Living next to a state forest (Fall River, Plymouth: apartment, houses, new construction)

[knaapan]

Me and my wife currently live in Foxborough in an apartment and looking for homes in the Foxborough, Wrentham and Mansfield area. All these three seem to be nice towns with reasonably good schools. I currently work in Natick and my wife is likely to be working at Fall River soon. So highway access is important for us. A lot of the houses that we see border some of the state parks in the area. We are also looking into some new constructions. Some of these have acres and acres of state forest behind the backyard. Should there be any concerns about living next to a state forest. I have heard of some coworkers having severe raccoon problems in other parts of Massachusetts. How big of a concern is this?

Are there other things that concern you if you were living next to a state forest?

[knaapan]

Also, I'm not sure if this is relevant, but all those houses itself are a bit isolated and looks like in the middle of the woods with pretty tall trees all around.

[CaseyB]

Our house borders a forest. We don't have trouble with raccoons, but there are coyotes, deer, turkeys, fisher cats. Occasionally, someone will get lost in the woods and wander in to the yard.

[Makolly]

I used to live in that area and we had lots of woods behind our house. We saw all kinds of wildlife but never had any problems. A few streets over from us there was a black bear that hung around for a couple of days but eventually moved on (it was a very rare occurance). You just need to make sure you keep your trash secure or you could possibly have problems with pesky hungry critters. We kept ours in our garage until trash day so we never had any problems.

I loved seeing all the wildlife so I think having a home next to a state forest would be great.

[leftmyheartintennessee]

Living anywhere away from a city(big or small) is going to present new challenges with wildlife. If one has grown up in town or city they may be very uncomfortable with the idea of wild animals roaming about. As with living anywhere it will take some getting used to. Remember humans are invading more and more of the wildlifes habitat.
Personally, I would welcome the isolation and trees as I don't really like to be around people all that much. I can deal with wildlife much easier than humans.

[brightdoglover]

Friends of mine lived up against the state forest in Plymouth. It was easy for people to use the walking trail there and get up to the houses, and there was a series of break-ins.

[mmyk72]

backing up to a forest is for sure better than backing to a railroad track, highway, dumpster, etc. I once looked at a house that was <20 ft from a wooded area and it had tons of mice inside. The realtor all say... that's 'normal' for being next to the woods. I moved on.

[massnative71]

Also remember, nothing can be built there. That is a HUGE plus for both resale and piece of mind.

[knaapan]

@Casey, How often do they wander into your yard? Do you have trails in the forest behind you that is close by? Did you have a fence?

[knaapan]

@brightdoglover, Did they have a fence?