Share This Video: We Need Your Help 🦋

In under two minutes, Dr. Douglas Tallamy, a prominent ecologist and best-selling author, explains why the Forest should be saved. We want everyone to see this! Click here.

Here’s why we want this video to go viral. Dr. Douglas Tallamy's call to preserve the Drew Forest is hugely important. For starters, he's a prominent ecologist, best-selling author of Nature's Best Hope and co-founder of the Homegrown National Park movement. But the reason you'll want to share this with your friends and on social media is that his message is full of hope. By protecting and restoring habitat around us, we can create what Tallamy calls a Homegrown National Park. Yellowstone won't fit in New Jersey but a 53-acre forest can perform minor ecological miracles. So can your yard if you plant natives, skip the chemicals and follow his excellent advice.

Try This at Home: Friends 2nd Annual Holiday Song Parody ❄️

The Friends of the Drew Forest spread cheer at a packed Madison Borough Reorganization Meeting on January 6 with their parody of ‘Winter Wonderland’ called 'Healthy Habitat'. The eight singers were accompanied on guitar by the talented local musician and piano tuner David Thomson (Drew ‘85).

After the performance, we were thrilled to hear Mayor Conley say that the Friends are “doing incredible work to save the sanctuary that is the Drew Forest. Working together with Madison, the Morris County Commissioners, Green Acres and Drew University, we will make saving that forest a reality.”

Now, your turn:

“In Drew Woods, carbon’s captured
In Drew Woods, we’re enraptured
We need it to stay and not go away
Help us save this healthy habitat!”

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Have You Spotted the Red-tailed Hawks in the Forest?

Photo by RJ Curcio (Drew ‘17)

Most people have no idea that, unlike the song birds who mate in the spring and summer, hawks may nest and breed starting in late winter. Right now in New Jersey, Bald Eagles and a variety of hawks are looking to breed.

Red-tailed Hawks nest in the Drew Forest and may begin within weeks to construct their bowl of sticks high up in a tree. Red-tailed hawks are a very large species of hawk named for the russet color on the upper side of their tails. With their wing spans of 3.4 - 4.8 feet, they are always a treat to see. The female will be larger than the male, which is true of virtually all birds of prey though scientists still aren’t sure why this is the case.

The Red-tailed hawks that live and rest in the Drew Forest can be seen soaring over many parts of town or perched on tall poles or trees, looking to devour small mammals. Their eyesight is eight times better than humans! One tip for spotting a perched Red-tailed Hawk is that crows or Blue Jays often squawk and dive at it, so when you hear that, look for a hawk. Winter, with its bare trees, is a great season to spot these magnificent raptors.

Clearing of the Drew Forest would eliminate nesting habitat for this apex predator and disrupt the entire natural food web.