PROPERTY DESCRIPTION

The ecosystem of Seine Field is a habitat type known as an "Open Heath" or "Relic Sandplain Grassland," which is characterized by arid, sandy soil and scarcity of humus-rich topsoil. This habitat type was once common along the Essex County coastline, but is now quite rare in New England. Only the unusual circmstances of the property's history have kept the Seine Field in this early successional stage of vegetative growth.

When the first wealthy Bostonians established their summer homes here in the early part of the 19th century, it is thought that they may have used the property as a small golf course; later in the 19th and throughout most of teh 20th century, landowners allowed seine fisherman to repair and dry their large fishing nets on teh field, the practice that gives the property its name. Today, if you visit the property on the right day in June you can still find one or two fisherman carrying out this tradition here.