WEST MEADOW CREEK PERSPECTIVE COMPOSITE PHOTO: Creek entrance at lower right.
West Meadow is the gem of the north shore of Long Island. Thanks to some foresight, conservation efforts of private organizations, active citizens, and public agencies and officials, we can canoe, float, tube, or even swim in a natural tidal creek and beach area that retains much of its natural state, even if many ecological features are today broadly in danger or deteriorating. Despite the dense population, it is still possible to see myriad water birds and marine life and to look over a broad and vibrant salt marsh. While some alarming developments have occurred in the past few decades, the wetlands are still accessible to wildlife observers, fishers, clammers (in some areas, but many are closed owing to pollution), swimmers, boaters, bikers and walkers.
Broadly, West Meadow is a large saltmarsh, enclosed by a long spit, extending southward from the Old Field cliffs that end in the vicinity of the intersection of Mt. Grey and Trustees road, which is the road that leads to the end of West Meadow spit. On the Long Island Sound side of the spit is a broad sandy and gravelly beach, that has lovely and potentially productive sand flats on the north side and narrow gravelly beaches bordered by fast-flowing tidal flow on the south side, which leads into Stony Brook Harbor.
The landward side of West Meadow spit encloses West Meadow creek, an essentially blind tidal stream that is sinuous and has one major branch, Amy’s Creek. West Meadow creek opens up into Stony Brook Harbor at the tip, where the historic Gamecock Cottage is located. The creek winds past a stretch of rocky area with abundant yellow sponges, up past the fork to Amy’s Creek, again past a building devoted to education about the Wetland, the Erwin Ernst Memorial Center, and eventually to a dead end near Mt. Grey road by the Horse Farm and the Old Field Club. At high tide, the entire length of the creek is traversible by a boat that draws as much as 3-4 feet, but at low tide it nearly empties out and is not navigable. The sea bed of the creek is mostly sand and supports much sea life. Luckily, the Creek has escaped a number of wrong-headed attempts at dredging, which would only accelerate deposition of mud and toxic-laden fine materials. From the air one can see that part of the head of the creek clearly was once widened, with the intention of building a marina. Luckily, this terrible plan was also abated. A few osprey posts sport nests and breeding pairs in the spring.
Between the creek and the spit is a broad and well-developed salt marsh, dominated by the cord grass, Spartina alterniflora. This marsh attracts a great deal of wildlife, including shore birds and numerous sea creatures, including crabs and shellfish. As the spit developed when sea level rose after the retreat of the glaciers, the colonization of marsh grass slowed down flow along the shoreline and encouraged the settlement of fine particles. Combined with the grass, the fine particles formed a nearly horizontal meadow of cord grass, which eventually built upward and encouraged the colonization of plants that live in higher shore levels and eventually above the highest level of the tide. This process of building up the level of the marsh sediment, allowing new environments to form, is known as succession.
So today, we have the complete West Meadow Ecosystem, which consists of a spit protecting the creek and marshland from erosion on the outside. The spit is sufficient to protect the marshland alone, no buildings or barriers are necessary for this protection. One can see that this is true by looking at the next northeastward (toward the opening of Long Island Sound) marsh-spit complex, which is known as Flax Pond, located in Old Field. No structures or fences are on the spit and the marshland is generally protected from the ravages of Long Island Sound, except in rare years of major storms, when breaches might be possible.
The complex of beach, marsh, and tidal creek creates a complex ecosystem with very different sedimentary, hydrodynamic, and ecological settings. Within the creek, currents are quite swift, often as much as one meter per second during strong tidal flow. Organisms living on the bottom must be good burrowers because the sand shifts around quite a bit. The sand bar near a bend in the creek by a former boat yard (now marked by a bulkhead) demonstrates this well. This sand bar has been in the same general position for many decades if not centuries, but the sand moves about continuously and the exact topography of this bar changes continually. By contrast, the marsh surface is more stable and the water flow is very slow. On the outside of the spit, one can see from the air a series of sand waves off of West Meadow Beach, showing the constant mobility of the sediment.
West Meadow Wonderland
Contents
The Gamecock Cottage
Tides
Tides and Extreme Weather
The Glorious Mudsnail
Burrowers-and-Shellfish
The Ancient One – Horseshoe Crabs
Fiddlers on the Flats
Stacks of Slipper Shells
Sponge Grotto
Birds
Invasive Species
People and West Meadow
Diamondback terrapin
Access and Environmental Issues
About Salt Marshes
Website created and maintained by the West Meadow Rambler.