Looking for a new place to explore? Or ready to revisit an old favorite? Year-round, Mass Audubon’s staff and partners work to create new trails to explore, expand access to the great outdoors, improve the ecological health of wildlife sanctuaries, and beyond.
Check out what’s new and find a fresh place to wander.
Expanded Experiences at Pawtucket Farm
Once a former Christmas tree farm, 21-acre Pawtucket Farm in the heart of Lowell is transforming into a welcoming and inclusive urban wildlife sanctuary. Alongside our partners, Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust and Mill City Grows, we built easy-to-navigate trails and most recently broke ground on a new pavilion. This structure will provide vital outdoor classroom space, new opportunities for environmental education programs, and a sheltered spot for community gatherings.
Soon, the completion of the Pitch Pine Loop will connect the pavilion to the existing universally accessible All Persons Trail, complete with signage that invites you to use your senses to experience nature around you.
Up next: restoring the pond adjacent to the pavilion and farm fields by grading the land to provide a nesting habitat for turtles and better accommodating seasonal high-water levels.
Check out the latest updates at Pawtucket Farm
Introducing Broad Hill Wildlife Sanctuary
Mass Audubon’s newest wildlife sanctuary to open its trails sits on the site of a former farm in Holliston featuring a glacially formed ravine with oak and pine forests, a winding brook, and open fields frequented by songbirds.
A trail was carefully designed to consider the visitor's experience, conservation concerns, and species that call the sanctuary home.
Broad Hill Wildlife Sanctuary's 1.3-mile loop starts with a flat path through a field of wildflowers and native grasses, continuing down through white pine and oak woods into a ravine featuring large boulders that were moved by the glacier around 12,000 years ago.
Dig Into Nature Play at Arcadia
At Arcadia’s new Nature Play Area, just a hop skip and a jump from the Nature Center and the parking lot, you’ll find a fort to play in, materials to build with, a rock garden and balance beam, climbing structures, tunnels, picnic tables for when you need a rest or a snack, and more.
Through nature play, leaves and moss transform into fairy homes, while twigs become make believe bird nests. Imagination takes center stage as children experiment with natural materials, which offer opportunities to practice problem solving, nature study, and creative design, all while having fun.
Arcadia’s Nature Play Area joins a network of similar outdoor playgrounds at 14 wildlife sanctuaries throughout the state.
Expanding Access to Nature Through All Persons Trails
Mass Audubon’s All Persons Trails (APTs) are designed to be wide, flat, and without obstacles to ensure visitors of all ages and those requiring mobility assistance devices can have a safe experience in nature.
Our trails teams have been hard at work, both creating new APTs and enhancing existing ones to ensure everyone can enjoy moments in nature.
Out west in Lenox, a major expansion to Pleasant Valley’s APT lengthened it to nearly 1 mile, expanding the boardwalk and viewing platform, and increasing access to an upland loop.
In Marshfield, Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary’s APT got a refresh with a new offshoot path leading to a multi-use seating area near the bird feeders, resurfaced sections of the parking lot to ensure ADA compliant parking, and improved access to the accessible portable restroom.
And at North River Wildlife Sanctuary, also in Marshfield, the half-mile APT will see a newly resurfaced path, replaced boardwalk, and refreshed interpretive signage featuring improved posts and rope guides.
Up next: A new APT is in the works at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary on Martha’s Vineyard.
Restoring the Brook at Broad Meadow Brook
At the heart of Worcester’s Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary sits a 40-acre wetland and a brook that connects to the City of Worcester’s storm drainage system. Over the past century, this landscape has been degraded due to wetland filling, invasive plants, man-made structures blocking water flow, and poor water quality. As a result, nearby residential neighborhoods, including environmental justice communities, experience localized flooding.
Now, staff and partners are working to bring this landscape back to life. Measures such as removing invasive species and man-made barriers, improving biodiversity, and repairing floodplain connectivity will help the land become a self-sustaining, dynamic wetland that neighbors, residents, and visitors can access and enjoy.
This long-term project is actively engaging the community by seeking input.
Learn more about the project and how the community has been involved
Coming Soon! A New Sanctuary in the Berkshires
In May 2026, Mass Audubon protected 858 acres in Becket that once served as the home of Berkshire Fishing Club. This land, now named Palmer Brook, has all the makings of a future wildlife sanctuary. The small lodge could serve as a nature center, and there’s potential for a broad range of educational and recreational nature activities, as well as other programs that would benefit the residents of Becket and neighboring communities.
Over the next year, we will be engaging with members of the community to learn how best to create a wildlife sanctuary for all to enjoy, as well as raising funds to bring this vision to fruition.
We are deeply grateful to MathWorks, the State, and all who contributed and partnered with Mass Audubon to ensure the permanent protection of Palmer Brook.
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This is just the beginning! We're always improving and expanding—find more at a wildlife sanctuary near you.
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