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McIntire Highlands Preserve
McIntire Highlands: Reading York’s Changing Forest
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McIntire Highlands Preserve in York is a place to read the forest as a changing landscape. Old woods roads, stone walls, and homestead remains carry traces of an earlier agricultural economy. Trees and active forestry add a more recent chapter. A visit makes sense as a history walk and a woodland study together, with attention shifting between what people left behind and how the forest continues to develop.
York Land Trust places the preserve within the Horse Hills region, where forestry and sheep farming once formed part of a busy local economy. The surviving road lines and walls help make that past tangible. Look at how a route follows the ground, then notice where a stone boundary continues into trees. These are useful starting points for imagining a worked landscape without needing to reconstruct a particular building from scattered remains.
The preserve's conservation role reaches beyond those historical features. It contributes to an unfragmented woodland setting and helps protect regional water quality. Earlier Land for Maine's Future project reporting describes the protected tract as part of the larger Mount Agamenticus to the Sea effort, buffering the York River headwaters and drinking-water supplies. That context gives the trees around the walking route another significance: they belong to a connected landscape with responsibilities extending beyond recreation.
Recent stewardship is an important part of the story. In its October 2024 account, the land trust explains that much of the property had been clear-cut in 1960, followed by dense forest growth. Planned thinning later sought to give healthy trees more growing room and create a more varied forest structure. A separate salvage operation responded to trees blown down in severe storms. These activities are specific chapters in the preserve's history, rather than a description of work happening on every visit.
The same operator account describes planting a mix of trees after the harvest, including chestnuts, cherry, hawthorn, and shagbark hickory. Knowing that background can change the questions you bring on a walk. Compare openings with denser stands and look at differences in tree size from the trail. The point is to notice variation, while recognizing that identifying the exact cause or age of each patch would require more information than a passing view provides.
An original Living with a Golden account offers a visitor's response to the older human traces. Its walkers enjoyed exploring stone walls and abandoned roads rather than attempting an ambitious journey through the wider adjoining network. That is a useful scale for a first outing here. Choose a currently available preserve route, give it time, and let the relationship between road, wall, and woodland become the main subject.
Plan access carefully: the operator currently flags parking as unavailable. Check its latest entrance guidance before arranging an approach on foot, and follow current trail closures and signs. With that settled, McIntire Highlands rewards a thoughtful woodland visit. Its appeal comes from seeing several histories together—agricultural use, forest regrowth, storm disturbance, and conservation management—within a landscape that still offers space to walk, observe, and ask better questions about the trees around you.
Fun facts
- The Horse Hills landscape supported forestry and sheep farming.
- Old roads, walls, and homestead remains preserve traces of earlier land use.
- A 2024 operator account describes both planned thinning and storm-response salvage work.
Before you go
- Check the operator’s current access notice: parking is listed as unavailable.
- Use current mapped open routes and respect any closure signs.
- Keep dogs leashed and avoid brook crossings in high water.
- Follow hunting-season guidance and leave historic remains undisturbed.
Visitor perspectives
- The Living with a Golden account enjoys exploring old roads and extensive stone walls, choosing a local woodland outing over a longer adjoining-network hike.
Capture
- Frame a stone-wall line within its woodland setting from the trail.
- Compare tree sizes and canopy openings in separate images without assigning unverified stand ages.
Social
McIntire Highlands combines woodland walking with York’s agricultural history.
Old roads and stone walls trace an earlier worked landscape.
Forest regrowth and active stewardship add later chapters to the preserve.
A 2024 operator account explains thinning and storm-response forestry.
Look at differences in tree size and spacing along currently open routes.
The preserve helps protect a wider connected woodland and watershed.
Check current access first: the operator lists parking as unavailable.
A focused history walk can be rewarding without a long network traverse.
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