Winter Island
Winter Island Park occupies the southern third of Winter Island, an approximately 54-acre peninsula located on Salem Neck at the mouth of Salem Harbor. Winter Island Park and its lighthouse have welcomed maritime visitors into Salem’s harbor for centuries. Located just minutes northeast of downtown Salem, it is accessible by foot, bike, Salem Trolley, car, and boat. Its recreational resources are extensively used by Salem residents and non-residents of all ages and abilities and include a historic fort and buildings, public beaches, a state-owned boat ramp, a state-financed pier, a community sailing program, and RV and tent campground. Winter Island Park contains a deep and rich history. Pre-contact archaeological sites have been dated to be over 6,000 years old. Fort Pickering’s masonry and earthworks were established in 1643. The Park was the center of Salem’s fishing trade throughout the 1620 – 1740s. In the 1930s, it became home for the United State Coast Guard and Sea Rescue Station until control was passed on to the City in 1973.
The Winter Island Park Master Plan (see below) set goals to enhance Winter Island Park’s unique natural resources, preserve its historically significant properties, increase the public’s access and enjoyment, and enable it to operate in a financially sustainable manner. Desired improvements included its environmental conditions and protecting its shoreline from erosion and unwanted contaminants. It was noted that invasive bittersweet was impacting Fort Pickering and other areas of the Park. The Plan called for stabilizing and protecting from further deterioration the ramparts of Fort Pickering through management of access, vegetation, and use. It also stated that the entire perimeter of the Park “to the greatest extent practical” should be made accessible with a walking path that respects the edges of the island to minimize runoff and any impact to the shoreline habitat while also creating informal links to the shore.
The first project completed from the Master Plan was the construction of a scenic multi-use trail along the west side, bordering Cat Cove that extended public access and viewing spots with funding from a PARC Grant (2014) and CPA funds. This multi-use pathway is accessible and connects Winter Island with Salem’s extensive city-wide Bike Path, which links to both Beverly and Marblehead bike paths, thus increasing access by alternative methods.
Current Projects
The Winter Island Park Pathway and Bank Restoration Project
In October of 2023 the City secured a Coastal Resiliency Grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to address coastal erosion at Winter Island Park through community engagement, pedestrian traffic management, and shoreline erosion and invasive plant species assessments. The Winter Island Park Pathway and Bank Restoration Project will help address the severe and ongoing issue of erosion of its pathways and coastal banks, resulting from its unconstrained use and from climate change. Coastal erosion, combined with excess invasive bittersweet, at Winter Island Park threatens the Park’s goals to “enhance its unique natural resources, preserve its historically significant properties, and increase the public’s access and enjoyment.”
The project will focus on managing the heavy, undirected pedestrian use of the coastal bank and assess how the eroding banks and pathways can best stabilized. Managing the year-round pedestrian use of the park is the critical first step. The project aims to find solutions to this problem through community engagement and physical actions at Winter Island Park. Additionally, the area will be evaluated to begin the ecological restoration of the coastal bank process.
Project updates can be found on the Public Input website here.