The tract, renamed Shingle Shanty Preserve and Research Station, is located adjacent to Long Lake: pictured here

After purchasing three tracts of land in the western Adirondacks in 2001, the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy has sold a 15,500-acre tract of land to private owners for $1.2 million, reports the Press Republican.

As part of the deal, the buyers gave the conservancy a conservation easement that protects an adjoining 2,400 acres of private land from logging or development. The intent, aside from ensuring the land remains intact, is to use it to study ecological systems in partnership with other educational and research organizations.