CARRABASSETT VALLEY — More than 12,000 acres, including three of Maine’s tallest mountains, are now permanently protected under the Crocker Mountain Unit of Public Reserved Lands.

A $7.6 million purchase in northwest Franklin County will add recreational development opportunities and protect critical high elevation habitat in the Sugarloaf region.

The public reserved lands include Crocker, South Crocker and Sugarloaf mountains in Carrabassett Valley and buffer a 10-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail, which traverses the peak of Crocker and South Crocker mountains.

Maine’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry, the Trust for Public Land, and Plum Creek Timber Co. worked jointly on the project.

“The area is busy in the winter ski season, but needs additional trails and outdoor experiences to promote tourism-related job growth in other seasons,” Wolfe Tone, Trust for Public Land director, said.

The purchase also protects forestry jobs, the Appalachian Trail, and access for ATVs. Existing snowmobile and ATV trails will be maintained under state ownership, and Tone predicts new ATV, hiking, mountain biking, and cross country ski trails will be added.

Carrabassett Valley’s municipal officials supported the project as a way to make the area a year-round recreation destination. The Trust for Public Land negotiated an opportunity to find funding and buy the property.

“This project was rated third on a long list of competitors for these same federal Forest Legacy funds,” Tone said. “Maine competes well, and we were very fortunate to get this money.”

Those funds provided $5.8 million of the $7.67 million total cost. Land for Maine’s Future, the town of Carrabassett Valley and more than 100 private donors, including the Open Spaces Institute’s Transborder Land Protection Fund, contributed the rest.

Members of the Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust were key players in this three-and-a-half year effort, Tone said.

Gov. Paul LePage and U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King have provided critical support for the project.

“The Division of Parks and Public Lands will develop a management plan to balance development, timber harvesting, and ecological protection,” he said.

The public will have extensive opportunities to provide input to the plan.

The Forest Legacy Program provides money to states to protect threatened forests. It comes from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is funded by royalties paid by energy companies in exchange for oil and gas extraction from federal offshore leases.

The Trust for Public Land has worked for more than 40 years to conserve land for people. With 30 offices nationwide, they have protected more than three million acres and helped generate more than $34 billion in public funds for conservation. Tone said these groups and thousands of volunteers work behind the scenes to benefit communities for generations.

“Nearly 10,000,000  people live within a 10-minute walk of a TPL park, garden, or natural area,” Tone said. “Millions more visit these sites every year.”