WARREN - The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has an interest in preserving nearly 1,000 acres of land in Hartford and Fowler.

Preservation would protect the habitats of 13 known rare species in the area of the Yankee Creek Corridor, known as the 1,342-acre Massasauga Rattlesnake Ranch, according to museum bio-diversity coordinator David Kriska.

''Our goal is to protect rare species and habitats that are there,'' Kriska said.

Kriska said the museum will be applying to the Clean Ohio Fund through the Ohio Public Works Commission for $800,000 that would be used to purchase a conservation easement on the land. The easement, he said, would permanently prevent any development on the property.

The land contains about 11 miles of Yankee Creek and tributary streams.

Last week, Trumbull County commissioners agreed to back the museum's efforts.

Kriska said museum officials were invited to survey the land in 2000 by the owners, who Kriska says, want to maintain the property as wetland and swamp forest. The survey turned up the rare species, which Kriska declined to name because of their market value.

The museum should know on Nov. 20 if its application was approved. It has similar projects in Bristol and two in Mesopotamia.

In Bristol, the museum successfully gathered about $506,000 to purchase for preservation 300 acres of swamp land near state Route 45 and Bristol Champion Townline Road. It's believed the property contains the habitats of 10 rare species of plant and animal life, including the Swamp Cotton Wood, a tree that had been found only once previously in the Grand River Basin.

Other rare species there include the bobcat lynx, snowshoe hare and trumpeter swan.

''It (the land) transferred, and we're still finding rare species,'' said Jim Bissell, museum director of conservation.

In Mesopotamia, there is a 155-acre piece of land on Sweet Road along with a 110 acres on Parkman-Mesopotamia Road.

rselak@tribtoday.com