Wet Meadow
Wet meadows are a wetland habitat that generally lacks trees and shrubs. These meadows may have small pockets of standing water and saturated soils but do not generally possess extensive areas of standing water. This differentiates a wet meadow from a marsh where there are extensive areas of deep water. Groundwater is the principle source of water in these habitats. These meadows are common in areas where some type of disturbance has kept trees and shrubs from becoming established. For example, wet meadows are common in agricultural landscapes. Wet meadows provide habitat for a variety of herbaceous plants as well as birds and butterflies.
This habitat is fairly uncommon at Teatown; however there is an extensive area of wet meadow in Hidden Valley and a small section in the heart of Griffin Swamp. Common plants in the wet meadows of teatown include tussock sedge, soft rush, wool grass, green bulrush, marsh fern, ironweed, and blue vervain.
Conservation Issues
Wet meadows are subject to the identical threats of many other wetland ecosystems (see forested hardwood swamp). These include many factors associated with the degradation of watersheds. However, as wet meadows typically require some type of disturbance to keep trees and shrubs out, this habitat type is being lost in the landscape as natural disturbance such as fire is discouraged and human-mediated disturbances such as farming are declining.
