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Grassy Pond Conservation Land
Grassy Pond Conservation Land is one of Acton’s larger conservation areas, with 95 acres located between Newtown Road and Nagog Hill Road on the way to Littleton from the town’s center. It is also one of the town’s most diverse conservation areas because of its varied habitats and ecosystems. These include the Pond, an extensive wetlands at the ponds’s outlet, two small streams, a boulder field, a large meadow, many stone walls, and dense stands of eastern white pine and open stands of northern hardwoods such as white ash and red and white oak. Mosses are prolific where they coat many of the stones and tree stumps. About half the land was acquired by the town in 1968 and 1972 through two Self Help grants, and the remainder was acquired in 1984 and 1971. It was one of Acton’s first conservation areas to have a Master Plan. The stated purpose was to maintain the unspoiled serenity of the area while increasing its potential for use and enjoyment. The first trail, designed according to this plan, was built in 1978 as a Boy Scout Eagle Scout project with assistance from the Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC) and entered the property from Newtown Road. Gradually, the boardwalk across the wetlands, the pier at the pond’s edge, the trail in from the Nagog Hill Road side, and the Willis Holden Drive trail were added. Inmates of the Northeastern Correctional Center, as well as Boy Scouts working on Eagle Scout projects, carried out many of these improvements. In 1998, members of the Land Stewardship Committee made the main trail into a loop. There are three entrances to the Grassy Pond conservation area, all with parking. The main entrance is on the westerly side of Nagog Hill Road, across from a marked conservation connector to the contiguous Nagog Hill conservation area on the road’s easterly side. Two other entrances are on Newtown Road and on Willis Holden Drive. Adjacent to the main parking area is a large field that is kept open by annual mowing. The trail system consists of a loop trail (yellow blazed), by which the hiker may make a circuit from the Nagog Hill Road parking area to the pond and return via a different route that terminates in the meadow. The loop trail is 1.1 miles long. A secondary trail (blue-blazed), an extension of which connects to the Willis Holden Drive entrance, bisects the loop trail. Short connectors (red-blazed) lead from both the Nagog Hill Road entrance and the Willis Holden Drive entrance to the loop trail. On the property’s westerly side, however, the access trail in from the Newtown Road entrance is quite long (about .4 mile) and first traverses a boardwalk through the muddy area bordering the true wetlands, and then a long, winding, raised boardwalk that takes one through the wetlands itself. This boardwalk and trail access intersects the main loop trail, after crossing one of the property’s small streams, near the Pond. Grassy Pond itself is a naturally occurring kettle hole resulting from the glaciers’ retreat, and which exhibits bog characteristics around its perimeter. Nowhere is the Pond more than 15 feet deep, although the level has fluctuated in recent years due to beaver activity. The gradual invasion of the perimeter areas by species of plants that thrive in very wet and highly acid areas will continue to shrink the open water through an ever-quickening process. Leading this advance are pitcher plants, leatherleaf, highbush blueberries, larches, and red maples. A short side path off the loop trail leads to the Pond’s edge, and a wooden pier and viewing deck reaches into the pond far enough to provide good views and an appreciation of the bog’s characteristics.
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