Aug 12, 2026

The Trustees Own 6 Places on Martha's Vineyard: 1 Bans Dogs Entirely, and 5 Have a Catch

The Trustees run a separate system from the Land Bank, and it contains the strictest dog exclusion on Martha's Vineyard. Six properties, six positions.

Luis ZamoraCo-founder of PetCompass; Dog Dad to Banzo and Tuck

Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts10 min readThings to DoPet Care & Services

The Trustees of Reservations is the second landowner you have to understand on this island. The Land Bank runs seven different dog policies across its properties. The Trustees run a completely separate system, with its own logic, and it includes the single strictest exclusion anywhere on Martha's Vineyard.

The headline fact: not one Trustees property on Martha's Vineyard permits off-leash walking. The organisation publishes a list of eleven properties where dogs may be off leash, and every one of them is on the mainland.

Here are all six island properties and the rule at each.

1. Long Point Wildlife Refuge, West Tisbury

632 acres. Ocean swimming, sheltered salt and freshwater ponds, and rare grassland habitat.

Dogs are banned, permanently. The Trustees state it plainly: due to its special status as a wildlife refuge, dogs, horses, and other pets are not permitted, year-round.

This is the strictest exclusion on the island, and it is on one of the best beaches. There is no seasonal window, no leashed exception, and no car park workaround. Plan around it.

2. Wasque, Chappaquiddick Island

200 acres, at the south-eastern corner of the island, and in the Trustees' own words in a constant state of flux as storms and sea level rise reshape the coastline daily.

Open daily, 24 hours, and dog walking is listed among the things to do here.

The rule splits by surface. The Trustees state that dogs are not allowed on the beach from 1 April to 30 September, but on upland walking trails dogs are permitted year-round provided they are kept on leash.

So this is the property to know. In high season you get the trails and not the sand. Out of season you get both. It is the most usable Trustees land on the island for a dog, and almost nobody explains the split.

3. Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge, Chappaquiddick Island

The long barrier beach north of Wasque, reached by over-sand vehicle or on foot.

The stated rule is narrow. The Trustees state that dogs must be kept on a leash from October through April.

Read that alongside two other published facts. Over-sand vehicle access is subject to occasional closures in June and July to protect rare nesting shorebirds. And the Trustees' system-wide policy prohibits dogs in Resource Protection Areas, which it defines as including coastal dune habitats and shorebird nesting areas.

Taken together, the sensible reading is that the October to April leash window is the season when dogs are welcome, and that the nesting months carry restrictions the property page does not spell out. The Trustees do not state a summer ban here in as many words, so confirm before travelling rather than assuming either way.

4. Mytoi, Chappaquiddick Island

14 acres. A secluded Japanese garden of exotic and native plantings around a pond, and one of the most photographed places on the island.

Dogs stay outside the fence. The property asks visitors to refrain from biking or dog walking within the garden's fences.

The reason is systemic, not local. Gardens are one of the Resource Protection Area categories in the Trustees' own dog policy, alongside working farms. A designed horticultural collection and a dog are not compatible, and the organisation is consistent about it.

5. Menemsha Hills, Chilmark

211 acres. A rocky shoreline with scenic views across Vineyard Sound to the Elizabeth Islands.

On leash. No off-leash permission and no stated ban, which places it under the Trustees' default: the majority of its trails require dogs to remain leashed, to accommodate a diversity of recreational trail uses.

Watch the shoreline boundary. Coastal dune habitat is a Resource Protection Area under the system-wide policy, so the beach and the bluff trail are not necessarily the same permission. Stay on the trail.

6. The Brickyard, Chilmark

20 acres, and the quiet one. The Trustees describe it as away from the high-season crowds, with a water-powered brickworks that helped build downtown Boston.

On leash, under the same default as Menemsha Hills.

This is the sleeper on the list. Twenty acres, genuinely uncrowded even in August, historically interesting, and open to a leashed dog. If you want a Trustees walk in high season without the Wasque beach restriction, this is it.

The six at a glance

Property	Town	Size	Dog rule
Long Point Wildlife Refuge	West Tisbury	632 acres	No dogs, year round
Wasque	Chappaquiddick	200 acres	Trails on leash year round; no dogs on the beach 1 Apr to 30 Sep
Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge	Chappaquiddick	Barrier beach	On leash October to April; nesting-season restrictions apply
Mytoi	Chappaquiddick	14 acres	No dog walking inside the garden fences
Menemsha Hills	Chilmark	211 acres	On leash
The Brickyard	Chilmark	20 acres	On leash

One property most guides still get wrong

Norton Point Beach is no longer a Trustees property. Its page now redirects attention elsewhere, pointing visitors to Long Point, Wasque, Leland Beach, and Cape Poge as the Martha's Vineyard beaches the organisation continues to own or manage.

A lot of published dog guides still list Norton Point under Trustees rules. If you are working from an older article, check the landowner before you check the dog policy, because the rules follow the owner.

The system-wide rules that apply at all six

These come from the Trustees' own guidelines for dog walkers and they apply on every property.

No off-leash anywhere on Martha's Vineyard. The Trustees publish eleven off-leash properties and all eleven are on the mainland, from Ravenswood Park in Gloucester to Rocky Woods in Medfield. The island has none.

