NEWRY – Conservation of the 3,500-acre Stowe Mountain parcel in Newry’s Mahoosuc Mountain Range got a boost late last month with adoption of the nation’s omnibus appropriations bill.

Included in that was $1.11 million in Forest Legacy money that will help complete the second phase of the Grafton Notch project.

“That’s super,” Selectman Steve White said after learning Wednesday afternoon that the bill had been signed. “It adds to the conservation mosaic of Grafton Notch and its extremely important recreation-based and nature-based tourism.”

The Stowe parcel is adjacent to the 3,688-acre Grafton Notch parcel, which was protected in September with $2 million from the Forest Legacy Program.

“As a strong supporter of the Forest Legacy Project, I am delighted that the Stowe Mountain project will receive these important federal funds,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said early Wednesday evening by e-mail from Washington, D.C.

Initially, Maine’s Bureau of Public Lands asked the Forest Legacy Program for $1.125 million to buy the Stowe parcel, which the Trust for Public Lands has under agreement to buy.

The Newry land includes most of the alpine summit of 3,300-foot Sunday River Whitecap Mountain and the summits of Stowe and Bald mountains. A least four miles of the Grafton Loop Trail traverses the summits.

“The legacy funding gives the project a major boost forward,” Jerry Bley, a Maine conservation consultant, said by phone Wednesday night in Readfield.

He said the Trust for Public Lands has an option agreement to acquire a conservation easement to protect the land from development and guarantee public access to the parcel and the Grafton Loop Trail.

At the end of last year, Bley said the property switched hands from Carthage Lumber of Canada, through a transaction brokered by the Trust of Public Lands, to a nonprofit investment organization that is involved with investing money for special needs trusts.

“The transfer was necessary because the current owner needed to sell it,” Bley said.

He said he hopes that the Land for Maine’s Future program and private sources will fund the remaining money needed to complete the deal.

“Our hope is that there will be a proposal to Land for Maine’s Future this spring. If all goes well, the easement will be acquired by the end of 2008. The parcel will be managed for timber, except for high elevations and along the trail,” Bley said.

Wight said the deal also protects a major Maine snowmobile trail through the parcel.

“I commend all involved in the continued preservation of our precious forest land. The Mahoosuc Region is one of Maine’s most pristine forested areas. It is my hope that many future generations will be able to enjoy an improved and expanded Grafton Notch-Stowe Mountain area,” Collins added.