The Preserve is a 23.22 acre lot that houses several different biomes. It is accessed by a 20 feet right of way directly across from the Suffield High School parking lot. The trail starts at the on the south side of Sheldon Street and moves downhill along the western border of the property for approximately 500 feet before opening up to an over grown meadow and orchard.

The forgotten orchard of pear and apple trees are now buried under wild thick rope-like concord globe grape vines and bittersweet. As you continue down the western edge of the property, the trees thicken until you come to an old oak, which in the recent past, a bear used as a scratching post.

From here the trail breaks off in two general directions. If you continue south, along the western border, you will need to watch your step, and apply liberal amounts of bug spray, as you travel another 500 yards through swampy vernal pool-filled marsh until reaching a tributary of Devine Brook and the limit of the property. If, at the bear tree, you travel east, you will cross the property along an old barbed wire fence line, the thick older trees still bearing the marks and metal of the long rusted away border. On this path, the trail will end at an old sunken road that will wind both north and south on the eastern edge of the property. Throughout your walk you are sure to see, hear, and find of all manner of creatures, including several bird species, bobcats, deer, and perhaps even a bear!

The Educational Preserve houses two Adirondack shelters, a tool shed, a compostable toilet, two learning decks and a high observational platform (affectionately known as the “treehouse”). Please see the gallery below to see photos of the progress.

Construction of the First Shelter

 Construction of Second Shelter

 Installation of Shed