Erving State Forest

Erving State Forest, located just north of the Millers River in the towns of Erving, Warwick, and Orange, Massachusetts, covers a central area roughly 2½ by 2½ miles wide in central Massachusetts north of the Quabbin Reservoir, but also includes several nearby satellite property fragments.

The state forest is open to hiking, swimming, horseback riding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, fishing, and hunting (in season). Laurel Lake, located in the center of the property, has a beach and a seasonal public campground, it is approximately 1/4 mile wide (N-S) by 1 mile long (E-W). It is so named because of the abundance of Mountain Laurel flowers that border the lake. The lake is home to large mouth bass, rainbow trout, brook trout, yellow perch, pickerel, eel, and blue gill snapping and painted turtles, Heron, beaver, Eastern Newt, bull frog, leopard frog. The State Forest itself is home to many animals including black bear, white tail deer, porcupine, coyote, fox, raccoon, and ground squirrel. There are approximately 35 houses on the lake, the majority of which lie on the northern shore.

The property is largely wooded and hilly with an extensive network of park roads and hiking trails, the majority of which were created by Franklin Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps. These trails are often used for snowmobiling and four wheeling. One of these (hiking) trails, Laurel Trail, located behind the Ranger's Station at Laurel Lake beach offers a view of Mount Monadnock. The 110-mile Metacomet-Monadnock Trail passes through a western parcel of the state forest.

Aside from the Mountain Laurel, other common flowers in Erving State forest include: Pitcher Plants, Day Lily var. Hemerocallis fulva, and Painted trillium.