The Nature Conservancy bought a 922-acre conservation easement along the Saddle Road above Hilo for $100,000, which was below the market price, the conservation organization said Tuesday.

The Conservancy is partnering with the University of Hawaii-Hilo, Hawaii Island watershed partnerships and the parcel’s landowner, The Hawaii Conference Foundation, to conserve, manage and interpret the site. It will continue to serve as an outdoor ecology laboratory for students at the University.

The land was acquired by Titus Coan through the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions during The Great Mahele in 1849. Fifty years later his widow granted title to the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, now the Hawaii Conference UCC and Hawaii Conference Foundation.

“It is an awesome piece of property, and we did what was necessary to make this possible because it is our church’s kuleana,” said Sherman S. Hee, executive director of the foundation, in a statement.