Paper Firm Sells Huge Parcel of Wilderness to Conservationists

A conservation group struck a $76.2-million deal with a paper company to buy 296,000 acres of forest and wilderness that stretch across three Northeast states.

The Conservation Fund called it the “largest public-private, multi-state partnership in U.S. history.” The deal, announced Wednesday, had been in discussions for a year.

The land in northern Vermont, New Hampshire and New York was sold by the Champion International paper company. It includes rich forests, mountains and untouched rivers.

Conservation and paper company officials said the goal is to preserve the rural way of life of the forested region, where there is a mix of moose and snowmobiles, logged land and regenerated forests.

The Conservation Fund, based in Arlington, Va., said as much as 30% of the land will be sold to the state and federal governments for long-term conservation and the rest will be sold privately, primarily to those seeking its timber resources.

But all the land will carry deed restrictions requiring public access for recreation, fishing and hunting, as the paper company has long permitted.

“Our purpose . . . is to blend economic development--jobs--with conservation,” said Patrick Noonan, chairman of the Conservation Fund.

Among the land earmarked for conservation is Vermont’s Nulhegan River basin. One of the few rivers in Vermont that never had hydroelectric dams across it, the Nulhegan and nearby bogs support several endangered species.

The land stretches from New York’s Adirondack Park to the Vermont region known as the Northeast Kingdom, and into New Hampshire’s North Country.

More than 10 bidders sought to buy the land, including developers, foreign investors, timber funds and Wall Street investment partnerships.