The 240-acre School of Conservation in New Jersey's Stokes State Forest is getting a $1 million investment and could secure new management guaranteeing its future as an oasis for environmental learning. 

The state Legislature gave final approval to a bill on Wednesday naming the Friends of the New Jersey School of Conservation as the new overseers of the 70-year-old school. 

Former campus counselors and their students launched the nonprofit in 1987 to help the school with fundraising and volunteer projects. The Friends group expanded to include other school supporters and these organizers fought to reopen the campus with limited programs in April 2021, about a year after Montclair State University closed down operations and laid off 18 staff members

The state’s $50.6 billion budget, which Gov. Phil Murphy signed this week, gives the Friends nonprofit $1 million to maintain and operate the 57-building campus. 

Located in Sussex County, the School of Conservation has educated more than 400,000 teachers and students since opening in 1949, according to its supporters. Montclair State took over management in 1981 but shut down the campus during the pandemic due to financial constraints.

Kerry Kirk Pflugh, president of the Friends of the New Jersey School of Conservation, has been fighting to manage the property to bring the school back to its full potential. 

“This will give us the opportunity to continue the programming that was promised to the students and educators of the state of New Jersey back in 1949,” Pflugh, whose father, John J. Kirk, served as the school’s director for 38 years, told WNYC.

For more on this story, visit Gothamist.com.