ATHENS -- The Athens Selectboard has approved a plan that will help establish an approximately 400-acre Wildlife Management Area in Windham County.

Wildlife Management Areas are large tracts of land that are owned by the state, and the properties are usually purchased with some federal money.

The Athens Selectboard had to agree to the proposal before Gov. Jim Douglas approves it.

The board approved the plan by a 2-1 vote.

There are still some funding issues to resolve, but if the deal is completed, the area will preserve a vast swath of land that includes an endangered plant, fragile wetlands and an important geological formation known as the Athens Dome.

"This is a really great piece of land," said Jon Binhammer, director of land protection for the Vermont chapter of The Nature Conservancy. "There is not a whole lot of conservation land people can use for hunting and fishing down in that neck of the woods, and this will give people a really nice spot to do those things."

The area covered by the proposed Wildlife Management Area includes a high stretch of forest along the Grafton-Athens town line and is accessible off the Townshend-Grafton Road and Turner Hill Road

The proposed management area actually came together through a number of different initiatives.

A federally endangered plant, the northeastern bulrush, was discovered near beaver ponds in the area and the Nature Conservancy helped secure about 80 acres.

The Nature Conservancy used federal money to acquire the land and help protect the plant.

Then Vermont Electric Power Company was looking for land to protect as part of its agreement with the state over its southern loop project.

VELCO is scheduled to damage some wetlands while extending its power grid and the company has to acquire and protect other wetlands in the state.

The company found the 286 acres in Athens for sale, purchased it, and is now turning the parcel over to the state to create the wildlife management area.

The Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association is also keeping an eye on the project.

The Pinnacle Association is working with the Vermont Land Trust to acquire a separate parcel along Route 121, which, with a connecting piece of land, could join the trails in Westminster and Putney with the almost 400 acres in the newly established wildlife management area.

The area contains a soapstone quarry, an existing network of trails and roads, as well as the Athens Dome, which is believed to be one of the oldest geological formations in New England and is estimated to be 1 billion years old.

The Grafton Selectboard still has to approve the plan and an appraisal of the property has to be completed.

Towns around the state have agreed to the state purchases and Vermont currently controls more than 80 wildlife management areas.

The state pays payments in lieu of taxes to the towns based on 1 percent of the fair market value.

And according to a 2005 study commissioned by the Agency of Natural Resources, some towns end up receiving more money from the state than if the landowner was paying property taxes.

A big portion of every tax dollar collected in Vermont ends up in the education fund, and the study found that many towns end up more revenue than if the lands were privately owned.

In 2007, the state paid out almost $516,000 to towns that agreed to establish wildlife management areas.