Roughly 130 hectares of land southwest of Calgary that belonged to Grant MacEwan is going to be protected as virgin wilderness.

Heather MacEwan Foran, daughter of the late lieutenant-governor, has signed an agreement with the Southern Alberta Land Trust Society to prevent any future development on the land.

“My father, as well as my mother, would be absolutely thrilled, because they both had a great deal of respect for wild lands and wild animals,” she said.

The MacEwan family has owned the land in the foothills since the 1940s.

MacEwan was an agriculturalist and politician who led the provincial Liberal Party, served as mayor of Calgary in the mid-1960s and later became Alberta’s lieutenant-governor.

Foran said the land is likely worth $3-4 million.

“But once the conservation easement is on it the dollar value goes down because it can never be sub-divided,” she said.

Alan Gardner, executive director of the Southern Alberta Land Trust Society, said protecting the MacEwan land is important.

"Around Calgary, which is being covered up with parking lots, houses and roads, to find this near Calgary is really very precious,” he said.