Meredith Woods natural area

Arthur Kill shoreline to Quimby Ave & Victory Blvd to South Ave

Meredith Woods was named for William T. Meredith, a property owner in the Chelsea neighborhood. Despite its current name, this parkland contains only a few trees on fill soil and is almost entirely salt marsh.

Salt marshes provide many benefits for human communities, acting as natural filtration systems by trapping pollutants that would otherwise contaminate our bays and oceans. Salt marshes form in areas of sediment deposition and in bays protected from the ocean’s waves. Due to the challenging physical environment of salt marshes – regular flooding with salt water – salt marshes are dominated by only a few plant species, which then provide habitat and resources for a multitude of species of wildlife. Salt marsh cordgrass (Sporobulus alterniflorus) is a specialist that is able to thrive in the flat expanses of sand and silt, which are covered twice a day by the ocean’s tides. Over time, the annual die off of salt marsh cordgrass in the winter builds up a peat layer that raises the surface of the marsh and can lead to the development of high marsh plant communities, which are only flooded once or twice a month. Meredith Woods contains salt meadow and salt marsh, as well as freshwater and brackish marsh.

Salt marshes are home to a remarkable variety of species in abundant numbers. The birds of Meredith Woods include northern harrier (Circus cyaneus) and clapper rail (Rallus longirostris). The fiddler crab (Uca sp.) and ribbed mussel (Geukensia demissa) have developed a symbiotic relationship with the saltmarsh cordgrass. While the crabs and mussels benefit from feeding on decaying matter trapped within cordgrass roots, cordgrass gains from the fiddler’s burrowing, which aerates the soil, and the mussel’s excretion, which provides necessary nitrogen. Salt marshes also are the preferred habitat for the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin). Many egrets, herons, and ibises, which nest nearby in New York Harbor, forage for fish and other prey in the salt marsh in Meredith Woods.