East Windham Conservation Area and Lowell Preserve are now Windham Community Forest!

The Town of Windham and PRLT have jointly managed Lowell Preserve since 2021 and East Windham Conservation Area since it was opened in 2023. With the Town as the property owner and PRLT holding a conservation easement, we have collaborated to make sure these spaces provide both a great place for the community to recreate year-round and for wildlife to thrive in perpetuity.

The two preserves abut each other to the east of Little Duck Pond and have connecting trail systems, making it possible to travel over 16.5 miles of trails from a single trailhead (and even more, if you take the connector trail to North Falmouth Community Forest and Blackstrap Hill Preserve, which are owned and maintained by Falmouth Land Trust).

The updated trail map of Windham Community Forest, including connection to North Falmouth Community Forest

As we learned more about how people use the spaces and began thinking about long-term management plans, it became clear that unifying the two preserves under one identity would make a lot of sense.

In January, the Windham Town Council established the East Windham Steering Committee. This committee is composed of 11 representatives from town committees, recreational groups, nearby residential associations, and the general public, and is staffed by PRLT’s Executive Director and the Director of Windham Parks & Recreation. This committee was tasked with two major goals:

Seeking public input and recommending a new name that unifies the shared character and use of the two preserves
Developing an RFP and selecting a firm to assist in the establishment of a Master Plan to guide the Town and PRLT in the development and management of this property for the years to come. The committee will assist the chosen firm in the development of the Master Plan and ultimately present it to the Town Council for adoption.

To tackle the first goal, the committee brainstormed names over the course of several sessions. The top four choices, as well as the opportunity to supply other suggestions, were then sent out to the public via FlashVote in mid-August. (FlashVote is a survey tool used by the Town of Windham and other municipal organizations to solicit community feedback – if you are a Windham resident, you can sign up at https://www.flashvote.com/windhamme to receive future polls). The committee reviewed the survey results and then shared them with the Windham Town Council at their September meeting to make the final name selection. Their choice, which was the top result on the survey, was Windham Community Forest. The two entrances are also getting new names: the trailhead and parking area formerly for East Windham Conservation Area will be called Atherton Hill Trailhead (189 Falmouth Road) and the one formerly for Lowell Preserve (45 Falmouth Road) will be called Lowell Farm Trailhead.

To celebrate the new name and the completion of the Universal Access Trail, PRLT and the Town are hosting a naming ceremony and ribbon-cutting on October 17. All are welcome to join us at 9:00 a.m. at Atherton Hill Trailhead to recognize these community milestones. Weather-permitting, following the ceremony you are also invited to enjoy a guided walk along the UA Trail and experience the improved access it provides for all visitors to the preserve.

These changes are all part of continued strategic improvements at East Windham and Lowell to elevate the user experience and to make the preserves easier for PRLT and the Town to manage. After the recent building of new trails and the closing of some old ones, now is a key moment to step back to look at how the properties are being used, how they could be used, and how we want to go about making changes going forward to balance the many types of human recreation and wildlife needs. The committee will continue meeting to tackle its second objective to create a development and management plan of the property for the years to come. For future updates on the committee’s work, visit https://www.windhammaine.us/880/East-Windham-Steering-Committee

In the meantime, you’ll see signage changing soon that reflects the new name, and you can access our new web page for the unified property at prlt.org/windham-community-forest. Toby and Abigail have already been hard at work re-numbering the tech trails, and we’ll be updating maps and other signage in the trail system this fall.

We look forward to seeing you at Windham Community Forest!