NORTH ADAMS -- The state plans to protect over 700 acres of ridge line in the Hoosac Mountain range from any future development, including wind turbines, as the Berkshire Natural Resources Council continues to create a corridor of land connecting the Florida and Savoy Mountain state forests.
Part of the plan calls for a major hiking trail for North Berkshire.

The City Council received a letter from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation on Tuesday, notifying the city that it plans to place a conservation restriction on 776 acres of the Hoosac Range, a majority of which belongs to the natural resources council.

"The conservation restriction will protect the land from development now and in the future," Wendy Fox, DCR spokeswoman, said Thursday. "Should the land be sold, the restriction remains intact."

The state has identified the Hoosac Range as part of its "Greenways" program, which aims to conserve ridge lines and other linear corridors of land along rivers and mountains "to provide nature with some unfragmented space to migrate."

Much of the land falls just west of land that is on the same range in Florida and Monroe where 19 windmills are proposed as part of the long-delayed Hoosac Wind project.

In addition to providing land for migration, the areas already conserved or about to be are also open to hiking and recreation trails.

"Our idea is to create a fantastic hiking trail along the ridge from Route 2 to Spruce Hill in Savoy Mountain State Forest, while also protecting the land," Narain Schroeder, acting president of Berkshire Natural Resources Council, said Friday.

He cautioned, "It's a work in progress, and we don't want to get ahead of ourselves."

In December, the resources council added another 47 acres along the Hoosac ridge line to its holdings. It purchased the land from Timothy Caffrey of San Antonio, Texas, for $68,000. Schroeder confirmed on Friday that the resources council is in negotiations to purchase several other parcels along the ridge line, which would make the 47 acres contiguous with its other 630 acres, just north of Spruce Hill.

The nonprofit purchased 295 acres in the eastern higher elevations of North Adams from Michael Deep and West Shaft Realty Trust on Oct. 30 for $190,000, giving it a contiguous mile of ridge line along the top of the Hoosac Range. The land is adjacent to 340 acres the organization purchased in 2007 -- it purchased 195 acres, in two parcels off East Mountain Road, from the bankrupt Adelphia Cable Co. for $195,000 in September of that year, and bought an additional 145 acres from J.W. Kelly Enterprises Inc. for $84,000 that December.

The resources council plans to work with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation to develop improved trail access to all that land, which is open to the public for hiking, bird-watching and other outdoor activities. Motorized vehicles are prohibited.