The Bermuda National Trust was able to secure four acres of woodland adjacent to the Warwick Pond Nature Reserve due to a generous offer by the family of the late Graham Powell.

The Trust said the family offered the land ?at a price the Trust could not refuse?.

The plot of land is adjacent to the Nature Reserve that the Trust already owns in Warwick.

The site, which is described as a densely forested hillside, has remarkably evaded land development.

While it is currently protected because it was zoned as Woodland Reserve in the 1992 Development Plan, the Trust will now be able to ensure no one can ever build on it.

The woodland has some of Bermuda?s largest Allspice trees and is linked to the Railway Trial Park.

The purchase of the land means that the Trust now owns a protected nature reserve of over 13 acres.

Trust spokeswoman Sara Clifford said that such a large, undeveloped plot of land is ?priceless by Bermuda standards?.

The Trust held its annual fundraising event earlier in the year with the aim of raising the necessary funds to purchase the land.

Due to generous contributions from businesses and individuals the Trust was able to raise $267,000 ? $2,000 more than the asking price for the plot.

Preserving open spaces has long been the cornerstone of the Trust?s mandate.

?Every acre, every square foot, that the Trust protects acts as a living museum, a refuge for Bermuda?s native species, and as a bulwark against the onslaught of development pressures,? president Bill Holmes said.

It is hoped that the Trust will also obtain a further six acres west of Tamarind Vale later this year.

Currently the Trust is also working on another nature reserve on the southern part of the Tivoli property, also in Warwick.

The project is being carried out in memory of the late Sir John Sharpe.

These purchases will bring the Bermuda National Trust?s land ownership up to approximately 250 acres.