The Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and state environmental authorities have finally reached agreement on a restoration plan for two areas of land from which trees and other plants were removed last year, in breach of the Endangered Species Act.

The settlement provides that Sheriff’s Meadow will improve more than five times as much land as was affected by the removals, which were done by an Island landscaping firm for the benefit of a north shore landowner, and will set aside $27,000 in perpetuity for the ongoing management of the land.

In a separate arrangement still being finalized, the foundation is seeking recompense from the contractor involved, Oakleaf Landscape of West Tisbury, of a roughly equal amount, to be paid in kind, for the plants taken.

The two foundation properties, the Caroline Tuthill Preserve in Edgartown and the Priscilla Hancock Meadow in Chilmark, were left damaged by heavy earth moving equipment brought in to remove the vegetation, which was subsequently replanted on the 30-acre property of Dirk Ziff, near Lambert’s Cove in West Tisbury.

The matter came to public attention last May, after a number of large pitch pines and cedars were removed from the Tuthill preserve, but it later emerged that material had been taken from the more remote Hancock preserve over a two-year period.

Both properties are listed as priority habitat, a state designation applied to places which harbor rare or endangered animal and plant species. Any alteration of priority habitat areas is subject to review by the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP).

In neither case was prior permission and approval received, and the NHESP was concerned that the work could have resulted in a “take” of up to four species of special concern, among them the imperial moth and Nantucket shadbush.

Ultimately, it was not determined that an actual taking had occurred. Nonetheless, the foundation is required under the agreement to restore about two acres directly impacted at the Tuthill preserve and about four at the Hancock meadow, as well as establish new regimes for other areas deemed to be habitat for the four species, making a total of some 48 acres.

The damage resulted from an informal agreement Sheriff’s Meadow had long maintained with certain Island landscapers that management work would be done by them in return for the right to take and sell some plants. But in these cases, the foundation admitted, Oakleaf had taken advantage of the arrangement. Heavy earth moving equipment was brought in from off-Island, mature trees were taken and the landscape scarified.

After the damage was revealed, Sheriff’s Meadow publicly apologized for its failures of stewardship and oversight.

It all happened on the watch of the previous executive director of the foundation, Dick Johnson, who no longer is with the organization.

At the conclusion of the months of review and negotiation, Tom French, assistant director of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife for the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, congratulated the foundation, under its new executive director Adam Moore, for its work.

Key to the agreement is a resolution adopted by the directors of Sheriff’s Meadow that a separate fund be set up to carry out restoration and management of the areas into the future.

“We’re going to take $27,000 from our endowment and create a dedicated sub-account toward maintaining these properties that we’re going to create as a result of the plan,” said Mr. Moore yesterday.

“That money will provide a certain amount every year, dedicated to maintaining them. We will supplement it if needed out of our annual budget. There will be more work required up front to create them, but then it’s a matter of regular management by mowing or fire,” he also said.

The debacle also has brought other changes at Sheriff’s Meadow. For one, the tacit agreements with landscapers are now a thing of the past.

“We may work with outside landscapers in the future; however we will have a written agreement in place when we do that. We’ve written a new policy governing it,” Mr. Moore said.

But much more of the work will be carried out in-house. Sheriff’s Meadow has recently acquired both a tractor and a dump truck.

And Oakleaf Landscape will be required to do a lot of the work, too, to make up for the damage caused.

“We are working towards an agreement with them based on the value of the plants they took from our properties, and I have spoken to at least half a dozen people in the business about the market value of such things,” he said.

On the basis of those assessments, Mr. Moore said Oakleaf owed Sheriff’s Meadow about $25,000 of work.

“There were about 22 pitch pines removed [from Caroline Tuthill], each 20 to 30 feet tall. They are worth about $20 per foot in height to the landowner. That makes about $11,000,” Mr. Moore said.

And from the Hancock meadow, roughly half an acre of huckleberry sod was scooped from the ground, which Mr. Moore said had an established market value of about 50 cents per square foot.

“Half an acre’s worth of huckleberry comes in at about another $11,000.

“Plus three large cedars were taken. I’m less clear about the value of those.

“I’ve met with Oakleaf and I will speak to our auditors to make sure they’re satisfied as to the value of these items, and then we will enter into agreement with Oakleaf about the remaining work that needs to be done,” he said.

Mr. Moore conceded the process of negotiation with the state had been tortuous.

“It went back and forth for months, one draft after another.”

Mostly, he said, it was a matter of small details, like getting soil samples tested to ensure the restored areas matched as closely as possible the environment which existed before the plants were taken out.

The most important issue for him, he said, was establishing that no take of endangered species had occurred.

Once that issue was resolved, he said it was just a matter of assuring the authorities that Sheriff’s Meadow would commit the money to ongoing care of the areas.

It is understood discussions are continuing between the NHESP and Mr. Ziff over his part in the affair; some areas of his property also are priority habitat.