and to connect people with nature is a priority for the organization as it launches a new strategic plan. Learn more at: https://thetrustees.org/what-we-do/