Lovers of the Brockton Audubon Preserve, a neglected resource that recently changed hands in a cash-strapped city, say the parkland’s new trustees will help reconnect the city to its lost natural paradise.

“It’s a very beautiful piece of property once you get inside of it,” said Scott Ford, a lifelong Brockton resident and a board member of the Wildlands Trust, the regional land preservation agency that just added the Brockton preserve to its holdings.