TEMPLE, N.H. (AP) – The former Temple Mountain ski area could become a state park under a bill filed with the Legislature. State Rep. Anne-Marie Irwin, D-Peterborough, is asking lawmakers to help turn the 352-acre parcel into conservation land.

State Sen. Peter Bragdon, a Milford Republican, is co-sponsoring the bill. He says the state has focused on land conservation in the North Country, and it’s time to help protect the Monadnock region from development.

The ski area closed in 2001, and a couple from Temple bought the land two years later to save it from development and give the community a chance to raise money for permanent conservation. Groups led by the Monadnock Conservancy have already raised $600,000 through state and federal grants and private donations to buy the land.

Officials with the Monadnock Conservancy say the property would connect thousands of acres of conservation land, creating a 15-mile corridor of trails from Crotched Mountain in Greenfield to the summit of Temple Mountain.