Madison votes to apply for county grant funding to acquire, preserve Drew Forest
MADISON - An overflow crowd turned out Monday evening to support a Borough Council vote to apply for Morris County grant funding to acquire the Drew Forest and preserve it into the future.
The council voted unanimously to authorize the grant application to the Morris County Open Space Trust Fund before a cheering, standing-room-only crowd of residents clad in aqua blue and forest green T-shirts: the colors of the "Save the Drew Forest" campaign.
About 80 supporters, many of them members of the Friends of the Drew Forest advocacy group, lined the walls of the meeting chamber of the Hartley Dodge Memorial building, sat on window benches and crowded the doorway looking into the chamber.
There was a celebratory air to the proceedings as Madison took a meaningful step in its efforts to save the 53-acre forest a full two years after it came to light that Drew University is considering selling the land to a housing developer to combat ongoing financial struggles. However, borough officials and residents alike also reminded that saving the forest remains contingent on the university agreeing to a conservation sale.
Loantaka Way resident Sean Nevin said he had been an associate professor at Drew for the past 10 years before the university closed his program. He was joined at the podium by his teenage daughter, Amelia, who noted the family lives next to the forest preserve.
"When I began at Drew, and when we moved here, Drew had such a connection to the forest," Mr. Nevin said. "They were 'The University in the Forest,' and they've gone through this huge financial struggle and are selling everything off around the area that are no longer considering the impact that it would have on us and the people who live around it."
"I'd just like to say that I think that people need to step up now and take care of the forest at this point," he added later.
Borough Councilwoman Rachel Ehrlich used similar language, as she said she felt a "sense of urgency" to save the forest as the world endures widespread species die-off due to habitat loss and pollution.
"I want to urgently call on Drew to step up and meet us at the table to discuss this purchase," she said.
Several residents and members of the Friends of the Drew Forest leadership spoke from the podium during a public hearing on the vote to authorize the grant application.
Friends of the Drew Forest Co-Chair Lydia Chambers noted that an estimated 86 Friends advocates had spoken at 35 council meetings since May 2021 - nearly every meeting since the public became aware of the threat to the forest. She and others cited the widespread support for the campaign from environmental organizations and municipalities across the region, plus countless residents and Drew alumni and several prominent ecologists.
Barbara Heskins Davis, vice president of programs for the Land Conservancy of New Jersey, said her organization has supported Madison through the acquisition of more than $15 million in grants to preserve some 62 acres of land since 2003, and that it stands by Madison today. The Land Conservancy assisted the borough in preparing the grant application the council authorized at the meeting.
Davis also noted that state and federal lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11, and Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, are doing their part to secure funding to match the Morris County grant. She emphasized the "regional significance" of the 53-acre forest, not just as habitat for native wildlife but as a critical recharge area for the Buried Valley Aquifer, which supplies drinking water for numerous towns.
"Protecting this property will secure the health and the resiliency of the water supply and will support the efforts of the town to preserve the single largest undeveloped forested land within its borders," she said. "Time is of the essence and the urgency is critical to come to an agreement now and have the funding in place to purchase the land quickly."
Mayor Robert Conley said after the meeting the borough is hoping to continue to work with the university on a conservation sale, but there was nothing new to report since borough officials met with members of the Drew University Board of Trustees in April.
A resident, possibly one of the several children in attendance that night, had left Conley a note that had been scrawled in crayon and left on a table outside the meeting chamber.
"Mayor Bob," it read, "Save the Drew Forest."
"I want to reinforce the fact that this is just another step," Conley told the crowd before the council voted 5-0 to authorize the grant application. "It's the effort of the people in this room, in the hallway who couldn't fit in the room, those watching at home and others that have gotten us this far, but it's still a long way to go.
"This body is committed to it and I know everyone out there is committed to it, so together we will make it happen."
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Like the song says, you can’t always get what you want. But did Madison get what it needs from the Morris County Commissioners on Monday?
The Morris County Board of County Commissioners voted Monday to grant Madison $5 million toward a potential future acquisition of the Drew Forest - a significant amount yet half of what the borough had been asking for.
The Morris County Commissioners heard passionate pleas at their meeting Wednesday night to approve a $5 million grant to help protect 51 acres of woodlands on the Drew University campus. But, they were told, the funding needs to be doubled if preservationists are to have a shot at saving Drew Forest.
Madison is poised to receive a substantial Morris County grant award to help purhase the threatened Drew Forest preserve from Drew University, but advocates say a larger sum would push the deal across the finish line.
Speakers at Thursday's meeting included Parsippany resident Ken Dolsky, a well-known environmental advocate and vice president of the New Jersey Forest Watch. Drew Forest, he said, was a habitat for many species "under the threat of extinction."
"I'm here to represent the voice of the College of Liberal Arts at Drew. There are lots of Drew students here, from freshmen to seniors, saying that we're here in support of the grant for preserving the forest that we way it is," she said. "We, the student body, we want to have our voices heard." - Drew student, Luiza Vaskys Lima
“The support that exists for the forest could put you on the map both with donors and prospective students. You’re ‘The University in the Forest.’ Own it.” - Claire Whitcomb
An overflow crowd turned out Monday evening to support a Borough Council vote to apply for Morris County grant funding to acquire the Drew Forest and preserve it into the future.
MADISON - Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11, has submitted a Community Project Funding (CPF) request of $5 million to the House Appropriations Committee to support the preservation of the Drew University Forest Preserve.
Sherrill submitted the request along with 14 other CPF requests for the 11th Congressional District for Fiscal Year 2024, according to a Monday, April 17 statement from the congresswoman’s office. The requests may be included in the text of the 2024 appropriations bill and marked up by the House Appropriations Committee later this year.
