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Lilly Pond Wildlife Management Area
Goshen
Lilly Pond, located in Goshen, Massachusetts, contains a high-quality Acidic Level Bog, recognized by NHESP as a priority natural community for protection. Lilly Pond is located less than half a mile east of nearly 2700 acres of state-owned protected open space: DFW's Westfield River Access Area and the Cummington Wildlife Management Area, DCR's Chesterfield State Forest, and the state-owned Westfield River Wilderness Area.
The
Lilly Pond bog is undisturbed and surrounded by extensive intact hemlock-red
maple-yellow birch-red oak woods. The bog mat at Lilly Pond is approximately
20 acres and has a floating dwarf shrub mat dominated by Leatherleaf
with scattered Bog Rosemary and Bog Laurel. Herbaceous species include
Pitcher Plant, Round-leaved Sundew, Virginia Cottongrass, and Rose Pogonia.
A 20 to 30-meter-wide moat separates the mat from the upland woods.
The southern portion of the bog grades into a very good example of a
spruce-fir forest, which is then abutted to the east by a Red Maple
shrub swamp. On occasion, Great Blue Herons nest in the dead snags emerging
from the bog.
Identified as a priority for land protection in 2001, DFW has since
protected over 300 acres at this site. In 2004, the 20-acre bog itself
was donated to DFW by the previous owner, Five Colleges, Inc. Five Colleges,
Inc., is the consortium of colleges and universities in the Connecticut
River valley of Massachusetts, including the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mt. Holyoke College,
and Smith College. These colleges had owned the bog as a site for ecological
research.
Updated: May 18, 2007