1
Wachusett Reservoir Watershed
Managed by Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
3,288 acres7.9 mi of trail
Blue Trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
Outdoors · Sterling
Sterling, MA parks, trails & bike paths
About 37% of Sterling is conserved land, roughly 7,465 acres. There are about 26 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Wachusett Reservoir Watershed (7.9 mi), Wekepeke Wildlife Conservation Easement (3.7 mi), and Allenwood (0.9 mi).
Conserved land, trails, parks and bike routes in Sterling, measured from OpenStreetMap and USGS data.
At a glance
Sterling outdoors
Conserved land
37%
7,465 of 20,151 acres
Trails
26 mi
0.8 mi per sq mi · 20 on conserved land
Parks & preserves
19
912 conserved acres per 1,000 residents
Bike routes
1.6 mi
0.0 mi lanes · 1.6 mi off-road paths
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.
Map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number or a place below to zoom in© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Parks & preserves with trails
Ranked by mapped trail miles. Directions go to the nearest marked trailhead or public parking.
2
Wekepeke Wildlife Conservation Easement
Nature preserve
556 acres3.7 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
DirectionsTo the parking lot
3
Allenwood
Managed by Sterling Land Trust
24 acres0.9 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
4
Leominster State Forest
Managed by DCR - Division Of State Parks And Recreation
64 acres0.8 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Website
All 19 parks & preserves
- Petrie Lot17 ac · 0.2 mi trail
- Town Forest77 ac
- Percival Lot52 ac
- Wilder Brook Conservation Area33 ac
- Stillwater River Wildlife Conservation Easement30 ac
- Wass Lot24 ac
- Munoz Lot21 ac
- Sweet Hill Nature Area14 ac
- Sholan Park9 ac
- West Sterling Park7 ac · Directions
- Heywood Lot6 ac
- Conservation Land5 ac
- Memorial Park2 ac · Directions
- Simpson Lot1 ac
- Redstone Hill Fields1 ac
Who protects the land
7,465 conserved acres
Who manages it, from PAD-US. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
Conserved doesn't always mean open to visitors. 966 acres are conservation easements, which are usually private land. Public access isn't recorded for 4 of 237 parcels. The places listed above are parks and preserves people visit.
Biking & sports
Bike routes, courts & fields
- Painted or protected bike lanes0.0 mi
- Off-road bike paths1.6 mi
- Shoulders & shared lanes0.0 mi
Courts & fields
- Baseball10
- Tennis4
- Basketball4
- Softball3
- Soccer2
Counts include school and college facilities, which aren't always open to the public.
Next door
Sterling and its neighbors
Towns whose outdoors data has been built so far.
| Town | Conserved | Trails | Parks & preserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sterling | 37% | 25.7 mi | 19 |
| Princeton | 49.1% | 66.3 mi | 20 |
| West Boylston | 41% | 11.7 mi | 4 |
| Clinton | 15.1% | 10.0 mi | 8 |
| Lancaster | 13.6% | 26.2 mi | 14 |
| Holden | 43.6% | 66.1 mi | 16 |
Trail talk
Conditions & tips from neighbors
No recent posts about Sterling's trails yet. Muddy, icy, a bridge out, where to park: a quick post helps the next person.
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 21.2-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.