The Scarborough Land Trust has met its $500,000 fundraising goal for the Benjamin Farm property on Pleasant Hill Road. Thanks to a matching gift challenge from anonymous donors, the land trust met its goal two months early.

“We received an incredible outpouring of support from the community for Benjamin Farm,” said Betts Armstrong, capital campaign chairwoman. “We are so grateful for our enthusiastic campaign committee, inspired friends who hosted house parties and neighborhood gatherings and the many generous donors who helped us reach our goal.”

The $500,000 in private funds is the most the land trust has ever raised for a land conservation project. In June, the Scarborough Town Council approved $2 million from the town’s land bond fund, leaving the land trust to raise the remaining $500,000 needed to purchase the farm.

The 135-acre former farm is one of the last, large natural areas in one of the most densely populated areas of Scarborough. It abuts the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge and contains the headwaters of the Spurwink River.

Preserving the property for future generations has been a goal of the land trust for more than 15 years. Currently the children of the late Jerrerd Benjamin, who raised cattle on the property for more than 50 years, own the farm.

The Benjamin heirs agreed to sell the land to the Scarborough Land Trust, as long as it could raise a total of $2.5 million by Dec. 31. With the funding for the farm now secured, the trust will spend much of 2015 finalizing its plans for the property.

The first priorities will be to create public trails and managing the abundant invasive species, which have taken hold in many places around the farm, according to Kathy Mills, executive director of the land trust.

Additional donations received for the Benjamin Farm will be dedicated to future stewardship needs, Mill said.

– Kate Irish Collins