Forest of the Dozen Dads
Beaver Pond Trail
Activities:Â Hiking, snowshoeing, wildlife viewing
Location: 325 Blacks Road, Cooperstown NY 13326
Level: Moderate
Distance: .37 miles or .75 miles
Elevation Gain: 40 feet
Fee: No
UPDATE 5/22/23: The Forest of the Dozen Dads is open! Logging on site has been completed. The Beaver Pond Trail is a little overgrown but walkable. You can also explore on the logging roads.Â
Tip: In winter, to avoid seasonal roads, access Blacks Road from 166, just south of the intersection of 166 and County Hwy 35.
The Forest of the Dozen Dads, in the Town of Middlefield, is a reforestation project begun in 1920 by the Conservation Department, which is the current Department of Environmental Conservation. After seeing hillsides clear-cut for lumber, the Conservation Department began a collaborative effort to promote reforestation projects. Ten students from the Syracuse College of Forestry, as it was then called, planted over four days, 30,000 red and white pine treelets. And a forest was born. Today it is a 127-acre site.
The Forest of the Dozen Dads is a family and pet friendly picnic and nature trail area.
The Beaver Pond Trail is a smooth trail that is .75 miles if done as a loop by walking along the road. The trail begins past the bigger picnic pavilion, follow the path around the left side of the his and hers outhouse (quite a feature!). Look for the red blazes with the hiker. Instead of making a loop along the road, you may want to retrace your steps along the trail and spend more time in the woods.
Trail maps are located at each end of the trail and red trail signs mark the way from one end to the other. The trail is open all year, sunrise to sunset, for fall foliage viewing and for winter hiking and snow shoeing.
Parking is available in the day on the north end of the trail, where you’ll also find picnic tables. You can park on the road on the south end of the trail.
Other Amenities, Features, and Activities: map at trail head, parking, dogs allowed.
Fun Fact: According to the September 1920 issue of The Conservationist, ” The “Dads’ Forest” was planted in its first installment by a stock company of twelve young business men, and secures its name from the fact that no one was allowed to be a stockholder who did not have a child under ten years of age. ‘This is being planted, not for ourselves, but as an endowment insurance for our children…’ said one of its founders.” The planting was done by forestry students, as mentioned earlier. It is now an Otsego County Forest.
The forest is maintained by the Otsego County Department of Highways, Forestry, and Parks
