The Weis Ecology Center, formerly known as Camp Midvale, has been around for almost a century. It is located in Ringwood, which is in the Highlands of northwestern New Jersey, on approximately 150 acres. The buildings and setting have played a role in several important movements of the 20th century; the labor movement, the civil rights movement and the ecology movement; and are of historic importance both locally and to the State of New Jersey. They represent a legacy left by the European immigrants who founded the facility as a camp in 1920, a legacy of respect and love for nature, appreciation of outdoor recreation, access by ordinary folks, and working together as a community. And it was the first, and for the longest time the only, interracial facility in the entire region. The Nature Friends group that built Camp Midvale is at the heart of environmental stewardship history in New Jersey. Without them, the surrounding woods would not be intact. As the Weis Ecology Center it has served as a center of environmental education for several generations.

The current owners, the New Jersey Audubon Society, have closed Weis Ecology Center and made plans to transfer ownership of the property to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP). Because the DEP is demanding, as part of a pre-requisite for them to accept the property, that first the water and septic systems be destroyed, and then the historic buildings be destroyed, the New Jersey Audubon Society (NJAS) plans to carry out this destruction in the very near future in order to transfer the property to DEP.

There is an ongoing effort by the community and the supporters of the Weis Ecology Center to form the partnerships necessary to manage and upgrade this site, and re-establish educational programming. We are asking the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and the NJAS Board of Directors, for an immediate moratorium on any plan to engage in the destruction of any part of this historic site. Its destruction will mean both the loss of a place of historic significance, and the inability to ever bring back the educational programs valued by the community. In addition, the value of this site will be greatly diminished if the buildings and cultural landscape are destroyed.