Education
It's not enough to simply provide a landscape for visitors to explore—true conservationists are motivated by an understanding of what they are experiencing. We offer a wide range of school programs, place-based programs, and literature at properties to help visitors explore the landscape and learn about history, land use, and ecology.

Working With Schools
The Trustees continues to extend our educational offerings to the next generation of conservationists by turning our reservations into outdoor classrooms for local schools:

• "Beyond The Classroom" nature classes, serving South Shore schools; e-mail for more information.
  
  
• Cape Ann Nature Education programs, serving Cape Ann schools; e-mail for more information.
  
  
• Claire Saltonstall Education Program, serving schools on Martha's Vineyard; e-mail for more information.
  
  
• Notchview educational program, serving Berkshire Trail Elementary School; e-mail for more information.
  

Place-Based Programs
Educators across the state deliver place-based programs that introduce adults and children to ecology, land use, and history through games, hikes, natural history tours, historic house and garden tours, workshops, and hands-on projects at:

• Appleton Farms, Hamilton and Ipswich
• Bartholomew's Cobble, Sheffield
• Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge, Martha's Vineyard
• Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge, Nantucket Island
• Copicut Woods, Fall River and Dartmouth
• Crane Beach and Crane Wildlife Refuge, Essex and Ipswich
• Little Tom Reservation, Holyoke
• Naumkeag, Stockbridge
• The Old Manse, Concord
• Ravenswood Park, Gloucester
• Weir River Farm, Hingham
• World's End, Hingham
• Whitney Thayer Woods, Cohasset & Hingham
• The William Cullen Bryant Homestead, Cummington

Intrepretation
Visitor centers, bulletin boards, wayside displays, trail maps, self-guided landscape tour brochures, and interpretive guides help visitors to interpret the landscape while they experience it.

Exhibitions
Our collections of furniture and fine & decorative arts are exhibited through furnished period rooms within our historic houses. In addition, we periodically highlight collections through formal museum exhibitions across the state. Our historic houses draw more than 22,000 visitors, providing them with a unique glimpse into the Commonwealth's past:

• Native American history and European settlement
• American Revolution and Independence
• Abolition of slavery
• 19th century literary responses to nature
• The rise and fall of 19th and 20th century agriculture
• Colonial Revivalism

Recreation
We manage our reservations for people with all interests. Historically, our reservations have provided people with tranquil opportunities to study nature, watch birds, take photographs, go dog walking, or just picnic. Today, many visitors are increasingly seeking places to pursue a wide range of more active recreational opportunities, including hiking, cross-country skiing, hunting, cycling, running, boating, fishing, and horseback riding.

Balancing User Groups
With more than 270 miles of managed trails, including links in such trail networks as the Appalachian Mountain Trail, Bay Circuit Trail, and Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, we seek to provide many kinds of recreational opportunities. Occasionally, depending upon the nature of a reservation, local situations, and patterns of use, we experience conflicts among different user groups. At such times, we work to find management solutions that serve everyone. Consequently, dog owners may be required to leash their dogs. Similarly, mountain bikers may be directed away from sections of a reservation during parts of the year.  At all times, we must balance our commitment to recreation with our commitment to resource protection.

Special Events
Each year, our reservations host hundreds of special events across the state, from craft festivals and sand sculpture building contests to cross-country ski races and birding seminars.