By JULIA WELLS

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank added a bucolic piece of West Tisbury farmland to its holdings this week with the purchase from Ann Nelson of 27 acres along State Road. Located across the road from the Polly Hill Arboretum, the property includes a hay field that stretches for nearly 1,000 feet behind a stone wall. It abuts 87 acres already conserved by the land bank through the purchase of three conservation restrictions from the Greene and Hickie families, which means that the entire stretch on the east side of State Road is now protected.

“The land bank has known for a long time that this was a significant part of the West Tisbury landscape and is so glad that it is finally all protected,” said land bank executive director James Lengyel yesterday.

The purchase price was $1.2 million.

Mr. Lengyel also acknowledged that this marks the first sizeable purchase by the land bank since 2008, when it bought Quammox Preserve on Chappaquiddick from the Chasin family.

“We have had to husband our money very carefully, and we’ve been husbanding it,” the executive director said, referring to the impact of the economic downturn on land bank revenues, which come from a two per cent tax on most real estate transactions.

In a press release about the West Tisbury purchase this week, the land bank said Ann Nelson had sold the land to honor her parents, Peg and Albert Littlefield, after she had reacquired their homestead from her son.

Situated between State and Old Courthouse roads, the former Nelson property included four lots: the State Road field, a lot on the west side of the Mill Brook with 1,600 feet of frontage, and two lots on the east side of the Mill Brook with an aggregate frontage of 1,750 feet.

As is its customary practice, the land bank will develop a management plan for the property in the coming year. Any member of the public with questions or comments is encouraged to attend one of the land bank’s regular Monday evening meetings.