Habitats of Marshlands Conservancy

FOREST

The forest habitat acts as a natural buffer against storms and heavy rain events, mitigating erosion and wind damage. The forest offers a shady habitat for countless plants and animals that live and grow on the forest floor. This collection of organisms requires a degree of protection from the harsh, drying effects of full sunlight and associated tissue damage from strong UV radiation.

An abundance of food is supplied in the forest for a multitude of animals. Nut-producing trees including oaks, hickories, maples and sweetgum trees provide food for wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, grey squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks, mice, voles, and birds, among other creatures. These animals may in turn provide meal opportunities for hawks, owls, minks, fox, and coyotes.

Carbon sequestration is a critical function that all our habitats provide, but the forest and meadow have the greatest carbon-storing capacity. Along with the trees in the forest, healthy organic soils in particular are immense repositories of carbon and can retain this element for many years as nutrients are recycled for reuse by plants and animals.

MEADOW

In general, much of our region has lost significant amounts of meadow and open grassland habitat due primarily to urban and suburban development. Our 16-acre meadow is the oldest known continuously managed meadow in New York State, dating from at least as far back as the Colonial Period.

The meadow habitat offers an extremely important resource for wildlife. Migratory birds rely on the meadow as a resting area where they can find food and shelter to restore their energy. Larger animals like deer, coyote, fox and turkeys, and the smaller creatures like rabbits, mink, mice, shrews and voles, traverse the meadow in search of sustenance and shelter and a safe place to rear and protect their young. Other animals like the small DeKay’s Brown snake and Common Garter snakes – hidden under the protective canopy of vegetation – hunt for insects, snails, slugs, and worms.

At first glance as you hike past the meadow on a tranquil summer morning it may appear that all is still and at rest. However, there is a tremendous amount of activity taking place in the meadow. Plants are taking up bio-available nutrients from the soil (thanks to the unseen efforts of microbes, fungi and soil animals), converting bright sunlight into food that ultimately feeds every animal life form in the meadow. Overhead you can see a dazzling airshow of dragonflies, wasps, bees, birds and butterflies swooping, zipping and fluttering about. They are foraging for nectar and pollen or hunting insects born aloft by hot air rising from the sunbaked vegetation. Plants that grow here are sun-loving, hardy plants often with deep roots to reach underground water sources. They also resist the extreme drying effects of wind and sun exposure. This complex interplay of plants and animals – on both the macro and micro scale – ensures that the meadow will remain productive and biologically resilient.

TIDAL SALT MARCH

Our tidal salt marsh is a vital coastal marine habitat that was created by the ages-long retreat of the last period of glaciation. Sand, silt, and clay were deposited as outwash sediments from melting ice and over time organic material arrived on the wind and tides. This was the base for the establishment of special plants that had evolved and adapted to survive and flourish in saltwater environments. The salt marsh is dominated by plants such as cordgrasses, salt grass, and rushes. These salt tolerant grasses have special glands that can remove the salt from the water and excrete it.

The marsh provides critical habitats for a wide range of species, including Mud Crabs, Fiddler Crabs, Blue Crabs, Diamondback Terrapins, herons, egrets, and migratory birds like the Saltmarsh Sparrow. The salt marsh grasses and channels are a relatively safe haven for small fry fish, young crabs, larval mussels, and barnacles. Here they are protected against larger marine predators of the open water. Colonies of Ribbed Mussels attach to rocks and sediment by means of a tough thread called byssal. Such colonies help to stabilize the salt marsh and provide an anchoring place for cordgrass to take root.

The salt marsh habitat absorbs energies from storm surges, reducing coastal erosion, and storing significant amounts of carbon in their sediment. This habitat is under increasing threat from rising sea levels, coastal development, and pollution, all of which can disrupt the delicate process of regeneration and expansion. Protecting tidal salt marshes is essential to preserving biodiversity, enhancing climate resilience, and maintaining the ecological and economic benefits they provide to coastal communities.

MARINE SHORELINE

The marine shorelines of Long Island Sound are dynamic and ecologically rich habitats where land meets sea, supporting a diverse array of organisms and complex ecological interactions. These shorelines include rocky coasts, sandy beaches, and tidal flats, each hosting unique communities of life. Salt-tolerant plants help stabilize the sandy beach areas and marsh edges, preventing erosion while providing habitat for small mammals and insects.

Invertebrates such as crabs, mussels, Mud Snails and periwinkles thrive in the intertidal mudflats, supplying a crucial food source for birds like sandpipers, ducks, geese, gulls, plovers, and oyster catchers. Small fish species tolerate a wide range of temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and pollution in the marsh and coastal habitat. Mummichogs, Banded Killifish, and Silversides inhabit the relatively shallow waters in the marsh and near the shoreline, attracting hungry wading birds like herons and egrets. Algae and seaweed are important elements that support marine invertebrates and contribute to nutrient cycling within the ecosystem.

The interplay of these organisms sustains the shoreline’s biodiversity and resilience. Marine shorelines in Long Island Sound face significant threats as a result of coastal development, pollution, more severe storm events, and rising sea levels. Protecting marine shoreline habitats is essential to maintaining their ecological function and preserving the natural beauty they offer.

POND HABITAT

Marshlands has a small spring-fed pond that once provided blocks of ice in winter months to the Parsons family, who still owns the neighboring estate. Parsons Pond, as we refer to it, is an important freshwater catch that is home to Green Frogs, Snapping Turtles, and a development habitat for some species of dragonflies. Egrets, raccoons, and other hunters explore the pond for tasty morsels. Aquatic vegetation includes Watercress, Pondweed, Starwort, and Purslane.

Small ponds are highly sensitive to environmental changes, including pollution, invasive species, and climate change impacts. Currently, the pond is filling in due to the natural process of habitat succession. This is the decades-long accumulation of decaying organic matter from tree leaves, aquatic plants and animals, and the soil erosion process of the surrounding high ground. In the future, there may be a conservation project that restores the pond by removing some of this accumulation.