WEST SPRINGFIELD – On Mar. 5, the West Springfield Town Council voted to protect around 71 acres of land straddling the Massachusetts Turnpike.

The Council agreed to use $265,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to buy and preserve the parcel of land, which is off Morgan Road and borders Bear Hole Reservoir, in order prevent it from becoming polluted. The portion of land was previously owned by Earl Tessier – under the names 5182 Realty Trust and Oak Dell Realty – and was being marketed for the development of a potential cemetery.

Nathan Bech, the Town Council liaison for the Community Preservation Committee, said the town is not quite sure what the land will be used for at the moment, but that West Springfield residents appreciate having open space. Numerous development proposals have been made over the years, and the town hopes to use the funds to uphold the land for path recreational use, such as hiking trails.

“It’s nice to just have parks to walk your dogs, to take your family to have a picnic and those kinds of things – that’s just a general answer to the benefits of having open space,” said Bech. “You don’t want to have a city with no parks.”

The property is within the Bear Hole watershed, roughly 1,700 acres of woodlands in the northwestern section of West Side that borders Westfield and the East Mountain Range to the west and Holyoke and the Ashley Reservoir to the north. The Reservoir Trail is a 2.9-mile loop trail that features a lake and is rated as “moderate.” The trail offers a number of activity options and it is also open to dogs. A backup water supply on the newly acquired property flows into Bear Hole and Paucatuck Brook.

The City Council vote was six in favor, one opposed and one abstention, which came from new Councilor Sean T. Powers, an attorney who represented the seller prior to being elected to the council in November.

The mayor tweeted out his support for the 6 – 1 Council decision.

“I am very pleased the Town Council assented to my proposal of acquiring an additional 70 acres to add to our Bear Hole wilderness area. The land split the north and south side of the Mass Pike beginning at Four Corner on the east side of Morgan Road . . . we will continue to seek opportunities to preserve open space around Bear Hole so that we can protect his gem for future generations,” he wrote.

According to City Council President George Condon, the property off of Morgan Road had become an illegal dumping ground for old refrigerators, tires, car parts and other trash. The Community Preservation Committee Project Application for the land states that the Massachusetts Audubon Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to “protecting the nature” of the state, previously recommended closing off the portion of land in an effort to control some of the polluting and “vehicular issues” that were associated with the area.

Before purchasing the woodlands, West Springfield hired WjF Geoconsultants Inc to assess the overall health of the property. A Wilbraham-based environmental consulting and site development company conducted an analysis and determined that there was no leaching of contaminants into the soil.

The City Council president also said that $250,000 of the $265,000 would be used for the actual purchase of the land, while the remaining will be used to monitor the environmental conservation of the site.