8/4/2026- Why Meadows Matter by Mary Anne Borge

A meadow is an ecosystem populated primarily with herbaceous (non-woody) plants, including wildflowers, grasses and grass-like plants such as sedges and rushes.  One meadow may offer many different habitats, based on its topography, soil composition and moisture content, and proximity to woodlands.  Each habitat supports a different community of plants, and the animals that depend on those plants, enabling a broad range of plants and animals to thrive. The plants provide shelter and food for insects, birds and other wildlife throughout the seasons. Meadows offer nesting habitat and materials for birds and other wildlife. Some birds, like indigo buntings (Passerina cyanea), and insects, like banded hairstreaks (Satyrium calanus) and little wood satyrs (Megisto cymela), specialize in ‘edge’ habitats, places where a meadow meets a woodland.

Meadows are perfect for sun-loving plants like hemp dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum), wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), milkweeds (Asclepias spp.), white beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis), Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium spp.), New York ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis), mountain mints (Pycnanthemum spp.), asters (Symphyotrichum spp.) or (Eurybia spp.) and many goldenrods (Solidago spp.). These plants bloom at different times throughout the growing season, providing a banquet for pollinators of all kinds from early summer through late fall. Many plants are food for butterfly and moth caterpillars, like milkweeds for Monarchs (Danaus plexippus), wild senna (Senna hebecarpa) for Sleepy Orange (Abaeis nicippe) and cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae), round-headed bush-clover (Lespedeza capitata) and tick trefoil (Desmodium spp.) for gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus), to name a few.

If insect pollination efforts are successful, the resulting fruits provide food for birds and other wildlife.  The insects themselves are an even more important source of food for birds.

Humans benefit from meadows, too! Deep-rooted meadow plants stabilize the soil and reduce stormwater runoff and flooding. They improve groundwater recharge, which reduces the likelihood of wells or aquifers running dry. Meadow plants improve water quality by filtering pollutants from stormwater. Because they don’t require fertilizers, chemical pollution runoff that is common from agricultural fields and lawns is eliminated.

Meadows eliminate the need for weekly or biweekly mowing that traditional lawns require, reducing fossil fuel use.  They do require maintenance, usually mowing about a third of the meadow each year to prevent succession to woodland and monitoring for and removing invasive species.

Summertime is a prime season to explore the Preserve’s two meadows, the South Meadow and Aquetong Meadow, located just inside our River Road entrance. The area features about 105 different species of native grasses, sedges, rushes and wildflowers. Later this summer, the Preserve's new curator will launch a meadow rehabilitation project in South Meadow. This project will inventory the meadow's native species and address the encroachment of exotic invasive plants and undesirable tree and shrub species. Go for a walk in one of our meadows and experience the beauty and life it offers.