Hillside Environmental Education Park (HEEP)
The Hillside Environmental Education Park is a preservation of about 33 acres of wetlands and 31 acres of uplands. The park includes a network of trails running from North Hillside Road to Hunting Lodge Road and features two wildlife observational platforms and an additional viewing platform overlooking HEEP from the back of C-Lot.
HEEP is a great contribution to the Mansfield Open Space Network, which includes parks and conserved lands from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the Town of Mansfield, and the University. HEEP is the result of the Landfill Project, which is an environmental remediation project the University undertook from the 1990's to the 2000's, that culminated in the creation of C-Lot, which caps the old landfill, and HEEP.
Here you can find more information on the ecological value of wetlands, the importance of preserving connected open space, and the Landfill Project. Photos of the Landfill Project can be found here while a technical overview of the Landfill Project can be found here.