Thr Forest Preserve District of Will County on Friday announced its second-largest land deal ever.

The district paid $4.3 million for 495 acres in Crete Township.

It is the second-largest acquisition since the district was formed in 1927, according to a news release from the Forest Preserve District.

The land is adjacent to the district’s Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve.

The land purchase was made possible by a $50 million capital program approved last year amid taxpayer opposition that it would create one more burden on local property tax bills.

The forest preserve district argued that the program will preserve open space that otherwise could be developed for other uses, pointing to public use of preserves.

The Crete Township land buy “is about protecting land in perpetuity,” Colleen Novander, the district’s director of planning and land preservation, said in a news release.

The acquired land “has been largely untouched except for farming,” stated the news release. “It features the origins of Plum Creek and glacially carved moraines.”

The land buy expands Goodenow Grove from 891 acres to 1,386 acres, making it the district’s second largest preserve after Hickory Creek Preserve in Mokena, the district release said.

It also expands a 3,300-acre Plum Creek Greenway preservation program, which began in 1938.