About Us

Come Meet Us

Each month the Groton Trails Committee meets to discuss the status of ongoing projects, plan new projects, schedule work parties, update our trails projects list of current and future tasks, and report on problems and discuss solutions. The standard meeting schedule calls for the meeting on the 3rd Tuesday of every month . It is always advisable to check the Town of Groton website for meeting locations and updates or use the email address below for confirmation. The meeting is open to the public and visitors are always encouraged to attend and participate. If you have a specific topic to discuss please email the Trails Committee Groton.Trails.Network@gmail.com to get a time slot assigned on the agenda.

Trail Markers

• White/Green are main trails. They go from one parcel to another if connected, or they mark the main loop on a parcel that is isolated from all others.
• Yellow are loops off the main trail. When you take a yellow loop, you always come back to the main trail you were on.
• Blue are spurs or connectors. They go off the main or loop trail to a road, a point of interest, etc. They can also connect between a main trail and a loop trail or between two locations on the same loop trail, i.e., a shortcut.
• Purple are used when another color is needed! For example, a loop trail off a loop trail, or when there are a lot of little White and Yellow trail segments in a small area.

Get Email Updates

Join our low volume email list to learn about the trails of Groton including activities, work parties, and our trails advocacy efforts. We will use this list to notify you of our guided hikes, bike rides, ski or snowshoe events, and similar excursions. When we organize work parties we will also post a call for volunteers using this list.

To join please send an email with your full name to Groton.Trails.Network@gmail.com, and we will send you an invitation. This way we can keep spammers away.

The archive of the email list is available on the Friends of Groton Trails Network Google Group.

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History of the Trails

Until as recently as 40 years ago when Groton had half the population it does now, the town was criss-crossed by trails that were used by equestrians, motorbikes, and snowmobilers. Why, there were even car/truck “races” on the “roads” in the Town Forest! There were certainly also a few hikers and runners, but not many, and virtually no other forms of non-motorized recreation were observed in Groton “back then.” The equestrians, motorcyclists, and snowmobilers could go from one side of the town to the other over fields, through the woods, and over the many dirt roads that existed. Few property owners had any concerns about their friends and neighbors using the trails over their private property. The trails offered social and recreational opportunities for all those involved, and no doubt were an important factor in the perceived quality of life for all in Groton. Today, there are very few “public trails” remaining on lands owned by individuals; nevertheless, if you ask people in town, most will say we have a very good trail network. The history of this transformation is informative.

Groton has long held a strong vision for sustaining its natural resources, as evidenced by creating the Groton Town Forest by a vote of the Town Meeting in 1922, which made it the second town forest in the Commonwealth. However, through the mid-20th century, the need to protect public land in Groton, for conservation or recreation, except for a few small parks and fields, was minimal. Equestrian travel was very popular and there were few restrictions on where people could travel by horse.

It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that Groton began to preserve some of the parcels that provide the beautiful landscape we enjoy today. A new private organization also came to Groton in 1968 called the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF).

Despite those early efforts at protecting Groton’s open spaces for public use, a large proportion of Groton’s current open spaces remained privately owned and not open to the general public into the early 1980s. Up until 1980, only about 2,000 acres (27%) of a current total of about 7,350 acres of land was available for use by the general public. Then, in the late 1980s and 1990s, conservation land purchases rapidly escalated. It was during this 20-year period that Groton doubled in population, subdivisions were developed, and many house lots were sold off from larger parcels to capitalize on the rising demand for homes in town. Many of the trails that had been used for decades, and in some cases centuries beforehand, were interrupted by these newly introduced boundaries. Fortunately, this trend was recognized.

Through the collective efforts of the Groton Conservation Trust (GCT), NEFF, Town of Groton Conservation Commission, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), and the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) over this 20-year period, a total of nearly 3,276 acres, including over 47 miles of trails, were made available for public use. This represents 44% of the current land that can be accessed by the public in Groton. Many of the best-known parcels in town were acquired (purchased or received as a gift) during this 20-year period.

Since 2000, conservation land purchases have slowed a bit and have become more strategic as land prices continued to rise. Many of the parcels were received from developers in exchange for them being able to develop subdivisions under Groton’s Flexible Development bylaw. Altogether, the same organizations listed above, plus a newcomer, Mass Audubon (2006), acquired more than 2,063 acres, including over 16 miles of trails that are now available for public use.

What may not be obvious from this brief (and condensed) history, is the fact that the trails that we enjoy today are predominantly the same trails that have existed in Groton for many, many decades. While some new trails have been developed to connect or expand the network, these account for less than 10% of the total miles of trails. What has happened is that the existing trails on private property owned by individuals have been made publicly accessible through acquisition of the parcels and/or trail easements.

The Groton Trails Committee and its Website

These pages are maintained by the Groton Trails Committee. Our goal is to provide a user-friendly trail system that encourages residents to enjoy the open spaces and conservation land in Groton. We encourage people to gain a different perspective of Groton by exploring our trails and parts of town never seen from the roadways. We promote the trails by setting up and staffing booths during Grotonfest in September and the Greenway Committee’s River Festival in June, organizing hikes, and supporting the annual Groton Town Forest Trail Races in October.

The Groton Trails Committee is responsible for developing new trails and maintaining the existing trails network in Groton. We evaluate trail routes, consider safety issues, address parking and access, mark new trails, and revise the trail map to reflect additions and changes. We also organize hikes and work parties and are always looking for participants and encouraging stewardship of the Groton Trails Network..

The code for the website is freely available on GitHub. The online maps are powered by Mapbox, Leaflet, and OpenStreetMap. Our trail data is maintained in OpenStreetMap and can be downloaded from overpass turbo.

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