New England Biolabs campus trails with your dog: leashes required

Greenbelt's page for the New England Biolabs Campus is unusually specific: as required under the conservation restriction, dogs must be kept on leash and horses must remain on designated trails. That condition sits inside the legal agreement that protects the land, so it is not a matter of manners. The campus is in Ipswich, whose leash bylaw separately caps the leash at six feet for a dog off its owner's premises, so bring a standard leash rather than a long line or an extending lead.

Greenbelt's Trail Safety Guidelines add the etiquette. Keep your dog from approaching wildlife, horses, other dogs or people uninvited; step off the trail and hold your dog when hikers, riders or bikers pass; and bag the waste and take it with you instead of leaving bags on or beside the trail. The page lists dog walking, hiking, mountain biking and trail running as the activities here, so expect all four on a fine weekend.

Greenbelt rates the 2.9 miles of shared-use trail as easy terrain. The trails pass through agricultural fields, woodland and wetlands, and Greenbelt's 2026 trail map marks a boardwalk, benches and scenic viewpoints, with the Miles River and, next door, Appleton Farms shown on the same sheet. Download the map before you go, since it also shows where the campus is private.

The land's history is layered. It was the Proctor Estate, then from 1955 a Catholic seminary and later the Don Bosco retreat center, until NEB founder Don Comb bought it in 1999. NEB now manages the property to protect biodiversity, and Greenbelt lists otters, bobolinks, bluebirds, deer, foxes and coyotes among its wildlife. The fields are mowed once a year, in late fall or early spring, to protect grassland bird habitat, which is one more reason to keep your dog on the trail.

Wetland edges and spring fields send dogs home muddy to the elbows. A bath and brush at Dogtown, 210 Eastern Ave in Gloucester, costs $55 for a dog up to 25 pounds and $65, $75, $85 or $95 as the size and coat grow, with nail clipping for $16 if the trails have not worn them down. Grooming needs no evaluation, and the next appointment is $5 cheaper when you book it at pickup.

Ipswich sits outside the Pup Van towns of Rockport, Gloucester, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea, so ask us about pick-up or plan the drive along Route 133 and Route 128. A dog that lunges at every bike on a shared trail is a good candidate for loose-leash work, and private training sessions start from $94, with fear- and force-free methods. We do not take dogs to the campus trails.