SCARBOROUGH – At its June 18 meeting, the Scarborough Town Council voted unanimously to approve $2 million from the Town Land Bond Fund for the Benjamin Farm project. With that key vote, the Scarborough Land Trust is now launching a public campaign to meet a $500,000 fundraising goal by Dec. 31 to complete the $2.5 million purchase of the 135-acre property on Pleasant Hill Road.

“We applaud the Town Council’s leadership in approving this historic Land Bond request,” said Paul Austin, president of land trust. “Benjamin Farm is a gem of a property that so many in Scarborough have waited years to protect. Now we have the chance.”

Just about a mile from Higgins Beach, Benjamin Farm is one of the last remaining open spaces in one of the most densely developed neighborhoods in Scarborough. It abuts Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge land, and contains headwaters of the Spurwink River. It is part of a wildlife and wetlands corridor that reaches from the Spurwink to the Libby River. The property is owned by the children of the late Jerrerd Benjamin, who farmed the property until 2005.

“The voters of Scarborough approved these Land Bond funds by overwhelming majorities years ago,” said Town Council Chairman Richard Sullivan. “Benjamin Farm is exactly the type of project worthy of Land Bond support. I feel it is important for everyone in town to support this project to help the land trust raise the remaining funds needed.”

Land trust board member Betts Armstrong is chair of the fundraising Campaign Committee, which was formed in January with more than a dozen volunteers from the community. To date, $100,000 has been raised in gifts and pledges toward the $500,000 goal.

“This is the most ambitious fundraising goal the land trust has ever attempted,” said Armstrong. “We have a lot of work ahead in the next six months, but with strong community support, we can raise the remaining $400,000 needed to purchase and protect this beautiful property.”

Founded in 1977, the land trust protects land for public benefit. It has created trail networks on four of its properties, which are open to the public year-round: Libby River Farm, Fuller Farm, Sewell Woods and Broadturn Farm. Broadturn Farm has an organic farm that provides produce, flowers, education programs, and economic benefit to the community. The land trust has conserved more than 1,200 acres to date, and protected the 156-acre Warren Woods property in 2012.

An aerial view shows the expansive Benjamin Farm property on Pleasant Hill Road, Scarborough.