A 40-acre tract of land in the heart of Alabama’s beloved Sipsey Wildnerness has been successfully transferred from private ownership to public conservation.

The announcement comes as the culmination of a three-year process. The land was put up for sale in 2018 at which point the nonprofit group The Conservation Fund purchased it with the intention of preserving its natural beauty.

In 2020, after years of fitful negotiations, the U.S. Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act that provided full funding to the Dept. of the Interior’s Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The public fund recently purchased the land from the nonprofit and officially declared the land part of the Sipsey Wilderness.

Per a release, only one piece of privately-owned land remains in the Sipsey Wilderness, a pristine 30,000 acres of federally protected land in Northwest Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest.

Securing the 40 acres announced this week was especially important to interested parties because it is where three trails converge with the Sipsey Wild and Scenic River.

“The USDA Forest Service is grateful to The Conservation Fund for its efforts to help secure this very special property located in the Bankhead National Forest,” said Cherie Hamilton, forest supervisor for the National Forests in Alabama, in a statement.

“[T]he land will remain protected for wildlife, watershed quality and public recreation like hunting and hiking,” according to The Conservation Fund.

Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.