the New Jersey school of conservation the country's oldest and largest Environmental Center was on the brink of Extinction when it was thrown a Lifeline last year the school which was run by Montclair State University had to shut down during the coveted pandemic and looked like it might stay closed for Good until a group came in to save it and as Ted Goldberg reports it's back in full swing educating kids with newly secured funding and a new lease from the dep on its building and its future the sticks on the ground are the earth and the sticks that go kind of up resemble the air and the bottle in the middle is supposed to resemble the people and how they can't breathe under all the toxic air that's in our environment these Montague middle schoolers got artsy and outdoorsy at the New Jersey school of conservation there's been generations of New Jersey residents who have grown up with the common experience of having come to the school of conservation usually as part of a school group and learning about how to take care of the environment Shane Russell is the vice president of friends of njsoc a group that sprung into action when covid temporarily closed down the school in 2020. at that point the friends of the school of conservation were you know a regular friends group doing you know what friends groups do supporting the school and running programs and things like that and we kind of mobilized and the first thing that we did was try to establish a letter writing campaign to get people to keep the school from closing after letter writing and fundraising the Department of Environmental Protection allowed the friends to have a limited access agreement to run the school after a successful year of small programs the friends got another year-long agreement which allowed them to welcome students back the first school group that came back was Winona they're down in Gloucester County they have been coming here for 25 years the only year they missed was 2020 when the school was closed and they drove three hours to come here in the rain because this is such an important part of their curriculum that it's worth it to them to come back in-person experiences at the school don't just help students learn about the environment they also help schools conform with new state standards that call for climate change to be taught outside of just science class experiential education is critical for kids of all ages whether they're younger kids college kids but to have an opportunity to come to a campus like this and get their hands wet get their feet in the woods the pine needles gives them an opportunity to just experience things that they wouldn't experience in a classroom sitting down at a desk as for the students they don't mind stepping out of classrooms for a bit I mean like it's better than like be like just sitting in the classroom talking about it and it's more fun just like actually experiencing it it's very fun I need I need a break like this and more students will get those breaks after the friends recently signed a 20-year lease agreement with the dep it changes everything it means that we will be able to have overnight programs now School groups will be able to come back and stay overnight there's a lot that needs to be done in order for that to happen the first overnight trips are scheduled for this summer in Stoke State Forest I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News [Music]