Sid Emery Demonstration Forest
Nature preserve
118 acres0.4 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Photo: John Phelan · CC BY-SA 4.0BOutdoors
Outdoors in Lyman
Lyman has 39 miles of mapped trails, 1.0 for every square mile of land
2% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 8% of Lyman’s land is conserved, about 2,001 acres. 102 acres are parks and preserves, 22 per 1,000 residents.
Ahead of 60% of U.S. towns · #62 of 143 in Maine. What drives it
Conserved land
8%
2,001 acres · of 39.0 sq mi of land
Trails
39 mi
1.0 per sq mi of land
Park land
102 ac
22 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
2%
of residents within ½ mile
Highest peak
479 ft
Grant Hill
Lakes & rivers
9
1 beach
What kind of outdoors town is Lyman?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
Outdoors grade
How much outdoors does Lyman have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Lyman is ahead of 60% of U.S. towns, #62 of 143 in Maine. Trail miles hold the grade up; the share of residents near a park pulls it down.
B
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Lyman’s overall grade.
Conserved land8% of the land · typical ME town 6% · U.S. 4%B+Trails1.0 miles of mapped trail per square mile of land (39 mi) · ME 0.7 · U.S. 0.4A−Park land22 acres of park per 1,000 residents (102 acres) · ME 15 · U.S. 13B+Parks close to home2% of residents within a half mile of a park · ME 30% · U.S. 72%D
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 60%
LessMore
Maine towns of 2,500+ (143)Ahead of 57%
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.
PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →
The map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Places to walk
Pick a walk
The longest trail network is Sid Emery Demonstration Forest, with 0.4 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Bunganut Town Park
Managed by Town of Lyman
101 acres0.1 mi of trail
Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yetWebsite ↗
Who protects it
2,001 conserved acres
8% of Lyman’s land. Who manages Lyman’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
U.S. Forest Service1,813 ac
Land trusts & nonprofits322 ac
Regional agency133 ac
State fish & wildlife4 ac
Research or Educational Area · 1,813 acUnknown Easement · 138 acConservation Easement · 137 acUnknown · 133 acPrivate Other or Unknown · 45 ac
Good to know
Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 10 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. Public access isn’t recorded for 6 of 12 parcels. The walks above are places people visit.
The biggest protected parcels
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massabesic Experimental Forest Research or Educational Area | U.S. Forest Service | 1,813 | Restricted |
| Sid Emery Demonstration Forest Unknown | Regional agency | 133 | Unknown |
| Bradford Memorial Tract Private Other or Unknown | Land trusts & nonprofits | 45 | Closed |
Things to do
3 places to go in Lyman
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
Beaches in Lyman
Town Beach
DirectionsPeaks in Lyman
Grant Hill479 ft elevation
DirectionsRicker Hill381 ft elevation
DirectionsTrails & water
4 named trails and 9 lakes & rivers
Named trails
Unpaved · 22.0 mi
Snowmobile Lyman23.8 mi
Snowmobile Wadleigh Pond access1.1 mi
Snowmobile Bar Mills0.6 mi
Snowmobile East Waterboro0.2 mi
Biking & sports
0.0 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Courts & fields
2Baseball
1Basketball
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
When to get out
The best walking months in Lyman: May to September
NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 9.3 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.7 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 9.0 |
| High (°F) | 32 | 35 | 43 | 56 | 67 | 76 | 81 | 80 | 72 | 59 | 48 | 37 |
| Rain (in) | 3.5 | 3.4 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.9 | 5.2 | 4.4 | 4.6 |
February is the driest month (3.4 in) and July the warmest (highs of 81 °F). 5.2 inches fall in October, the wettest month. The climate in Lyman →
Next door
Lyman and its neighbors
Lyman has the second most mapped trails of the 6 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.
Questions about parks and trails in Lyman
Where can I hike in Lyman?
The longest trail networks: Sid Emery Demonstration Forest, 0.4 miles; Bunganut Town Park, 0.1 miles. Each one is on the map above, with directions to the nearest trailhead or parking.
How much of Lyman is conserved land?
8% of its land, against a typical 6% for a Maine town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Are dogs allowed on Lyman’s trails?
Sid Emery Demonstration Forest and Bunganut Town Park don’t have dog rules recorded on the map; check the signs at the trailhead.
Is there public land near Lyman?
2,004 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Lyman or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 102 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Lyman have?
Ahead of 60% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #62 of 143 in Maine. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Trail talk
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Lyman neighbors.
Share a tip
Sources
Where this page comes from
Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →