The Northeast Wilderness Trust established the Preserve in 2018, and has been working to re-wild the land and connect students and residents with wilderness. The Preserve is about a half-hour south of Boston in Kingston, MA , and sits at the northernmost reaches of the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens. This forest type is globally rare, and found only in New Jersey, Long Island, and Southeastern Massachusetts and its islands. The Pine Barrens are dominated by pitch pine and black, white, and red oak trees. While Massachusetts’ Pine Barrens survived European colonization because their nutrient-poor soils were not suitable for agriculture, they are now very rare due to suburban development. Several species live only in the unique Coastal Plain Ponds of Southeast Massachusetts, and are critically endangered or threatened. South of Route 44, the 322-acre Muddy Pond Wilderness Preserve is one of the remaining pieces of a forest that was once vast and unbroken. Today, the Pine Barrens are small, separated parcels. And as the forest habitat disappears, so do the opportunities for people to connect with nature and experience the native landscape.