About 27% of Essex is conserved land, roughly 2,785 acres. There are about 38 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Manchester Essex Woods (11.6 mi), Crane Wildlife Refuge (3.8 mi), and Warren Weld Woodland (1.3 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Essex, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
Conserved land is a share of the whole town area. Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 1,454 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 43 of 159 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essex | 27.3% | 37.7 mi | 18 |
| Ipswich | 39% | 102.7 mi | 82 |
| Hamilton | 36.6% | 62.0 mi | 27 |
| Gloucester | 20% | 113.5 mi | 92 |
| Manchester-by-the-Sea | 9.6% | 43.4 mi | 37 |
Sources: trails, parks, preserves, courts and bike lanes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), map data as of 2026-09-28. Conserved land: USGS Gap Analysis Project, Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). Measured against the Census town boundary.
How we measure
"Trails" are OpenStreetMap paths, bridleways, public tracks and unpaved footways, plus footways inside a park or preserve or on a named trail route. Sidewalks are left out. Areas are counted on a 20-meter grid, so overlapping parcels count once. "Conserved" includes conservation easements, which protect land from development but are usually private property. Trailheads are the nearest marked trailhead, public parking lot or information board within about 150 meters of a preserve. Dog rules come from OpenStreetMap when someone has tagged them; otherwise we show what's typical for the land manager, or say the rules aren't recorded.