The Friends of Myles Standish State Forest sponsor many events and activities in and around MSSF, the biggest park in Eastern Massachusetts. It's as big as the island of Manhattan. It's bigger than all but 60 towns in Massachusetts.

Thousands of visitors enjoy camping every summer at one of the forest's 400+ campsites. Many day use visitors enjoy swimming and picnicking at the College Pond or Fearing Pond day use areas starting after Memorial Day. Hikers enjoy having dozens of miles of marked hiking trails and hundreds of miles of unmarked trails to follow. 15 miles of bike trails are also available for all users. Equestrians enjoy a special campground and love exploring all the trails.

Park headquarters off Cranberry Road in Carver is a good place to find public restrooms and pick up a map of the forest.

Newsletters

Sign Up Today to receive Friends newsletters by email!

Email Address:



The Friends Newsletter contains updates on our events, along with some very interesting columns on the biology of the permanent residents of Myles Standish State Forest, along with the forests and the geology.

Newsletters

Our most recent newsletters:-

Pitch Pine Ecoposition (July 2026)

Pitch Pines(June 2026)

A New View of "Native" (May 2026)

Craton to Pine Barrens (April 2026)

Crust (March 2026)

Virtual Hike (June 2025)

Pinus Genome 6 25 (June 2025)

Pitch Pine Pyre (March 2025)

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.

Exploring Frost Pockets in Myles Standish SF

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 .

No hunting is allowed on Sundays.

In March 2026, the Governor of Massachusetts came out in favor of Sunday hunting and added language to the annual budget bill to repeal the part of the general laws that forbids Sunday hunting. It would also have allowed the use of crossbows in hunting and reduced the required setback for hunters from occupied dwellings and roads. As of June 2026, these provisions have been stripped from the State's budget bill.

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 repellant.
• 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 again in April. The birds have enjoyed them for many years.

A map mural was put on display next to the Park's Interpretive Center in 2016. 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 substance 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 2017 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.

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 were completed in 2018 after a total of 9 working days led by Roger Janson, Thom Gifford and John Bescherer

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 Tuesday, February 6th, 2018. Since there are two large wildlife management areas within Myles Standish SF (the Bentley Loop area and the Cutter fields 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:

Approved Wildlife Management Area Dog regulations
• 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.