Seine Field

Exploring Seine Field is easy thanks to a wide and flat graded trail. Visitors of all mobility levels are encouraged to enjoy this quarter-mile loop, which begins directly at the parking area — a stop on the Cape Ann Transportation Authority (CATA) route. This accessible trail was made possible through generous funding from the Gloucester Community Preservation Act.

The Seine Field is a rare New England habitat type known as an “Open Heathland” or "Relic Sandplain Grassland," characterized by arid, sandy soil, and a landscape of low vegetative growth. It occurs primarily near the coast on flat plains consisting of glacial outwash. The field is located on Eastern Point, a designated Important Bird Area.

Indigenous people, known as the Pawtucket, picked blueberries, gooseberries, wild strawberries, and “Concord” wild grapes growing in and around this field and similar terrains on Cape Ann. They also gathered bayberry leaves to flavor their meat stews, while shamans used the berries and bark to make medicines.

Human use of the property as a small golf course for summering Bostonians and later by local fishermen has kept the field in an early successional stage of vegetative growth, preventing it from evolving into forest.

In the 19th century and throughout most of the 20th, fishermen laid out their seine nets on the field for repair and drying, the practice that gives the property its name. Today, if you visit the property on the right day in June, you can still find fishermen carrying out this tradition.

This habitat consists of plant communities dominated by native grasses and shrubs such as bayberry. Look in patches of exposed sandy soil for lichens. Seine Field is also a very popular spot to pick low-bush blueberries in season (July-August) on the east side of the property.

As an important habitat for native and migrating birds, Seine field is a good place to observe woodcock in the spring and American kestrels and northern harriers in the summer and fall. In summer, you’ll find butterflies, including tiger swallowtails and fritillaries, and in fall, monarchs along this migratory flyway. Short-eared owls, coyote and red fox hunt the many small field mammals.