RANGELEY – More than 1,100 acres of wetlands on Rangeley Lake is now under the stewardship of the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust.

The trust purchased 1,150 acres near South Bog on Rangeley Lake from Bayroot LLC, which had recently acquired all of MeadWestvaco’s lands in Maine and New Hampshire. The deal was finished Friday.

A press release described the property, adjacent to Rangeley Lake State Park, as significant in beauty and environmental importance.

According to the release, it is the last large, unprotected parcel with significant frontage on the lake, providing important habitat for brook trout, moose, bald eagles and loons. Water from the uplands flows into South Bog Stream, a tributary that feeds Rangeley Lake and serves as a nursery for young trout and salmon.

The parcel includes more than 4,000 feet of frontage on Rangeley Lake, two miles of shoreline on South Bog Stream, 500 acres of deer wintering habitat, 100 acres of wading bird and waterfowl habitat, and 200 acres of wetlands.

“You feel like you’re really in some very remote, real wilderness setting,” trust director Nancy Perlson said of the property. She anticipates placing a conservation easement on it soon, she said.

The purchase price of about $1.25 million, the largest project in the trust’s history, was funded through a variety of grants and loans.

The trust received a grant of $300,000 from the Protection and Enhancement Fund, which was created in 1998 through a collaborative settlement agreement between Florida Light and Power and several conservation organizations for rights to operate Upper Dam on Mooselookmeguntic Lake and Middle Dam near Richardson Lake.

The unusual collaborative licensing agreement, approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, was a consensus agreement between the energy company and the Appalachian Mountain Club, Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, Trout Unlimited, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, American Whitewater Association and the Maine Departments of Conservation and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

The settlement agreement was also responsible for the trust’s acquisition of lands along the Rapid River and Pond in the River in the Rangeley Lakes chain earlier this year.

The trust also secured a $300,000 interest-free loan from the Upper/Middle Dam conservation fund, also created as a result of the 1998 agreement.

Another loan was granted unanimously by the board of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust for $250,000, and another $250,000 loan was secured with Franklin Savings Bank.

That adds up to $800,000 that the trust will need to raise in the next five years, according to Perlson.

She hopes to be able to secure more grant money, but will also need to raise funds from private donors.

There has already been a lot of community support, she said.

They have received “very generous support from individuals who agree that it is an impressive spot to preserve,” she said. “It’s a special place to the people on Rangeley Lake and it’s been reflected in their generosity to the project.”