Falmouth's Off-Leash Trails Are Also Its Hunting Grounds This November
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
Hadlock Community Forest, Suckfish Brook and Woods Road Community Forest are the Falmouth trails where a dog can run off leash under voice control in November. All three are also hunting areas during Maine's firearms deer season. Falmouth Nature Preserve is the big preserve where hunting is prohibited, and it requires a leash every day of the year.
The two sets of rules run against each other through the rest of the month. Since November 2, the 24/7 animal emergency room has also been on Route 1 in Falmouth, so it's worth getting both pieces straight before the next walk.
PVESC set 8 a.m. on November 2 as the time Portland Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Care would move its 24/7 emergency and critical care, its ICU and its specialty services into a new hospital at 422 US Route 1 in Falmouth. The Portland Press Herald reported that the 42,000-square-foot building sits on a hill off Route 1, with 33 exam rooms and six operating rooms, and will employ about 220 people. The paper also quoted the owner calling it the largest facility of its kind in New England.
Not everything moved. Here's where things stand now:
If your saved directions to "the emergency vet" still point to Warren Avenue, update them. Late at night, the address that answers now is in Falmouth.
Maine's 2026 regular firearms season for deer runs November 2 through November 28. A statewide muzzleloader season follows from November 30 through December 5. Falmouth is only partly closed to it. Falmouth Land Trust's hunting page says that in town, hunting is limited to shotgun and archery. It lists the Trust properties open to permitted hunters and notes that hunting is also allowed on some town-owned land.
Look at the dog rules next to that, and a pattern appears. Seasonal leash requirements on Falmouth's larger forests exist to protect wildlife during nesting and breeding months, so they end in fall, just as hunting starts.
| Property | Hunting | Dogs in November |
|---|---|---|
| Hadlock Community Forest, 65 Hadlock Rd | Allowed. The Trust calls it "a popular hunting area" | Seasonal leash rule ended Sept. 30 |
| Suckfish Brook Conservation Area | Allowed | Seasonal leash rule ran April 1 to Sept. 30 |
| Woods Road Community Forest | Listed as a town hunting area on the 2019 town map | Off leash under voice control through Nov. 30; leash required from Dec. 1 |
| Blackstrap Hill Preserve and Community Forest | Allowed; the Trust requires a seasonal permit on its parcel | Follow town and posted rules |
| River Point Conservation Area | Allowed | Dogs and other pets prohibited |
| Falmouth Nature Preserve, 178 Foreside Rd | Prohibited | Leash at all times |
Hadlock shows the overlap most clearly. It's town-owned, about 300 acres, with 5.75 miles of trail that the Trust describes as "often rooty and rocky." It's also a working forest, and there's a deeryard on its south-facing ridge. The property page lists hunting among its permitted uses and warns visitors to "use caution during hunting season." The same habitat that justified a leash rule through September is the reason the forest draws hunters in November.
The Trust's rules for hunters on its own land help on the trail side. Shotgun stands have to be at least 100 feet from a defined trail system, and bow stands at least 50 feet. Stands should face away from public trails, and shooting over a defined trail is prohibited. The Trust's property use and safety page has shorter advice for everyone else on its trails this season. Wear blaze orange.
The one large preserve on the table that's closed to hunting is also the one with the strictest dog rule. Falmouth Nature Preserve, about 110 acres off Foreside Road with a small unpaved lot of roughly eight spaces, lists hiking, biking, snowshoeing, skiing, birding and fishing as allowed uses. Its property page states plainly: "Hunting is prohibited." It also says dogs must be on leash at all times "due to restrictions by the Nature Conservancy."
So from Monday through Saturday, a Falmouth dog owner has two choices. One is an off-leash run in a forest that's open to hunting, with orange on both of you. The other is a leashed walk on Foreside Road where hunting isn't allowed at all. Underwood Springs Forest and Woodman Preserve don't appear on the Trust's list of properties open to hunting, and their pages don't list hunting as an allowed use.
The town's hunting map is older than this season. The brochure the Trust links to is marked as revised October 30, 2019, and it warns that zones can change. That map lists Falmouth Town Forest as archery-only and Falmouth Community Park among the public lands where hunting is prohibited. Posted signs at the trailhead are the most current word.
Maine law takes the guesswork out of one day each week. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife puts it bluntly: "Sunday Hunting is Illegal in Maine." That gives the rest of November four Sundays when Hadlock and Suckfish Brook can be off-leash walks without hunters in the woods: November 8, 15, 22 and 29.
The Land Trust has put one of its own events on one of those days. A free guided walk at Suckfish Brook Conservation Area, 4 Upland Way, is set for Sunday, November 15. Its other November walk lands on a weekday, inside the firearms season. The free Green Friday walk on November 27 goes to Underwood Springs Forest and Woodman Preserve, two properties that aren't on the Trust's hunting list. It meets at 10 a.m. at the Underwood Springs trailhead in the Friends School parking lot, 11 US Route 1, Cumberland Foreside, and the event page asks walkers to register.
Some of the trail work done this summer and fall will show up on these walks. The town reports that summer work added 29 wooden steps at Falmouth Community Park and raised gravel sections at Underwood Springs Forest. Crews also replaced five bridges at named preserves and added a bog bridge at Town Forest Preserve. At Hadlock, fall trail work was scheduled to repair the white entrance trail from the main Hadlock Road parking area.
Under all the property-by-property rules, the town has a baseline. Falmouth's dog owner guide, last updated in 2017, allows a dog on a leash, cord or chain no longer than 10 feet, or off leash within voice command of its owner. Dogs must be leashed within 300 feet of parking or a trailhead, at organized events, and in designated child play areas. Waste has to be picked up and taken off park property, and the guide asks that filled bags not go into public portable toilets. The Land Trust repeats the 300-foot rule for its trailheads and asks visitors to carry out pet waste.
That 300-foot rule matters more this month. The 2019 town hunting brochure also prohibits hunting within 300 feet of town-property parking areas or playing fields, so on town land the first 300 feet from the lot is a no-hunting zone and a leash zone at the same time. These rules come from the town, the Land Trust and the state, and this is general information, not legal advice. Check the posted signs and the linked sources for anything you're relying on.
The schedule shifts again around December 1. Woods Road Community Forest switches to leash-required on December 1 and stays that way through March 31. The statewide muzzleloader season runs November 30 through December 5.
That same week is Very Merry Falmouth, December 3 through 5. The community tree lighting at Village Park is Thursday, December 3, at 5:30 p.m. The Merry Mix and Mingle at the American Legion runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, December 4, with free fireworks at 7 p.m. If your dog would rather skip that, plan an earlier walk. On Saturday, December 5, the Ugly Sweater 5K and Merry Mile start at 9 a.m. to benefit Falmouth Memorial Library. Later that day, the Land Trust hosts a free nature-journaling walk and workshop at its office, capped at 12 people and asking for advance registration.
Muzzleloader season closes the same day the 5K runs. Through all of it, PVESC's emergency room at 422 US Route 1 is open around the clock at 207-878-3121.
At Dambrie Garon Real Estate Advisors, we keep track of the details that shape daily life here, from which trailhead has an eight-car lot to which week the leash rules change. If you'd like that same local detail on what's happening near your own street, let's talk about your next move.
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