Lyme — The Lyme Land Conservation Trust on Monday announced a fundraising drive to protect 82 acres of ecologically strategic upland forest and swamp wildlife habitat in Hadlyme on the headwaters of Whalebone Cove, one of the freshwater tidal wetlands that comprises the internationally celebrated Connecticut River estuary complex.

The new proposed preserve is part of a forested landscape just south of Hadlyme Four Corners and Ferry Road (Rt. 148), and forms a large part of the watershed for Whalebone Creek, a key tributary feeding Whalebone Cove, most of which is a national wildlife refuge under the management of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, the land trust said in a news release.

The Land Trust said it hopes to name the new nature refuge in honor of William Hawthorne of Hadlyme, whose family has owned the property for several generations and who has agreed to sell the property to the Land Trust at a discount from its market value if the rest of the money necessary for the purchase can be raised by the Land Trust.

“This new wildlife preserve will represent a triple play for habitat conservation,” said Anthony Irving, chairman of the Land Trust’s Preservation Committee.

It will protect the cove, a critically important freshwater tidal marsh, the 82 acre parcel includes a large block of wetlands and forested wildlife habitat, and it will serve as a key link in wildlife corridors that connect more than 1,000 acres of protected woodland and swamp habitat in Hadlyme, Irving said.

Irving noted that the Hawthorne property is the largest parcel targeted for conservation in the Whalebone Cove watershed by the recently developed U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Silvio O. Conte Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan.

The land trust hopes to create a network of hiking trails on the property with access from both Brush Hill Road on the east and Joshuatown Road on the west and connection to the Land Trust’s Ravine Trail to the south and the network of trails on the Nature Conservancy’s Selden Preserve, Irving said.

The trust has already raised 25 percent of the cost of the property, he said, thanks to a gift from Hawthorne and several other pledges. The land trust hopes to raise a total of $400,000.

For information, visit: http://www.lymelandtrust.org/.