MOUNT WASHINGTON, Mass. — The Nature Conservancy has celebrated the opening of a new nature trail and the removal of the Becker Pond Dam. 

The Hallig Trail, a 2.25-mile hike through the 1,600-acre Mount Plantain Preserve, is named after generous conservancy donor Bobbie Hallig. Hallig, who has ties to the area dating back more than 60 years, explained the trail is gorgeous, not difficult, and there is even a spot where a bear has severely clawed a tree. 

"There are many interesting things about this walk, and people should come and take a hike," she said before the first official traverse on June 24. 

"Mount Washington is a unique habitat. It's one of the treasures of New England. It is the second-largest preserved area by The Nature Conservancy, and it's hugely important for the globe to have places like this that are wild." 

Kris Sarri, state director for conservancy, said the preserve is a cornerstone of its work in the Berkshires and is also a part of something much larger: a more than 100,000-acre region spanning Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, defined by mountain peaks and rare wetlands.

"In the early 2000s, TNC scientists actually identified this range as one of the last great places," Sarri said. 

"It's a globally significant landscape worth protecting at a large scale." 

When the conservancy purchased this land from the Dombrowski Family in 2000, it was added to the Mount Plantain Preserve and included Becker Pond, a half-acre pond once used for recreation. Today, through work with many partners, that effort has secured more than 20,000 acres of connected protected land.