Bailey Reservation

Teeming with diverse and rare species habitats, the area also showcases both new and old beaver activity, with many felled trees and saplings—making it an exciting spot to explore with kids.

Prior to European contact, Eastern Woodland Indians known as Algonquians fished in the pond—a spring-fed body of water that at one time was both larger due to ice melt at the end of the last glacial period and part of the drainage system contributing to the Merrimack River.

At the time of contact, the Algonquians here were known as the Pentucket, an expansion of the Pennacook people of southern New Hampshire and the lower Merrimack Valley. The Pentucket had villages on both sides of the Merrimack in the Haverhill area. They trapped beavers and spearfished bass, pickerel, and sunfish from their canoes in Chadwick Pond and other water bodies along the Merrimack.

This 21.7 acre Reservation, donated in 2017, was the second gift from Janis Bailey and her late husband Perley, whose desire it was to see all of the family’s land protected. In 2012, the Bailey’s first gift to Greenbelt was a Conservation Restriction on their farm across Kingsbury Avenue, protecting 60 acres of privately-owned wetlands, forest and farmland.

The property is an essential part of a broader “greenbelt” of conserved land, including 43 acres of Haverhill drinking water supply land and more than 270 acres of protected woods and farmland. Together, these protected lands help ensure that Chadwick Pond – a back-up drinking water supply for Haverhill and popular destination for fishing and paddling – remains safeguarded from pollution.

Red oak, beech and maple dominate the trail along Chadwick Pond. In summer, the pond and adjacent wetand are covered in a thick mat of lily pads that present white flowers in July/August.

Beaver are active and waterfowl, especially wood duck, are plentiful on the pond. Herons and egrets hunt for prey. Dragonflies will delight with their aerial displays chasing insects in summer.