By Alex Parker-Magyar (Managing Editor) | Madison Eagle

MADISON - Members of the Friends of the Drew Forest advocacy group packed a Morris County Open Space Trust Fund Committee meeting to show their support for the preservation of the threatened forest preserve at Drew University on Wednesday, Sept. 6.

Some 40 Friends members and supporters from across the county advocated for the committee to support Madison’s application for $10 million in grant funding to acquire the forest from the university in a conservation sale.

Drew University has sought to have much of the 53-acre preserve rezoned for multi-family housing and sold to a housing developer to help offset the university’s financial troubles.

Madison Mayor Robert Conley said Monday the $10 million award would match the largest open space grant in the county’s history, a 2014 grant to preserve what is now Giralda Farms Park in Chatham Township just a few blocks away.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11, have both submitted federal funding proposals that would net an additional $7.5 million toward the purchase, Conley noted at a Borough Council meeting Monday.

The $10 million request is based on an offer Madison made to Drew to purchase the forest, Conley said. The university has yet to agree to sell the land.

“While we have not come to an agreement on the purchase price, we are still very optimistic that that will happen, especially if the funding is in place,” the mayor said Monday.

He thanked Rep. Sherrill and State Sen. Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, for supporting the grant request by appearing with him in the borough’s application video submitted to the county committee. The two have also submitted letters of support for the grant.

He again thanked the Friends of the Drew Forest for their leadership and advocacy on the issue, noting the sea of blue and green “Save the Drew Forest” T-shirts at the meeting served to remind the Open Space Committee “that this is a very broadly supported application.”

Between the lawn signs that can be found across Morris County and the resolutions and letters of support from numerous municipalities and environmental groups, the issue is “not going unnoticed,” he said. “People know that this is a priority.”

Madison resident Collette Crescas was among the Friends of the Drew Forest members at the Sept. 6 county meeting.

She said several residents from across the county spoke of the diverse benefits the forest provides, from carbon sequestration and aquifer recharge, to economic value to Madison and Drew University, to mental health support for students.

“You can imagine how exciting it was to have such great representation and an abundance of positive energy from this standing-room-only event,” Crescas said at the Borough Council meeting Monday.

Conley noted several members of the county open space committee have personally toured the Drew Forest site at this point, as have members of the Morris County Board of County Commissioners.

The open space committee is to make its recommendations for grant funding to the county commissioners in October. The commissioners would vote on the grant application later that month.

Crescas said the Friends of the Drew Forest would be present at the next meeting to continue to express their support.