Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust’s popular Parsons Reserve daffodil field will be closed to the public for the second year in a row due to the pandemic, the land trust announced on March 11.

The decision was made “based on current levels of Covid-19 and guidance from health officials,” DNRT stated in a press release. “While Covid-19 cases recently have been dropping in Bristol County, they are still near the peak levels experienced back in May 2020 and the county is considered ‘high risk.’” 

During the spring daffodil season from the end of March through early May, entrances to the Horseneck Road reserve will be blocked, according to a DNRT statement.

The fields will not be maintained and DNRT will be monitoring the property to enforce the closure.

“We’re not trying to spoil anybody’s fun,” noted DNRT Outreach Coordinator Kendra Murray. “This was an incredibly difficult decision for us to make...We really just want to keep people safe.”

Murray said that during the season’s peak bloom, the property can see more than 12,000 visitors in just two weeks.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “On really busy days, you’re shuffling through there following the crowd. It’s not like a stroll through the woods. It’s tight.”

With narrow trails, she added, “it’s difficult for people to safely distance from one another.”

And because the fields haven’t been fully maintained this past year — many of the land trust’s volunteers are over 65 and have been taking time off to keep safe during the pandemic — Murray said that they wouldn’t look the same anyway.

“Right now there are downed trees, there’s poison ivy,” she said. “It’s not in shape for an opening right now.”

Murray added that the trust hopes that everything will be back to normal for next year.

In the meantime, she said, “we have 18 other reserves and 40 miles of trails, so if people want to get outdoors and be in nature, there’s plenty of other opportunities.”