What four years means to a forest
TO THE EDITOR: It’s been four years since Friends of the Drew Forest began advocating for a conservation sale to protect the 51-acre Drew University forest from development.
That’s eight feet in oak tree years. In child years, it means learning to crawl, walk and finally hop on one foot. In town council years, it involves enough patience and persistence to be character shaping.
These four years have shaped those of us on the Friends of the Drew Forest team. We’ve developed the kind of intertwined roots that you get in a forest—we know who’s good at what, who to turn to when a twist in the road arises.
For me personally, these years have been marked by an ever deeper understanding of the ecology of our town—and the difference between deer-browsed forests that characterize most of New Jersey and the Drew Forest’s rich understory of plants, saplings and flowers.
How to Save a Forest
Finally some good news, after 3.5 years of tireless advocacy: It looks like the 51-acre, biodiverse forest on the Drew University campus will be preserved through a conservation sale. All the latest (newsletter by yours truly).
Launching the Invaders Campaign
Japanese barberry is a popular nursery plant that is well behaved in suburban yards—but in the Drew Forest, it is the number one invasive species, according to Dr. Sara Webb, the Forest’s director. To think like a bird and connect the dots between suburban yards and open space, we applied for a $1500 grant from the Association of NJ Environmental Commissions. The grant will be used to remove 15 barberry bushes at Gibbons Pines Park and replaced them with native shrubs. The new habitat will be the centerpiece of an education and outreach campaign called “The Invaders,” highlighting the top five nursery invasives at the Drew Forest: barberry, burning bush, Asian wisteria, Asian honeysuckle and English ivy.