YAKIMA -- The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently acquired 201 acres of what had been privately owned land near the Cowiche unit of the Oak Creek Wildlife Area.

The money for the $141,000 purchase by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife came from a Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program grant facilitated largely by the Nature Conservancy and Cowiche Canyon Conservancy. The seller wishes to remain anonymous.

The purchased property is completely surrounded by the 1,800-acre Snow Mountain Ranch, which was acquired by the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy in 2005.

Conservancy executive director Cecilia Vogt hailed the purchase for ensuring that the land would be open to the public and never be subdivided.

"The owner could very well have sold it to a developer or developed it himself," Vogt said.

"It would be very inappropriate for homes to be up there, and sad and shocking to be out on the pristine Snow Mountain Ranch and look at a development in the middle of what is a wonderful preserve. So we're pretty excited by it."

One of Snow Mountain's existing trails already cuts through one of the lower-elevation corners of the purchased parcel.