By William Westhoven | Daily Record
Madison Mayor Robert Conley is once again calling on Drew University officials to meet with him to discuss the preservation of the environmentally sensitive Drew Forest.
Dr. Douglas Tallamy, a wildlife ecologist and best-selling author, has issued a public plea to save the Drew Forest.
Michael George (C’23) | Madison Eagle
“I can imagine students learning about how we solved our financial problems by celebrating and making our beautiful campus even more of a biodiversity hot-spot, as well as becoming a national leader on how to promote biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Drew must continue to have the pride of promoting itself as the “University in the Forest.”
“‘Nearly $13,000 remained of the funds raised through the efforts of Save Noe Pond and GSWA. We decided to put those resources to good use,’ said Rich Rein, one of the liaisons of Save Noe Pond.
The GSWA saw a natural connection with Save Noe Pond, a group dedicated to protecting the historic Noe Pond property from over-development that would bring substantial harm to the delicate wetlands and wildlife on and around the property, including the land adjacent to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, GSWA Executive Director Sally Rubin said.”
By Doug O’Malley and Asha Dhakad
ENVIRONMENT NEW JERSEY SAYS: “Drew University, in the North Jersey town of Madison, is not called the “University in the Forest” for nothing. On its property is a 53-acre forest: the Drew Forest. There, you can find some of the oldest trees in the region; you can also find students conducting research for their environmental science classes and visitors enjoying the trails. Unfortunately, the forest is under threat – there is a plan to sell off some of the forest and open it to development. With our allies, we have opposed this plan and called for permanent protection in the form of a “conservation sale” where the land would be sold to a buyer who would conserve rather than develop it.”
Alexandra Kiely (C’ 2012) | Madison Eagle
“I am deeply concerned about what the future will hold for Drew if it goes through with this monumentally shortsighted decision. Condemning the forest will define Drew’s reputation for all time, but I don’t think the school has really considered the fallout. The overwhelming majority of colleges and universities across the country are environmentally focused and becoming more so all the time.”
“Leaders from Environment New Jersey, the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC), the New Jersey Highlands Coalition, New York/New Jersey Baykeeper, Raritan Headwaters Association and The Watershed Institute signed a Monday, Aug. 8 letter to the Friends of the Drew Forest advocacy group voicing their ‘vociferous support for the full conservation of the entire 53 acres of the Drew University Forest’ on behalf of their organizations.
‘There are many land-use battles across the state, some that are waged with scant environmental evidence,’ the letter reads. ‘This is not one of them, and the double whammy precedent of the potential development of such a unique ecosystem that the Drew University Forest represents along with the actions by the university hoping to cash out one of its most treasured places compel us to action.’
“The importance of the forest is more than just what it can offer financially and the ways in which the president and the Drew administration have handled this process have not been transparent.” - Rachel Papa, Drew University CLA ‘22
“Great Swamp Watershed Association is proud to support this important preservation initiative,” stated Sally Rubin, GSWA Executive Director. “The Drew Forest is an invaluable natural resource that will be lost forever if the Borough is ordered by the court to allow construction and the land is fragmented by development.”
By Erica Cowper and Morgan Zielinski | The Madison Eagle
“We love Drew University and want it to be solvent for many years to come. We think that selling off sections of the forest may solve a short-term funding problem but will destroy the long-term health of the university.”
By Kevin Coughlin for Morristown Green
“Jim Hunt, an alumnus with Drew roots dating to 1964, said the Drew Forest is a legacy he wishes to leave for his grandchildren.
‘Every time we chip away with development at the recharge of the aquifer, in effect, we’re beginning to steal from the future,’ Hunt said.
Beseeching Morris County and the state to join the preservation effort, Mayor Mark Gyorfy also implored Drew ‘to give conservation a chance.’”
By the Madison Eagle
“The Morris Township Committee is expected to pass a resolution at its next meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16, supporting the preservation of the 53-acre Drew Forest.
The township would become the fourth in a string of municipalities to do so for the forest located on the campus of Drew University, joining the likes of Madison, Chatham Township and Chatham Borough in the fight.”
By Angelia Lobifaro for the Drew Acorn
Drew University students have been busy organizing urging Drew University President Thomas Schwartz to dispel the uncertainty regarding the potential sale of the Drew Forest and the university’s financial future. A student petition is circulating on campus, and Student Government has passed a resolution in support of a conservation sale to permanently protect the forest.
By Alex Parker-Magyar for Madison Eagle
“The undergraduate student government at Drew University is looking for answers from the school’s president on the potential sale and development of a portion of the Drew Forest preserve.
The elected body representing Drew’s College of Liberal Arts made several ‘demands’ of President Thomas Schwarz in a resolution dated Wednesday, Feb. 23, stating that unclear communications from the university ‘have caused confusion, and the transparency of decisions made in regards to the sale of the Drew Forest and the impacts therefore mentioned will directly affect the Drew community.’”
By Claudia Ceva for New Jersey Hills
“Jim Connelly of Mountain Avenue said Drew Forest is a “gem of a property that needs to be secured as open space” in a written comment read by Township Clerk Greg LaConte.
Connelly said though the property is in Madison, it borders the township and any development there would have a negative impact on the area. “It would be preferential to maintain Drew Forest as the high-quality open space it is,” he said.”
“Following in Madison and Chatham Township's footsteps, Chatham Borough has become the latest town to state its support for the effort to save Drew University Forest Preserve from development.
The Chatham Borough Council unanimously passed a resolution to this effect at a meeting on Monday, Feb. 14, six days after the Township Committee did the same.”
Friends of the Drew Forest
The Friends of the Drew Forest is a volunteer organization dedicated to protect and sustain the Drew Forest Preserve, 53 biodiverse acres that provide countless benefits to Drew University, Madison Borough and surrounding communities along with critical wildlife habit.