Baiting Brook-Welch

The Bay Circuit Trail through Baiting Brook-Welch. Photo by Sandy Gotlib.
The Bay Circuit Trail through Baiting Brook-Welch. Photo by Sandy Gotlib.
Stearns Farm CSA. Photo by Wayne Hall.
Stearns Farm CSA. Photo by Wayne Hall.
Baiting Brook Welch. Photo by Andy Limeri.
Baiting Brook Welch. Photo by Andy Limeri.
Baiting Brook Welch. Photo by Sandy Gotlib.
Baiting Brook Welch. Photo by Sandy Gotlib. 
Town
Framingham
Acreage
112.4

Baiting Brook-Welch offers a visual delight as you travel along the trails, and it provides a superb example of how the landscape of Framingham looked in decades gone by.

Extensive trails run through an interior forest, along active agricultural lands, and over the babbling Baiting Brook to create links between portions of Callahan State Park--and offer both short and long hiking opportunities. The Bay Circuit Trail meanders through the property and links with additional opportunities stretching beyond Framingham.

Full Description

To help conserve the landscape of northwest Framingham during the development boom that followed WWII, Margaret Pearmain Welch  donated 87 acres of land to SVT. Her generosity inspired her neighbors to likewise make gifts of land, expanding the size of this reservation to more than 110 acres. 

  • SVT’s purchased Baiting Brook Woods in 1992 and re-established trail connections between the Welch Reservation and Callahan State Park that had been severed by chain link fencing.
  • Interior forest bird species, including ovenbird, scarlet tanager, eastern wood-peewee, and veery, use the property for nesting.
  • Mrs. Welch's gift included an agricultural field where her friend Penelope Turton grew organic vegetables and flowers. Stearns Farm CSA (community-supported agriculture) has continued this tradition on half of the 10-acre field. The other half is cultivated by nearby Hanson’s Farm, which also offers CSA shares. 
  • Stone walls are evidence of the land's past and current agricultural use. 
  • The wide trails near Baiting Brook and Packard Pond were created by a former owner for carriage driving.

Check out these other nearby trails:

Directions

With mapping software, search for this address: 952 Edmands Road, Framingham, MA

For directions from any starting point, visit Google Maps.

From the intersection of Edgell Road and Edmands Road in Framingham, follow Edmands Road west. Go 2.4 miles. The Callahan State Park parking lot and trail access is on the left.

Nearby Nature Sightings

A red-tailed hawk at Stearns Farm CSA in SVT's Baiting Brook-Welch Conservation Land in Framingham, photographed by Wayne Hall.

Red-tailed Hawk at SVT's Baiting Brook-Welch Conservation Land in Framingham

Wayne Hall photographed this red-tailed hawk at Stearns Farm CSA in SVT's Baiting Brook-Welch Conservation Land in Framingham.
An eastern bluebird at Baiting Brook-Welch in Framingham, photographed by Mike Perrin.

Birds at SVT's Baiting Brook-Welch Conservation Area in Framingham

Mike Perrin photographed an eastern bluebird, a fox sparrow, and a winter wren at SVT's Baiting Brook-Welch Conservation Area in Framingham.
All Nature Sightings