Lyman Reserve

IUCN Category V - Protected Landscape / Seascape

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Lyman Reserve is a 210 acre ( 0.8 km ²) large nature reserve on the urban areas of Bournemouth, Plymouth and Wareham, Massachusetts of the United States, which is administered by the organization The Trustees of Reservations.

History

The current flowing through the territory of Red Brook is reddish from ferruginous rock at its source and used by humans for almost 2000 years. Archaeological investigations have revealed that there were about 1800 years ago, important settlements of the Wampanoag Indians. They used pots made ​​of clay and put forth sharp stone blades, which they used for hunting marine and wildlife.

The European settlers, however, used the land far more intense. Pitch pines were processed to tar and caught herring and alewife in large quantities. In the marshes was dug for iron ore and the excavation area then planted with cranberries. Recently settled in the 1830s Uriah Nickerson in the field down the the still open to visitors Lyman House built in the 1840s.

However, the name of the house and of the protected area goes back to Theodore Lyman, who visited the area in 1867 for the Massachusetts Board of Inland Fisheries. Over the next 30 years, he finally bought by little parcels along the Red Brook from its source to its mouth, to be owned by an area of ​​638 acres ( 2.6 km ²) included. His family used the area for six generations as a fishing area and appropriated it in 2001 to the Trustees of Reservations to protect it permanently.

Lyman's heritage includes the current reserve Red Brook Reserve, which in the 210 acres ( 0.8 km ²) large field of Trustees and a 428 acres ( 1.7 km ²) is divided large area, which is the property of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife is located.

Sanctuary

The reserve is located on the Buzzards Bay belonging to Buttermilk Bay ( Buttermilk Bay ) at the mouth of 4.5 mi ( 7.2 km ) long Red Brook. It is popular with anglers and is especially used for fly fishing. Due to the protective provisions, however, any fish caught must be released back into the wild.

The river flows from White Pond in Iceland Buttermilk Bay and is the ecological, cultural and scenic unique feature of the conservation area. The Red Brook is one of the few rivers in Massachusetts, where there are migratory fish, and he is one of the last remaining, natural opportunities in the eastern states of the United States to fish for trout.

In addition to the Red Brook the reserve on wetlands, forests, a sandy beach and a stretch of coastline along the Bay features. While in the woods mainly pitch pine, oak and scrub oak trees grow, flourish in the floodplain mainly red maples. The varied landscape offers a multitude of partially rare plants and animals a habitat.

A 1.5 mi ( 2.4 km ) loop trail leads through the reserve.