MISSOULA (AP) -- The state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has won approval to buy a 368-acre parcel of private land near Sula, a land deal that supporters say will help protect wildlife habitat and ensure recreational access.

The state Land Board approved the purchase last week of the Wetzsteon property. The land separates two large tracts of the Sula State Forest in the southern Bitterroot Valley.

The plan calls for the wildlife agency to eventually trade the property to the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in return for state lands located within a pair of FWP wildlife management areas, also in the Bitterroot Valley.

The Wetzsteon land deal came about following a controversial proposal that would have given state lands near Sula to a private landowner in exchange for land near Lincoln. That deal was nixed by the Land Board last year after nearby residents complained.

''People from the Bitterroot told us we stood to lose far too much in that first proposal,'' said FWP wildlife manager Mike Thompson.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation helped negotiate a deal with the Wetzsteon family.

Attorney General Mike McGrath, a member of the state Land Board, said the foundation's involvement was instrumental in getting the deal signed.

''But for the intervention of your organization, this property would have been sold to private interests and public access for hundreds of hunters would have been lost,'' he said in a letter to the foundation.