What four years means to a forest

TO THE EDITOR: It’s been four years since Friends of the Drew Forest first started commenting at council meetings.

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. Dr. Sara Webb was my first teacher, explaining the difference between deer-browsed forests that characterize most of New Jersey and the Drew Forest’s rich understory of plants, saplings and flowers, a feat made possible with a deer fence, Drew students and a guardian ecologist like Sara.

My second teacher was Dr. Douglas Tallamy, whose new book, “How Can I Help? Saving Nature With Your Yard”, was the subject of a recent Environmental Commission community brainstorm.

Over the last four years, Tallamy’s books taught me (and millions of others) that we can’t confine nature to a park, that saving biodiversity depends on private land—some 135 million acres of it.

That means shrinking lawns—grass is pretty much a biodiversity desert—and planting pollinator habitat, shrubs and trees.

Butterflies and moths need native plants in order to lay their eggs; caterpillars need them for leaves to chew; and birds need them because soft squishy caterpillars are what they feed their young. A privet hedge or a so-called butterfly bush from Asia offers none of these benefits.

In 2023, Tallamy gave a Zoom talk in Madison—it is on the Environmental Commission page on Rosenet.org and has been viewed more than a thousand times. Watch it and you’ll see that just before the closing bell, Lydia Chambers and I snuck in a question: Was there any chance Tallamy would make a short video extolling the importance of the Drew Forest?

Instead of demurring, he said yes. It should be stated that Doug Tallamy is a tremendously busy man. He spends his time speeding around like Paul Revere, crisscrossing the country, trying to raise awareness about the plummeting numbers of birds and insects. He said yes to a video. For Madison, New Jersey.

Here are a few words from his excellent sixty seconds: “The Drew Forest,” Tallamy said, “serves as a model that shows homeowners what they can create if they remove invasives and plant natives in their own yards.” He went on to conclude: “It’s extremely important for all parties to come together to preserve the Drew Forest because its 53 acres comprise an urban forest of exceptional value.”

Four years is a long time. Friends of the Drew Forest would like to extend their continuing thanks to Mayor Robert Conley, Ray Codey, Jim Burnet, Michael Pellessier, past and current Borough Council members and everyone who is working tirelessly to make sure the Drew Forest is saved.