BRADLEY — Officials here breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday upon discovering Bradley no longer is being considered as a location for a controversial National Guard training site.

Kirk Ramsay, vice chairman of the Town Council, said Tuesday afternoon that he discovered the news after calling the Maine Army National Guard for an update on the search. No one from the Guard had contacted Bradley officials to notify them of the decision, he said.

Town officials and residents here had been waiting for the result of an environmental-impact study, which the Guard had undertaken as part of the search process. On Tuesday, Guard officials told Ramsay that the area contained too many wetlands to house the site.

“It’s a major victory for us,” Ramsay said. “We didn’t expect to win.”

Plans for the Deepwoods Major Training Area called for a 8,600-acre site in the northeast corner of town. Although the Guard has trained in that general area for nearly 20 years, plans for the construction of permanent buildings and small-arms ranges, and increased helicopter activity raised the concerns of a number of residents. In addition, officials were worried about the environmental impact, namely the abuse of roads by trucks transporting heavy equipment and personnel.

Another area of concern centered on a possible loss of much-needed tax revenue. The state-owned land slated for the site was part of a 1984 public land exchange, and is scheduled to return to private hands in the near future. Had the Guard chosen the site, the land likely would have been transferred to the federal government, which would not have provided tax revenue. Guard officials countered those concerns by hinting at possible reimbursement.

Lt. Col Donovan Lajoie of the Guard confirmed Tuesday that Bradley had been removed from the list, and said that Guard officials had not been ready to notify the town of the decision when Ramsay called. The search, however, continues across the state, he said.

Lajoie said that the results proved that “the environmental-impact study process is working,” and that the Guard was concerned about such an impact.

However, he said that the resident opposition had little, if anything, to do with the decision to remove Bradley from consideration.

“We really felt that we could explain to those people we were going to be good neighbors,” Lajoie said.

For Bradley officials, the news ends a 1 1/2-year battle, which included lobbying before legislators, to stop plans for the site.

“This was a battle that we fought long and hard,” Ramsay said.