WHATELY - Two area land protection groups have joined forces to preserve a property in Whately that includes farmland and river frontage.

For the first time, the Franklin Land Trust and Whately Land Preservation have worked side by side and brought Maple Hill Farm into the state's agricultural preservation program, said Richard K. Hubbard, executive director of the Franklin Land Trust.

"This is an important property," he said, noting that it has frontage on the Mill River, is prime farm land, has watershed protection for a public drinking supply and has scenic frontage on Chestnut Plain Road.

Maple Hill Farm includes about 240 acres on Chestnut Plain Road. The effort to preserve the farm, owned by Richard Casey, began about two years ago after the property had been put up for sale.

Concerned about losing the scenic, open land, Whately Land Preservation, a local conservation group, worked with Franklin Land Trust to permanently protect the property using a combination of agricultural and conservation restrictions.

Two conservation restrictions protect a total of 213 acres, and the latest Agricultural Preservation Restriction protects another 26 acres.

"The Maple Hill Farm is a wonderful agricultural and open space resource," Hubbard said. "This project is an excellent example of a cooperative effort between two organizations, protecting land that might have been developed otherwise."

Two other Whately properties have been protected: the 29-acre W&W Farm and the 90-acre Wykowski Farm, both on Long Plain Road.

"Like many rural New England towns, we have much prime farmland with rich and valuable soil," said Don Wheelock, president of Whately Land Preservation's board of governors. "We would like to protect what farmland we have left. Once farmland is sold to developers, it is gone forever."

The Franklin Land Trust, founded in 1987, is a nonprofit organization that assists farmers and other landowners who seek to protect their land from unwanted development. It serves as the umbrella organization for Whately Land Preservation.

Hubbard said the two organizations form a great partnership and are keeping an eye on several properties in Whately. "There is always more work to be done," he said.