The Bearce Allen Preserve consists of 40 diverse forested acres with 3 trails that total just over 1 mile. It serves as a demonstration forest to showcase best practices in sustainable forestry. 

The area was used as a tannery from the 1820s to the 1890s. The red house to the left of the kiosk was the tannery office and is one of the oldest houses in Bristol, dating from the 1780s. The preserve was planted to a white pine tree farm during the 1940s, and these same pines now can be seen via the green and blue trails. In 1953, a forest fire swept through eastern parts of Bristol. The edge of this burn area can be seen at the point the yellow trail splits into the loop. The dominant vegetation type in the burned area is gray birch, and, in the non-burned area, red oak/Eastern white pine forest and red maple swamp.

The adjacent NORGAL property adjacent to the Bearce-Allen Preserve contains approximately 45 wooded acres. It contains wetlands and streams. The property remains in a substantially undisturbed wooded natural state, presumably second growth based on the numerous stone walls that crisscross the property.

The Bearce-Allen Trail is moderate in difficulty and is about one mile long. The easy Gale’s Trail loop into NORGAL Preserve adds a little less than 0.5 mile.