Pratt's Brook Conservation Land

Stone-slab ford across Pratt's Brook

Pratt’s Brook Conservation Land, located in South Acton in the area between Parker Street and High Street, has three accesses with signs. The most heavily used is the Parker Street entrance, with parking near the railroad crossing. A second access is from the large parking area at the end of Brewster Lane, off High Street. A minor access is at the end of Valley Road, also off High Street.

This conservation area, formerly belonging to Frank and Zilah Averett, was purchased in 1980 for $88,000 through a combination of town and state funds. It comprises 60 acres of wetlands, forested uplands, a ‘barrens,’ unique to this part of Massachusetts, the brook, and a small pond and vernal pool. Pratt’s Brook bisects the property, entering it as a briskly flowing stream that soon spreads out into a broad wetlands area with multiple channels before plunging down a rocky slope to join with Fort Pond Brook just beyond the conservation land’s southeastern boundary. A smaller stream, the outlet from Tenney Circle Pond, meanders across the southern portion.

The parcel is suitable for hiking and cross-country skiing as well as enjoyment of several different habitats. South of the wetlands, an area of uplands, forested with white pine and red oak and characterized by a series of hilly shoulders that reach down to the wetlands, is most suitable for cross-country skiing. Adjacent to the Brewster Lane parking area, a 2-acre park for enjoyment by residents of the contiguous Audubon senior community has been established. This area has been enhanced with an elm tree for shade, bluebird boxes, and Eagle Scout project of two benches and a picnic table.

The parcel has a 1.4 mile (yellow-blazed) loop trail that roughly follows the perimeter of the parcel, crossing Pratt’s Brook twice. Just south of the ‘barrens’, a short secondary trail (blue-blazed) bisects the main loop. Another secondary trail, leading past the small pond at the edge of the railroad line, past a vernal pool, and then steeply up through mixed hardwoods, was cut in 1997. A third secondary trail leads from the 2-acre park to the 'barrens'. The unique barrens area, covered with blueberry bushes and surrounded by pitch pine and red oak, is being managed by LSCom and other volunteers against encroachment of succession growth, primarily gray birch.

There are kiosks at the two major entrances, four boardwalks across wet sections of trail, three small bridges, and a repaired stone-slab crossing of lower Pratt’s Brook. Heavy trash, including a bathtub, an automobile in the pond, and fire rings, have all been removed.

Pratt's Brook Map

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