A chunk of land for sale in the Grand Forest East may change hands as soon as April, but its future may be determined by March 14.

The Bainbridge Island Metro Parks and Recreation District is looking to agree on terms for a conservation easement with the BI Land Trust on 39 acres of Grand Forest up for sale by the BI School District. The terms will be outlined in a document called a Real Estate Purchase and Sale Agreement, but the nonprofit and local agency have yet to determine an exact breakdown of management responsibilities.

Parks discussed its intent to acquire the land “no later than April 30” at its meeting Feb. 27. Parks staff aim to protect the existing trail network through the land, increase parking for up to 12 cars, improve access to the wildlife corridor and make plans to build a new east-west trail connection. The locations for new parking and the new trail have yet to be determined.

Two environmental nonprofits have initiated fundraising campaigns to purchase the land for $2.2 million on behalf of the park district — the BILT and the BI Parks and Trails Foundation. Both groups have expressed interest in collaborating with parks to maintain the level of environmental protection, public access and forest maintenance at the site, but the three entities must still come to a legal consensus.

If they cannot, management of the land will be up to the discretion of BILT, which could change who gets to hike where, parks executive director Dan Hamlin said.

“It’s up for discussion with the various parties involved, but it is the intent that the property stay the same as it is currently,” Hamlin said at the meeting. “The risk is that BILT could become the owner and place a conservation easement without the ability to protect park district terms for public access, or it could potentially even be subject to private development.”

BILT has protected over 1,400 acres of natural spaces on BI, about 80% of which is open to the public. The organization’s mission is to steward and conserve the island’s natural environment, which means nearly every property owned by BILT is kept undeveloped in perpetuity, with one notable exception: Lovgreen.

In June, BILT purchased 24.5 acres of land off of Lovgreen Road in Manzanita to preserve a band of relatively undisturbed mature forest, a rare ecotype in suburban areas like Bainbridge. After evaluating the quality of some of the habitat closer to the road, BILT sold two acres to affordable housing nonprofit Housing Resources Bainbridge for development. HRB intends to build a small cluster of single-family homes there.