This Norman Greenberg Conservation Reserve preserves 96 acres of open meadow, wetland and woodland just over a mile from Bennington’s main street. Once a dairy farm, today it is a classroom for children and a favorite spot for recreation by citizens and visitors alike.
Our Trails
The main trail cuts through an open meadow and across the wetland to link to the network of trails beyond the fast-running Jewett Brook. The Trolley Trail follows the roadbed of an abandoned trolley line, offering vistas over the wetland and a panoramic view of surrounding hills. Woodland trails wind through the hillside to the Birch Overlook, a kettle pond turning alder swamp, and artifacts from the time when the land was a working dairy farm. Maps are available at the trailhead. The reserve is open daily, without fee.
Noteworthy this summer - Equisetum!
The Reserve has a healthy stand of Equisetum hyemale, often known as Scouring Rush, a reference to its early use for scouring pots. Look for it a third of the way along the trolley line on the western rim of the embankment. It is easily recognizable by its upright, hollow, jointed cylindrical stems with insignificant leaves. It is not a fern, but like them, produces neither flowers nor seeds, and reproduces by spores. The spores are produced early in the spring in cone-like structures at the end of the short, fertile stems that grow separately from the taller, infertile stems.
Equisetum, commonly known as Horsetail, is a living relic of an age before the dinosaurs. It is a small, cosmopolitan genus, occurring today worldwide except for Antarctica and Australia/New Zealand, the sole survivor of a large group of plants that were dominant 360 to 250 million years ago, including trees growing to 100 feet in height. All are extinct except for the genus Equisetum, which today comprises 25 species, four of them common in the Bennington area.
Location:
The Reserve is located in Bennington on the east side of Vermont Route 7, 1.3 miles south of the “Clock Corner” (intersection of Vermont Routes 7 and 9), immediately south of South Lawn Cemetery. The entrance, marked with large marble monuments, opens to a parking lot with space for 6 vehicles and a school bus turn-around.