Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve
Southeastern Massachusetts is one of the fastest growing regions in the state. Statewide we lose 44 acres of open space to development every day, and in this region sprawl is consuming land at three times the rate of population growth. In establishing the Bioreserve, we seized a rare opportunity to protect a large, contiguous forest with diverse habitats and natural communities.
What is A Bioreserve?
A bioreserve is a large land area permanently
protected from development and managed to ensure
the long-term health of its natural resources.
The Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve is the first
of several strategically located bioreserves in the
Commonwealth dedicated to preserving biodiversity
in several of the state’s major ecoregions.
What does the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve include?
The new Bioreserve encompasses and protects natural communities representative of the region. It also contains several important communities and species considered at risk by the state's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program.
These include Atlantic white cedar swamps, which host several rare species and have been decreasing over the years due to filling, draining, and extensive conversions to cranberry bogs; and the pitch pine-scrub oak barrens, which host species that are adapted to dry conditions and recurring fires. The Bioreserve is also home to such endangered, threatened, or at risk species as the Plymouth gentian, a flowering plant found only along broad, sloping lakeshores; marbled and four-toed salamanders, spotted and Eastern box turtles, and the barrens buck moth