SOUTHAMPTON — An ongoing effort to preserve 1,000 acres for environmental protection in Southampton, Westhampton and Montgomery reached a major milestone this month by acquiring an initial 387 acres.

The Mountain Waters Project is a collaboration between Kestrel Land Trust and local partners, which hopes to see all 1,000 acres successfully preserved by next summer.

“We’ve been so fortunate to have so many great partners that work with us,” said Bridget Likely, conservation manager at Kestrel. “There was a lot of collaboration and fundraising leading up to this.”

The project is supported in part by $1.25 million from a state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Landscape Partnership Grant awarded last fall, and is working to designate land as open space to be conserved or used as recreational or agricultural space.

Named for Pomeroy Mountain and the waters flowing through its surrounding forests, this effort is meant to allow local forests to mature to maximize carbon storage as a way to address climate change, and also offers safe harbor for local flora and fauna, supporters said.

“It is such a critical protection area for Kestrel and for protecting Massachusetts land and wildlife,” said Likely. “We’ve had so many willing landowners who want to see their land protected.”

The project involves partnerships with local entities such as the Southampton Open Space Committee and Holyoke Water Works, which help to find and acquire land for conservation from landowners who wish to have swaths of their land protected.

The town of Southampton voted in a special Town Meeting in 2023 to provide $420,688 in Community Preservation Act funding for the conservation of an anticipated 731 acres in its community.

“They embraced this idea of seeing some of the land in town conserved,” said Southampton Open Space Committee Chair Cindy Palmer, referring to Town Meeting voters.

She said that this project has been an “exciting” way to further the Open Space Committees duties to “[protect] open space and forested land for the purpose not only of recreation but environmental conservation.”

“I’m, first of all, very energized by the good people that I work with in this town… and also the very kind and interested property owners,” she added.

This summer, Kestrel worked with Southampton officials to purchase 151 acres off of Former Road. This land, which was made available by owners Norton Garfinkle and Sally Minard and purchased by the town in June, will become open space for public recreation managed by the Southampton Conservation Commission. It will have a conservation restriction held by Kestrel, which will allow for the future construction of public parking and trails.

“We look forward to working with trail-building experts to, over time, develop trails,” said Palmer, who noted that the trail-building project would likely take time.

Palmer stated that, for the Open Space Committee and other town officials and volunteers, development and conservation present a “balancing act,” as the town hopes to promote healthy development while also preserving natural land and the town’s historically rural feel.

“I’m very excited to be a part of seeing land conservation when it is the right thing to do,” she said.

In neighboring Westhampton, Garfinkle and Minard put up another 122 abutting acres to be purchased for the project. With a conservation restriction held by Mass Audubon, it will be open to the public and managed as “wildlands,” which will prohibit logging and other resource extraction.

“Norton and I are thrilled by the success of Southampton in preserving these 273 acres he acquired 50 years ago,” Minard said in a statement. “With the few acres we kept, we extend our long connection to the area and our congenial neighbors.”

Finally, the Mountain Waters Project conserved 114 additional acres in Southampton this June. The land was purchased by Holyoke Water Works to support the protection of Holyoke’s drinking water supply within the Tighe-Carmody Reservoir watershed. This land was owned and offered up by Scott and Lori Cebula.

“We felt that conserving our land was very important, after it being in our family for over 60 years,” the Cebulas said in a statement.

The Mountain Waters Project is an ongoing effort, but Kestrel and their partners hope to achieve their primary 1,000-acre conservation goal by June 2025, the deadline delineated in the project’s state funding, according to Likely.

Other efforts anticipated for completion as part of this project this fiscal year include the protection of Glendale Ridge Vineyard in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and a new MassWildlife management area in Montgomery.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.