Interested in buying a farm or a secluded country estate while also protecting nature? Two land conservation groups want to hear from you.

Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust and the Buzzards Bay Coalition are searching for buyers for two pieces of land on Bakerville Road as part of a project to protect Dike Creek from development. 

The two organizations are purchasing the 121-acre Apponagansett Bay Farm property, which stretches from Bakerville Road to the creek. The resources trust will manage a majority of the land and open it up to the public as a new reserve.

Two portions of the property -- a 28-acre working farm and a 23-acre estate -- will be sold off to fund the acquisition of the land, with an overall goal of maintaining and preserving both the working farm and secluded, wooded estate. 

The farm includes a 2,450 square-foot farmhouse, four barns and utility buildings, and prime agricultural soil. The estate contains a single 6,900 square-foot Cape dating back to the 1800s.

“Because it already has two houses on it… it made sense to divide the property up into three,” said DNRT Executive Director Dexter Mead. 

Both properties will be subject to conservation restrictions, which will permanently restrict the property’s usage to the buildings already existing on site. 

It is an unusual, but not unprecedented way of funding land acquisition. When DNRT acquired Destruction Brook Woods in the early 2000s, several houses were sold off. Most recently, DNRT and the Buzzards Bay Coalition worked with Round the Bend Farm to grant farmland to the agricultural nonprofit.

Together with the Dartmouth YMCA, another nearby farm, and town Conservation Commission property, nearly 300 acres of contiguous land will be protected from development forever. 

“It’s the last large farm in the Bakerville Road area that’s unprotected and undeveloped,” Mead said. “Because it lies right along Dike Creek, it has great habitat and natural resource value, and also creates a huge block of protected land around Dike Creek.”

The deadline to submit bids to purchase either property is July 16 at 5 p.m. The minimum bids are $700,000 for the farm property, and $1,250,000 for the secluded estate property.

Those interested in the farm must also submit agricultural qualifications of the buyer and a detailed business plan.

“We want to make sure it is continued to be used as a farm,” Mead said. “Most of the farmland is prime agricultural soil, and we want to make sure there’s a good plan in place to continue.”

Bidders should contact Brendan Annett at the Buzzards Bay Coalition at (508) 999-6363 Ext. 214, or by email at annett@savebuzzardsbay.org. An informational package will be sent to bidders including the conservation restriction. 

Mead said the goal is to close on the land on August 31. The organization hopes to have buyers picked by July 31, and will work out purchase and sale agreements with buyers at that time.