Keeping up the good fight: Ed Lloyd remembered as Drew Forest advocate in Madison
Friends of the Drew Forest members attend an August 2022 hearing at the Morris County Courthouse in the case between Drew University and Madison. The Friends, with the assistance and legal advice of late environmental attorney and activist Ed Lloyd, filed an amicus brief advocating for the environmental value of the forest.
MADISON - Environmental legend Ed Lloyd, who passed away on Aug. 5, has been lauded as a “crusading public interest lawyer” by Columbia Law School, “dedicated champion of climate action” by Gov. Phil Murphy and "open space protector" by the Pinelands Commission.
But right here in Madison, Lloyd was known for “keeping up the good fight.”
“That’s what he’d tell us when we were feeling daunted,” says Lydia Chambers, co-chair of Friends of the Drew Forest, a nonprofit advocating for a market-value conservation sale of the 53-acre forest on Drew University’s campus.
For the last 13 months, Lloyd had donated his time as the Friends of the Drew Forest's legal adviser, helping them file an amicus or “friend of the court” brief so that they could detail the forest’s environmental significance as part of an ongoing legal action between Drew University and the Borough of Madison.
Lloyd was introduced to the work of Friends of the Drew Forest when Chambers was searching for legal help. She reached out to the Eastern Environmental Law Center, a public interest law firm where she and Lloyd served as board members.
“Ed not only agreed to work with us,” Chambers says, “he wrote a brief that made our amicus status a slam dunk at the August 2022 hearing,
Judy Kroll, who serves as the Friends’ other co-chair, says that Lloyd had “an impeccable sense of legal timing. He knew exactly when to ask the judge to grant us access to the Drew campus for a study of endangered bats. He waited–and we worried. But when the moment was right, the request was granted—immediately.”
Both Kroll and Chambers were aware that Lloyd was struggling with his health—he once consulted with them from his hospital bed. But health issues never impacted his legal acumen.
“He would annotate documents we sent him with a dozen questions,” says Chambers. “He was steps ahead of everyone.”
The Friends of the Drew Forest is in the process of lining up new legal representation.
“We are sure that we will find excellent help,” says Kroll. “But Ed is irreplaceable, by definition. To us he was a treasure. To New Jersey, he was a legend.”