Ask permission before your dog approaches anyone. This is the first rule on the list, ahead of waste and wildlife, and it tells you what kind of organisation you are dealing with.

No chasing or harassing animals and wildlife, and no disturbing or destroying vegetation.

Bag it and take it. Waste goes in a receptacle or comes with you.

Dogs are prohibited outright in Resource Protection Areas. The categories are worth memorising because they cut across every property: working farms and gardens, coastal dune habitats and shorebird nesting areas, designated children's play areas, historic and cultural buildings and museums, sensitive horticultural resources and National Natural Landmarks, campgrounds and inns, open public water supplies, and entrance and parking areas.

Grassland bird nesting runs 1 April to 15 August, and the Trustees note that some properties impose temporary on-leash rules across that window. Long Point is explicitly a rare grassland habitat, which is part of why its ban is permanent.

Service animals are permitted wherever the public is allowed, under ADA rules, harnessed, leashed, or tethered unless those devices interfere with the animal's work.

Why the Trustees are stricter than the Land Bank

Both organisations conserve land on the same island and they arrive at noticeably different answers. Understanding why saves you guessing at a gate.

The Trustees are a statewide organisation applying one policy framework. Their rules are written for 120-odd properties from Gloucester to the islands, which is why the categories are generic: farms, gardens, dunes, museums, water supplies. A single framework applied consistently produces a stricter island outcome than a rule written for the island alone.

The Land Bank is island-only and writes per property. That is how it ends up with seven distinct dog policies, including several that permit off-leash walking under immediate control. It can afford that granularity because it only has one island to think about.

The habitat sits differently in each portfolio too. The Trustees hold the wildlife refuges, the barrier beach, and the Japanese garden. Those are the three land types least compatible with a loose dog anywhere in the world. The Land Bank's estate is heavier on woodland and mixed open space.

The working rule to carry with you. On Land Bank land, check the property, because the answer genuinely varies and might be off leash. On Trustees land, assume leashed at best, and check whether dogs are permitted at all before you drive. Getting that the wrong way round is the most common mistake visitors make here.

How this fits with the rest of the island

The Land Bank is the other big landowner, and it operates seven separate dog policies rather than one. Several of its properties do allow off-leash walking under immediate control, which the Trustees never do. Full detail in the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank's seven dog policies.

Four of these six properties are on Chappaquiddick, which means a 527-foot ferry crossing before you start. See Chappaquiddick with a dog.

Town beaches are a third system again. See Martha's Vineyard town beach dog rules.

The nesting closures that drive most of this are covered in the plover closures that affect your dog.

Everything assumes you got here. All five ferries take dogs free, with different rules, in every dog on Martha's Vineyard arrives by boat.

Practical notes

Download TrailsMV. Sheriff's Meadow Foundation produces it free and it covers all public trails on the island rather than one landowner's holdings, which matters when three separate organisations set three separate rules.

Admission. Trustees properties charge non-members at several sites, and Long Point in particular has seasonal admission. Check before you drive.

Ticks. This is coastal New England scrub and grassland. Check ears, armpits, groin, and between the toes after every walk.

Carry water. These are conservation properties, not parks, and amenities are minimal to non-existent.

Plan the Chappaquiddick group as one trip. Wasque, Cape Poge, and Mytoi sit on the same small island, reached by the same short ferry. Doing them in one outing rather than three separate crossings saves both fares and the dog's patience, and the walking distances between them are modest.

Go out of season if the beaches matter to you. Every meaningful restriction on this list is a nesting-season restriction. From October onward, Wasque opens fully, Cape Poge states its leash rule plainly, and the crowds that make a leashed dog difficult have gone. The only property that does not improve in winter is Long Point, because its ban never lifts.

Frequently asked questions

Are dogs allowed at Long Point Wildlife Refuge? No. The Trustees state that due to its special status as a wildlife refuge, dogs, horses, and other pets are not permitted year-round. There is no seasonal exception.

Can my dog go on the beach at Wasque? Not between 1 April and 30 September. Dogs are permitted on the upland walking trails year-round, on leash.

What is the dog rule at Cape Poge? The Trustees state that dogs must be kept on a leash from October through April. Nesting-season restrictions apply in summer, including occasional over-sand vehicle closures in June and July to protect rare nesting shorebirds, so confirm before travelling.

Are dogs allowed at Mytoi garden? Not inside the garden fences. The property asks visitors to refrain from biking or dog walking within them, consistent with the Trustees' policy on gardens as Resource Protection Areas.

Can dogs go off leash on any Trustees property on Martha's Vineyard? No. The Trustees list eleven off-leash properties and all of them are on the mainland.

Is Norton Point Beach a Trustees property? Not any longer. The Trustees now point visitors to Long Point, Wasque, Leland Beach, and Cape Poge as the Martha's Vineyard beaches they continue to own or manage.

Sources

Property rules, admission, and seasonal closures change, and nesting closures are issued at short notice. The Cape Poge summer position is inferred from two separate published rules rather than stated outright, so confirm with The Trustees before travelling. This article is general information and is not veterinary advice.