The Friends of Myles Standish State Forest Meetup.com listings are the best place to find up-to-date info on all our upcoming hikes, birding events and other activities in Myles Standish State Forest.
The Fishing Derby for 2023 will take place on Saturday, October 14th. (Postponed from 9/23)
Because of the postponed Fishing Derby, the photo contest deadline has been extended to October 7th with the same rules as in previous years. Send your best photos (max 3) to photos@friendsmssf.com We are looking for your best landscape, flora, fauna, memorable moments, recreation photos taken in Myles Standish. Please include your contact info (email, name, date and location of photo, any title).
The Friends of Myles Standish sponsor many events and activities in and around MSSF. These include:
- First Day Hike (New Year's Day)
- Woodcock Walk (March)
- Park Serve Day (Earth Day)
- Plymouth Airport bird walk (May)
- Whip-poor-will Walk (June)
- Family Fishing Derby (usually last Saturday in September)
- Photo Contest (Open all year for photos taken in MSSF; entries end two weeks before Derby day)
- Weekly hikes most Thursdays and many Sundays
- Trail work days whenever possible but typically in June and November
Our next board meeting takes place Tuesday October 3rd. We will meet in the barn 100 yards up the Lower College Pond Road hill from the headquarters. We will also continue to broadcast our meeting via Zoom. Sign up on our Meetup site (www.meetup.com/friendsofmylesstandishstateforest) and we will provide you with the Zoom link for our meeting.
What's going on in Myles Standish State Forest?
Park Supervisor John Roberts has retired as of the end of March. He was the park supervisor since 2008 and will be missed. The park is being managed by Assistant Supervisor Jackie Sousa. Jackie has been working in the park for many years and knows it very well. We look forward to working more with him.
There was distressing news in March that Fearing Pond was in a list of 14 ponds where PFAS chemicals had been detected. Department of Health Issues New Fish Consumption Advisories According to warnings posted at the pond, it is not safe to consume fish caught in the pond. However, swimming and recreational activities were reportedly still safe.
Camping at Charge Pond is now open. The DCR camping season opened up on May 11th. However, problems with the plumbing delayed the opening of the Charge Pond campground. A solution has now been designed, approved and installed. The Charge Pond campgrounds opened on June 15th.
Find DCR events in Myles Standish State Forest with their new DCR event listings search. (Unfortunately, these seem to have been discontinued since the pandemic.)
We have been offering group hiking again on Thursdays and on some weekend days and had a half dozen trail maintenance days in the forest last year. Last year, we did major clearing of a long neglected 3 mile loop trail called the Larch Trail. It is named after a solirary larch tree that stands near the corner of Upper College Pond Road and Halfway Pond Road. The trail was cleared using a rental dingo machine that speedily cleared growth from the trail. Volunteers worked with the DCR to complete the clearing.
We also did a lot of work to restore the trail bed of the Pine Barrens Path and the Charge Pond Loop, which were severely disrupted by the Pine Barrens Restoration Project. Additional work was done to smooth out the trail bed for the trails running out of the Equestrian Parking Lot (near Barrett Pond.)
The Friends 15th Family Fishing Derby took place on Saturday September 24th, 2022 at Fearing Pond.
College Pond day use parking lot is now open. A fee was not charged at College Pond parking for the last two years. However, the DCR has installed an automated ticketing machine to collect parking fees. They have been having trouble with getting wifi coverage at College Pond to make the automated machine work. The Fearing Pond lot has been closed for the rest of 2023. Fearing Pond has an automated ticketing machine which was in use (except for Fishing Derby day). The fee requires a credit or debit card and is $8 per car for Massachusetts vehicles.
College Pond swimming.
For 2023, camping opened on May 11th. Visit www.reserveamerica.com to get your reservations. 24 hour advance registrations are required. There are no walkups allowed!
Fearing Pond was stocked for trout in March this year (2023).
A new Resource Management Plan for Myles Standish State Forest was adopted in 2022.
The Friends held muliple meetings to discuss the plan and to encourage public responses to the plan.The Friends Annual Meeting was held at our January board meeting. Our January monthly meeting served as the Friends' annual meeting. We reviewed our last year's activities, including the major trail work we did last spring, the manure pit we installed at the equestrian campground and current projects being developed including a reboot of the East Head Reservoir nature trail. Last month, the group approved serving as a charter organization for Carver Scouts.
We also reviewed our financial status (good) and had an election for directors. About half of our directors were up for reelection. (There is a two year term.)
Friends Photo Contest
The Friends have been holding a photo contest for the last 10 years. All photos have to be taken in Myles Standish State Forest. We are looking for photos in many categories that show off the beauty of Myles Standish State Forest. The best photos are enlarged and are displayed at our annual Fishing Derby.
The awards for 2022 were announced at our annual 2022 Fishing Derby. 4 photos were chosen by the judges as winners. The Friends thank everyone for their wonderful submissions and look forward to receiving your 2023 best photos from Myles Standish State Forest.
A colorful car wreck hides in the woods off Three Cornered Pond Road west of the Bare Hill Road fire tower down the hill from the intersection with Ebeeme Road. Photo by Becky Stoudt.
See all the 2022 Photo Contest Winners, along with photographer names and photo names and locations
Myles Standish State Forest map available at headquarters.
A beautiful new map of the forest was published in 2016 and is available for free at headquarters. Here is a scan of the map.
Download a printable PDF copy of the Myles Standish map.
Check out some of our favorite trails!
More Photo Contest Winners from previous years
Winner-Fauna
Winner-Fauna
Links to pages displaying
the last 8 years of photo contest winners:-
2018 Boardwalk Repairs sign
. Thank you for your support in getting the repairs done!
Public Meeting on Pine Barrens Restoration plan was held in 2018.
DCR has announced a 10 year plan to treat 1,109 acres of forest land in the southern part of Myles Standish. This will involve cutting down white pines, thinning pitch pine density (by cutting), burning, mechanical clearing, etc. in areas surrounding Charge Pond and Fearing Pond, the Camp Cachalot easement and MassWildlife areas outside the forest. The campgrounds will not be closed. Trails may be closed while work is going on.
A map of the proposed sections was published by the DCR. The area to be treated includes several MassWildlife areas outside the forest. The plan is to treat sections in the order shown on the map. Two areas have already been cut. The full 10 year pine barrens restoration proposal is viewable on the DCR website.
Boardwalk Repairs Complete!
The Friends are very proud to report that repairs on the two East Head boardwalks totaling more than a football field in length have been completed after a total of 9 working days led by Roger Janson, Thom Gifford and John Bescherer
We started cutting up wood on April 9th and were able to lay the first boards on April 11th. With the help of AMC's Open House, great progress was made on the first boardwalk on April 14th and completed on April 17th. We started work on the second boardwalk on April 21st and made a lot of progress on Park Serve Day (April 28th). Work was completed on May 2nd. This is the biggest project ever completed by the Friends, using over $3,400 of your donations to purchase lumber and fasteners. We hope that it will last for many, many years.
Boardwalks Project Background
The Friends were approved in December 2017 for a DCR Partnership Matching Funds to help rebuild two boardwalks near the north end of the East Head Reservoir. A little more than half of the 438 boards were in poor condition. A few were missing. Our proposal hoped to replace the entire top deck with pressure treated boards designed to last a long time. We anticipated spending about $2,000 and receiving a 2:1 match from the state.After receiving the matching funds award, we spoke with Plymouth Cable News (PACTV) in February 2018 about the project -
We received approval from Plymouth conservation commission to use the pressure-treated lumber. However. after we received approval from the town, the DCR decided that since it doesn't actually own the reservoir or the land that surrounds it, it couldn't financially support the project. We decided to proceed on our own. After we obtained permission from the land owner, and the snow melted, we started the project.
We needed a lot of help to make this happen and want to thank everybody who came out and helped.
Changes in dog leashing and waste collection for wildlife management areas
The proposed changes were the subject of a public meeting at Mass Wildlife headquarters on Tueday, February 6th, 2018. Since there are are two large wildlife management areas within Myles Standish SF (the Bentley Loop area and the Cutterfields Road area) and there are others bordering the state forest, the discussion was an important one. At its March 14th meeting, MassWildlife's board approved the new regulations with some major revisions reflecting the public comments it had received:
- Dogs must be physically leashed at all times unless they are actively used in hunting or hunting training
- All dog waste must be picked up within parking areas and within 100 feet of parking areas. Regulation applies to hunters and non-hunters.
A proposed prohibition of letting dogs interfere with other users' use or enjoyment of the WMA was scrapped as "too vague and hard to enforce."
The DCR does allow off-leash dog areas in many of its parks. The Friends will continue to advocate for the establishment of such areas within Myles Standish State Forest.
The Friends (normally) host a lot of hikes, bird walks, stargazing nights and other activities in the forest. The Friends of Myles Standish State Forest Meetup.com listings are the best place to find up-to-date info on all our upcoming volunteer-led hikes, birding events and other activities in Myles Standish State Forest.
Find DCR events in Myles Standish State Forest with their new DCR event listings search.
Membership
Please consider becoming a member of the Friends. Your contribution helps the Friends pay for our free family fishing derby, trail maintenance, running this website and our Meetup activity scheduling site and the many other programs we run for the benefit of the Forest and its users.
More details about membership are available on our Membership page You can mail your contribution or use the PayPal Donate button below to join online.
