MONTARA — A huge stretch of coastal wilderness along the San Mateo County coast will be permanently preserved as open space after Congress approved funding to complete the purchase and transfer of nearly 4,000 acres of undeveloped land to the National Park Service, officials said.

Congress appropriated $4 million to go toward the $15 million needed to buy a rugged coastal area north of Half Moon Bay known as the Rancho Corral de Tierra, the Peninsula Open Space Trust announced on Friday.

The property, about seven miles south of San Francisco, will become the southern entrance to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, officials said. The additional land will allow park officials to connect the Bay Area Ridge Trail with the California Coastal Trail.

“This is a magnificent parcel. We certainly are excited,” said Howard Levitt, the director of communications and partnerships for the 74,000-acre recreation area. “It adds to the region’s exceptional open space and helps consolidate the Bay Area’s greenbelt into San Mateo County.”

The land, one of the largest undeveloped tracts of property remaining on the San Mateo County coast, is home to a number of rare species including the peregrine falcon, the California red-legged frog, the San Francisco garter snake and the San Bruno elfin butterfly.

There are also four creeks that run through the rugged coastal grasslands. Wildlife officials said two of the creeks can be restored, allowing steelhead trout to return.

GGNRA officials had been working with the Peninsula Open Space Trust, a land preservation group and current owner of the land, for a nearly a decade in trying to obtain the property. The transfer of the land is expected to be completed this summer.

Levitt said the GGNRA has big plans for the property, including some updated hiking trails, an equestrian area and likely access for mountain bikers, too.

One unresolved and controversial question is whether the GGNRA will permit dogs on the property. Hundreds of local residents walk their dogs at Rancho Corral de Tierra, half of them off-leash. As it updates its General Management Plan for all its parks, the GGNRA is leaning toward a ban on all dogs on the land — unless the parks’ superintendent exempts certain areas within the property.

That may occur, said Levitt. But local dog owners aren’t so sure.

Montara resident Bill Bechtell founded the Montara Dog Group to advocate for access to Rancho Corral de Tierra. The group has 300 members, and they have sent letters and petitions to the GGNRA. He said their efforts were in vain.

“They don’t want to hear from us,” Bechtell said.

Levitt disagreed. He said the GGNRA would survey “areas of great sensitivity” at the property to determine where dogs could belong. And he added that until the park system’s new management plan becomes a legal rule — possibly sometime in late 2012 — people are welcome to walk their dogs on-leash.

Julia Scott contributed to this report.