MOUNT DESERT – A Philadelphia couple who owns prime land on Long Pond has donated 77.3 acres as a conservation easement to Acadia National Park.

The easement was transferred in June from Peter and Lucy Sellers to the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. It is now being transferred to the park, officials said.

The easement will protect 1,200 feet of shoreline on Sand Point and 1,290 feet of wooded road frontage bordering the park entrance on Beech Hill Road.

The land, comprising four lots, abuts Acadia and also includes the view shed to Beech Mountain and hiking trails on the west side of Long Pond.

It adjoins an 80-acre parcel abutting Acadia to the south, which was placed under an easement in 1998, according to David MacDonald, director of land protection for the trust.

The easement also will help protect the drinking water for the town of Southwest Harbor.

The easement was transferred to the trust until Acadia can complete the long federal process for accepting the property, MacDonald said.

MacDonald said the Sellers property meets almost all of the criteria laid out in the 1986 Acadia boundary legislation, which regulates what land can be accepted under easements.

“Many landowners who have important property like to know the land is protected in perpetuity,” MacDonald said.

Under the conservation easement, the Sellerses remain the owners of the land, but they have forever given up development rights on the property. They are allowed to construct one camp on the land, which cannot be higher than 18 feet or more than 1,300 square feet in area, according to Michael Blaney, Acadia land resource specialist.

“It’s a good easement,” Blaney said Tuesday. “It allows for limited development while protecting a valuable piece of land.”

Acadia holds 182 easements for a total of 12,000 acres, the vast majority on Mount Desert Island.

The Maine Coast Heritage Trust holds 32 easements throughout Maine for a total of 2,725 acres.

The park is accepting comment from the towns of Mount Desert and Southwest Harbor. Park Superintendent Sheridan Steele, in a July 27 letter to Mount Desert officials, said the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission will give the easement a final review when it meets Sept. 13.