Do you know someone who regularly camps, bicycles, rides horses, skis or snowshoes or kayaks in Myles Standish State Forest? Our group needs more input from all legitimate forest users. Currently, we have hikers, wildlife observers, hunters/fishers and cottage owners. We would love to have active campers, bicyclists and cross country skiers join us. You are welcome to attend our next Board meeting.(More info.)
Last Update 8/21/2023
Order a Friends embroidered logo hat
Take Me Fishin Highlights 2007-2013
Take Me Fishin Highlights 2014-2017
Friends Membership Page- Join Us!
Report Illegal Off Road Vehicle
Pine Barrens Community Initiative
The Friends of Myles Standish State Forest Meetup.com listings are the best place to find up-to-date info on all our upcoming hikes, birding events and other activities in Myles Standish State Forest.Myles Standish State Forest map available at headquarters.
A beautiful new map of the forest was published in 2016 and is available for free at headquarters. Here is a scan of the map. Download a printable PDF copy of the Myles Standish map.
Check out some of our favorite trails!
Friends Hats
The Friends are selling caps with the Friends logo. You can purchase one of these hats at many Friends events. These hats are now also available for order online 
(Note: Blaze orange hats are now back in stock.).
No hunting is allowed on Sundays.
According to this 2014 article from the Star Tribune (Minnesota) , "Massachusetts has nation's toughest ATV law." In a recent presentation to the DCR Stewardship Council by an Environmental Police Officer, Plymouth and Carver were shown to be the leading sources (#1 and #2) of calls to the Massachusetts Environmental Police with complaints about illegal riding. Your calls have been noticed and the many visits of EPO's to MSSF over the fall were credited to the calls. (Numbers for reporting OHV's in the park)
It's tick season! (It's always tick season.) Find out more about ticks and what you can do to protect yourself and your pets at the University of Rhode Island's Tick Encounter Center You can:
- Learn how to make your clothes tick repellent.
- How to remove ticks.
- How to treat your yard for ticks.
- Get your ticks tested. A $50 mail-in test performed by UMass Amherst will quickly tell you if the ticks you find are infected.
- Identify ticks.
The bluebird boxes went up in April. The boxes are filling up quickly!
A new map mural was put on display next to the Park's Interpretive Center.
The map was commissioned by the Friends and the DCR from local artist Laura Anzalone.
New Treatment Facility for Addicts opened at site of former MCI Plymouth in May 2017
In early May 2017, patients were transferred in to a new treatment facility for substance abusers and alcoholics at the site of the former MCI Plymouth, which is located within the state forest off Circuit Drive.
It is called MASAC (Massachusetts Alcoholic and Substance Abuse Center) at Plymouth. Some of them (17 at last count) had been leaving the facility without permission and have had to be returned by law enforcement. The patients have been committed by the Courts to the facility under Section 35, which explains that those committed to the facility are judged by a Court to have a subtance abuse problem which is causing them to pose a danger to themselves or others. MCI Plymouth existed for about 75 years in the forest using the same facilities and had no escape problems that we were ever aware of. Friends President Bill Vickstrom spoke to the media about the Friends' concerns.We hosted the Deputy Commissioner from the Corrections Department at both our June and July meetings. In June, he apologized for the problem and explained how "elopements" from other substance abuse facilities are handled around the state. He told the assembled group about the State's reaction to the "elopements" and how an 8 foot fence topped with barbed wire will be in place around the residential area by the end of June with additional fencing in place by the end of August around the recreational areas. He said that a tactical team is now available for rapid recapture. Many attendees demanded that the State provide better notification of escapes through the use of the reverse 911 systems available in Carver and Plymouth and asked that the State provide better cell coverage in the forest so that users of the forest would be aware when a problem occurs. They also asked that if these are "patients" and not convicted criminals, the response be moderated and stated that the state's SWAT team response with assault rifles drawn and dogs and helicopters had made park users feel threatened.
As of June 30th, 2017, the new fencing was visible, as was the enhanced security around the site. The Deputy Commissioner provided an update at our July 2017 meeting. Fencing was then complete around two of the residential buildings. Guards continued to be stationed around the perimeter. There were no additional "elopements" in June. We reiterated our requests for an improved notification system, suggesting that temporary cell tower might provide the ability to notify park users who are currently off the grid while in the forest.
Newsletters
Our most recent newsletters:-Photo Contest, Free Fishing (Sept 2022)
Special Meeting, New RMP (Mar 2022)
Free Fishing, Photo Contest, Life is Skewed (September 2021)
Return of Fishing Derby (July 2021)
Forms Most Beautiful (May 2021)
From Virus to Human (April 2020)
The Forest for the Trees (early March 2020)
Hike then Party (January 2020)
Myles Standish- the Man(December 2019)
Life in MSSF- the biggest and the smallest (Nov 2019)
Fishing Derby and Photo Contest winners. Also Megafauna (Oct 2019)
Summer 2019 /a>
If off the pavement, then put on the Off- June 2018