(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Natural Resource Commission today (Thursday) approved the state’s purchase of a former Boy Scout camp that covers nearly 18-hundred acres in the Loess Hills of western Iowa. D-N-Rs Land and Water Bureau Chief Travis Baker, spoke before the vote.

The D-N-R is purchasing the property from the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation for five-point-one million dollars, three million less than the appraised value.

The D-N-R says the land acquisition will protect one of the largest contiguous regions of forest in western Iowa and result in more than 100 miles of connected public hiking trails. The former Little Sioux Scout Ranch is at the heart of the property with a 20-acre lake. Four Boy Scouts died when a tornado hit the camp in 2003. A memorial to those scouts will remain.

Baker says the D-N-R will close on the property this summer and it will be open to the public this fall. The purchase is funded by a four-point-six-five million dollars U-S-D-A Forest Legacy Grant and 500-thousand from the REAP Open Spaces funding.