Salem - The Salem Land Trust has purchased the 72-acre Zemko Sawmill, adding an ecologically, geologically and historically significant property to its holdings.

The land trust completed the acquisition July 9, purchasing the property for $230,000 from Karen and Charles Zemko, Linda Schroeder, vice president of the land trust, said Friday. Private donations, corporate matching funds and grants from the state, the Bafflin Foundation, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Nature Conservancy were used.

With the sawmill property, the land trust's holdings now total 191 acres. It also manages but does not own additional acreage, such as the Walden Preserve.

Located off Rattlesnake Ledge Road near Route 85 and the center of town, the property was the site of a sawmill owned and operated by former First Selectman Andrew Zemko for about 50 years. A former logging road on the property will serve as the main hiking trail through the property, Schroeder said. It has been named the Zemko Sawmill Preserve.

"Everybody in town knows where Andy Zemko's sawmill was," Schroeder said. "We hope to have some pictures of the sawmill displayed there."

The land trust is writing a management plan for the preserve and in the next few weeks, Schroeder said, land trust members will be marking trails. However, the preserve is already open to the public, she said, with people invited to hike along the existing logging road. Dogs on leashes are allowed, but motorized vehicles are not.

According to the land trust, the parcel is situated on Rattlesnake Ledge, in an area known as the Honey Hill Fault where two ancient continents collided millions of years ago. It also forms a land and water bridge connecting the headwaters of the Eightmile River and Deep River watersheds, the land trust said in a news release. Maples, beeches and hemlocks are found on the property, the latter as yet untouched by the hemlock blight that has felled many stands in the Northeast.

The preserve is part of a large forest block that is home to unique plant and animal communities, including bobcat, woodland warblers, saw-whet owl and red-shouldered hawk, the land trust said. On the southeastern side of the preserve is Whittlesey Swamp, an important habitat for amphibians and waterfowl that was used for swimming and picnicking by students of the Music Vale Seminary, the nation's first music school. It operated in the early-to-mid-1800s.

Information about guided nature hikes the land trust is planning at the preserve will be posted at: www.salemlandtrust.org.

j.benson@theday.com