FOX RUN

Fox Run Conservation Area (formerly named the Curtis Conservation Lands) acquired in 2004, is a densely forested area with maple , oak, and beech trees. It is teaming with wildlife, particularly local and migrating birds. It includes upland areas as well as very active wetlands. Portions of these wetlands are classified as white cedar swamps, which are very rare and special on a barrier beach ecosystem such as Provincetown. The property abuts the Old Colony Nature Pathway, and includes a walking trail. 

• Download Trail Map and Booklet (PDF)

• Atlantic White Cedar Swamp Trail at Cape Cod National Seashore

Fox Run’s White Cedar swamp is of particular importance. This type of habitat has been steadily diminishing with the start of European colonization and continued encroachment. The diaries of early explorers and colonists (Archer 1602 and Brereton 1602 [in Emerson 19811; Emerson 1981) would suggest that Cape Cod and the Elizabeth Islands once had a great many Cedar stands. 

The White Cedar Swamps of Cape Cod generally exist in gla-cial kettles. Cedars cluster on hummocks that are scattered throughout the basin. On these hummocks one might expect to find ericaceous shrubs, sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia) and ferns atop a sphagnum carpet. 

In Massachusetts, the northern parula warbler (Parula Ameri-cana) now primarily breeds in a few white cedar swamps, due to the rapid lose of its preferred nesting materials from outside the swamps (the lichen Usnea) .