The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) recently announced the purchase of 942 acres of forested land in Burrillville for public recreational use, including hunting and fishing. It is the largest single land acquisition by DEM since 2014 and involves one of the last large undeveloped parcels of land in the state.

The purchase was made possible through a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) through its Wildlife Restoration Program plus a $301,250 award from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) through Walmart’s Acres for America Program to complete the purchase of the Rhode Island Boy Scouts’ Buck Hill property.

Conservation of the property will provide critical habitat connectivity between the 4,000-acre George Washington Management Area and Pulaski State Park to the south, the 2,220-acre Buck Hill Management Area to the north, as well as a large tract of conservation land in Connecticut to the west and the Douglas State Forest to the north in Massachusetts, resulting in a total contiguous protected area of over 13,000 acres.

The Boy Scouts will retain approximately 200 acres of land on the northern side of Wakefield Pond for continued use as a weekend camp.