• Activities Prohibited
• ATV's/ORV's
• Snowmobiling
• Available Information
• Brochure
• Online
• Facilities
• None
• Fees
• No fee
• Land Owner
• New England Forestry Foundation
• Parking
• 8 cars
• Pets
• Pets OK
• Recreation Activities
• Hiking
• Horseback-riding
• Hunting
• Mountain biking
• x-country Skiing
• Season
• All Seasons

Battle-Dorrance Memorial Forest

W. Orange Rd. (Rte. 2A), Orange, MA
(978) 952-6856

Visitors can walk logging roads to view forest regeneration following a harvest of mature pine in 2003.

Description:

A kind of Walden for a 20th-century eccentric, the 55-acre Battle-Dorrance Forest was the summer home of Harry A. Battle, who built a cabin and dug a pond entirely by hand. He lived as a virtual hermit, only occasionally bicycling into Orange. Less than five feet tall, Battle pruned every tree in his forest to no more than six feet; since his time, those trees have grown to their proper proportions. Later, conservationist Elizabeth Dorrance gifted the property to NEFF. A loop trail of less than a mile can be made by turning left where the trail next to the cemetery branches, taking a sharp left at a wire fence, and left again at the next intersection, returning by the street. Other old woods roads allow further exploration of the forest.

Directions:

From Orange center, go west on W. Main St. (Rte. 2A) for 2.1 miles. Turn right on a right-of-way along west side of small cemetery.

Click for a Map

Contact:

New England Forestry Foundation
32 Foster St.
PO Box 1346
Littleton, MA 01460

Phone: (978) 952-6856
Fax: (978) 952-6356
Email: info@newenglandforestry.org
Web: www.newenglandforestry.org

 

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