To help protect both water resources and wildlife habitat, the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport & Wells Water District and The Nature Conservancy have joined together to protect a 560-acre parcel of open space known as the Wells Barren, the groups announced today.

The Wells Barren property, located in Wells next to the state’s Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, is critical to preserving both drinking water supplies and some of the rarest species of wildlife in Maine. The deal comes 15 years after negotiations began.

Water District Superintendent Norm Labbe said: “Securing this tract of land in its natural state will greatly aid in protecting the Branch Brook watershed.” Branch Brook is the primary water supply for as many as 100,000 people in the area.

The Conservancy has committed $1.9 million to acquire the property and the KKWD has committed $1.1 million. The parcel was purchased from Massachusetts-based Wells Blueberry Inc. The Conservancy will now work to raise a stewardship endowment for the property.

The Wells Barrens features sand deposits left thousand of years ago as the continental glacier was melting. Rainwater percolates through the sand, strikes a clay table, and gushes out in springs along the Branch Brook. Because water passes through the sandy soils so easily, it has created perfect conditions for a rare natural community called a sandplains grassland – which is similar to a prairie.

“There are probably fewer than 10,000 acres like this left in the world, so this is quite a bit to conserve all at once,” said Keith Fletcher, the southern Maine program manager for The Nature Conservancy. “We are fortunate to have it here in Maine.”

He said the purchase will help protect such endangered and threatened species as the grasshopper sparrow, upland sandpiper, and vesper sparrow, as well as the black racer snake. He said the New England cottontail also likely will thrive there, as well as moose and bear.