US conservationists have saved a huge expanse of tropical terrain in the US Virgin Islands from potentially damaging development.
A deal worth $19 million has been signed between private owners of the 419-acre plot and the Trust for Public Land.
Estate Maho Bay, on the isle of St John, is to be transferred to the National Park Service, reports the AP.
John Garrison, project manager for the non-profit Trust for Public Land, said yesterday (Tuesday September 25th): "This untouched land, which many people assumed was part of the park, was very seriously threatened with development."
The land parcels are believed to contain pre-Columbian Indian village sites and ruined colonial plantations.
They will represent the biggest expansion of the 7,150-acre Virgin Islands National Park since its creation in 1956.
Park superintendent Mark Hardgrove confirmed the importance of the swath of land.
"If this large portion of the watershed was developed it would have changed the entire landscape," he said.
