2,000-plus acres of land in WMass will be preserved

BELCHERTOWN — More than 2,000 acres of forest land soon will be conserved in Hampshire County through a partnership between the Kestrel Land Trust and The Trustees of Reservations.

About 1,000 acres in Pelham and Shutesbury will be conserved and named Sarah Cowls Forest at Pelham Hills, the organizations announced. In Belchertown, 1,000 acres will be conserved and named Hop Brook Forest.

The land was owned by W.D. Cowls, one of the state's largest landowners, and sold to Lyme Timber, which gave it to the two nonprofit groups to manage, a spokesperson for The Trustees said.

"Kestrel Land Trust is thrilled to protect these two enormous tracts of forest with The Trustees. The forested hills of Pelham and Belchertown are significant at a statewide scale for biodiversity, but they are also especially important to the community," Kristin DeBoer, executive director of Kestrel Land Trust, said in a statement.

The nonprofit groups will work with the towns to connect the land and trails to existing conservation areas. That will mean public access to the Robert Frost Trail in Pelham and the New England Scenic Trail in Belchertown.

A map of conserved land in Pelham and Belchertown. (Kestrel Land Trust and Trustees of Reservations image)Kestrel Land Trust and Trustees of Reservations

Cinda Jones, president of W.D. Cowls, said in a statement that the company has conserved more than 11,000 acres of forest with Kestrel Land Trust over the past two decades.

"While W.D. Cowls still owns and manages two thirds of its original holdings ... these recent conservation deals are private sales with land trust management futures," she said.

W.D. Cowls, a company founded in 1741, recently has been selling thousands of acres of land in Western Massachusetts.

Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .