The Brunswick Town Council voted Monday night to accept an offer of $2 million from the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust to create a conservation easement on 240 acres of Maquoit Woods.

The town has long considered the future use of Maquoit Woods, a town-owned 280-acre property located south of the intersection of Maquoit and Mere Point roads.

The town purchased the property for $3.8 million in the winter of 2022, killing a proposal for a 900-unit subdivision on the property in order to prevent declines in the Maquoit Bay.

The $2 million was offered by a donor who is a long-time supporter of the land trust, former Executive Director Steve Walker said.

Under the easement, development would be prohibited on all but roughly 40 acres of Maquoit Woods. The town has discussed developing affordable housing on the remaining developable land, located on the northern part of the property.

The Conservation Commission unanimously recommended the easement after BTLT brought it to council last month. The commission wrote in a letter to the council that conserving the land will protect a significant aquifer that drains into the bay, as well as crucial wildlife and plants.

“The property is both home to and a corridor for a rich array of wildlife that thrive in un- or less-disturbed habitats, including eagles, ospreys, flotillas of ducks, a wide variety of songbirds, including the deep woods birds, the wood thrush and hermit thrush; the rare saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow depends upon the land that empties its waters into the bay,” the commission wrote. “Mammals include red and gray foxes, coyotes, beavers, and from scat readings, the occasional wandering bear and bobcat. The property’s woodlands are rich and varied, as is the topography, which ranges from mostly level sandplain to sharp-sided gorges with flowing streams.”

Some members of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee asked the Town Council during Monday’s meeting to set aside 80 acres of nonconservation land, rather than 40, to allow for more future development on the property. Walker said the anonymous donor had specified that exactly 240 acres be conserved.

The council voted unanimously to accept the easement as originally proposed by the BTLT. The easement allows public access, trail construction and wildlife management, and prohibits activities like hunting and unnecessary tree removal.

“I firmly believe that what you choose to save is what sets your legacy … things like this are in perpetuity. For hundreds of years, for generations, people are going to use this property and think back to the leadership of this council and the generosity of the donor,” Walker said.