JAFFREY — For two lifelong Jaffrey natives conserving the land on Mount Monadnock is about continuing a local tradition and being a part of a legacy that began more than a century ago.

By the end of this year, 55.5 acres on property owned by Charles and Ann Royce could be permanently protected from development with a conservation easement through the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

The property, which has been in Ann’s family for more than 60 years, is surrounded on three sides by protected land, abuts two roads heavily used for hiking, including part of a cross country ski trail that begins at the state park headquarters on the mountain’s southeast side. Under the easement, Royce will continue to own and pay taxes on the property and public access for recreational purposes, such as hiking, skiing, snow shoeing and hunting will be ensured. Housing and commercial development, however, will be prohibited.

The conservation of the Royce property is a part of a larger Forest Society project, which also includes 335 acres of land owned by the Stowell family on the western side of Mount Monadnock. The land includes a key section of the Marlborough Trail, a main hiking route to the mountain’s summit, and would be purchased through a permanent land acquisition rather than an easement, whereby the land becomes part of the society’s owned restoration tract. Nearly 400 acres along the slopes of Mount Monadnock in Marlborough and Jaffrey would be preserved between the two projects, making it the largest of its kind for the Forest Society since the early 1900s.

“It’s about preserving the land as both a part of the natural view shed, but also ensuring that it is available to future generations,” Ann said in an interview with the Ledger-Transcript at her home on Monday. “The easement will be passed on to future owners of the property, with us having a hand in that future.”

Royce will continue to cut an annual six to eight cords of wood for personal use, he said, but the land, primarily of oak, beach and pine trees, will not be ready to harvest again for another 25 to 30 years. While he has no plans to farm on the property himself, Royce said that agricultural use is not out of the question for future property owners.

“The public can’t go camping, build fires, bulldoze, create gravel pits or use motorized equipment,” Royce said, adding that the goal of the easement is to leave the land in its purest form possible for future generations to use and enjoy.

What makes the land unique is the large assortment of natural wildlife, Royce said. Over the years he has seen moose, bear, coyotes, turkeys, bobcats and many more animals characteristic to the state. A 1840s reservoir on the property is now home to beavers, which Royce said he enjoys watching as they busily make damns in what is now wetland.

Royce, who was the former Mount Monadnock state park manager from 1962 to 1972, said protection of the land for the future is particularly vital as the local population expands.

“We’ve seen the area change tremendously over our lives,” Royce said, “and 50 or 70 years from now you don’t know what might happen; this could be one of few green spaces left in the [Monadnock] region.”

By protecting a small piece of property, Royce said he hopes others will be encouraged to do the same. Royce owns approximately 100 acres off of Mountain Road, including the area his house is on and the open pasture nearby, something he is also considering placing under Forest Society protection.

Bryan Holtz, senior director of strategic projects for the Forest Society, said in an interview with the Ledger-Transcript on Monday that Mount Monadnock has been the focus of the society for more than 100 years. Through grants and public fundraising, the Forest Society is currently working to raise a total of $760,000 to protect both the Stowell family and Royce property, he said.

“We are trying to raise as much by the end of the year as possible,” Holtz said. “We are about a third of the way there, but will know more by early December when decisions on grant applications are made.”

The Royce property, Holtz said, is one that the Forest Society has had an interest in for a long time as it fits like a puzzle piece into the other areas already under conservation.

Ryan Owens, executive director of Monadnock Conservancy, said both properties are of great significance to the overall conservation of land surrounding Mount Monadnock.

“This is a refreshing piece of good news for the town and for the mountain,” Owens said. “With how iconic Mount Monadnock is and how central it is to the identity of this region, anything we can do to increase its protection and therefore its permanency in our lives is worth doing.”

This article appeared in the Nov. 29, 2011, edition of the Ledger-Transcript.