Hours of visitation
Trails at the preserve are open for hiking and observing nature from dawn to dusk.
Wading River Marsh is a peaceful place to birdwatch, hike and explore the fascinating salt marsh community. Two marked trails offer close-up views of this remarkable wetland. The West Loop trail passes through a coniferous forest often filled with the chatter of chickadees and titmice and skirts a brackish pond. The pond’s secluded waters, as well as the marsh as a whole, provide an important refuge for migrating waterfowl. The North Loop trail circles around and through a mostly hardwood forest and affords panoramic views of the greater marsh complex.
Although at first glance they may appear flat and even monotonous, salt marshes are some of the most productive places on the planet—an acre of these coastal wetlands far surpasses the productivity of an acre of agricultural land. Look closely and you’ll discover an array of color and form.
Most of Wading River Marsh is “high marsh” with meadows of salt hay and spike grass, as well as a stunted form of salt marsh cordgrass. While the latter species is more common in younger marshes that are more subject to daily tidal flooding, the abundance of whorled, matted salt hay here is evidence that this is an older marsh. Areas covered by the pale green spike grass tend to be wetter and more saline. Saltier still are the oval patches with vegetation that differs from the grasses. These are “salt pans,” colonized by glasswort and other plants that are able to survive in the extremely saline soil. In autumn, glasswort lights up the marsh as it turns bright red.
What to See
In addition to shellfish, crabs, snails, fish, and small mammals, you may see a clapper rail capturing a fiddler crab before it can reach the safety of its burrow, or an osprey diving to catch large fish. The marsh is a great place to watch birds year-round, especially shorebirds and waterfowl. One hundred different bird species have been spotted in the preserve.
This 99.2-acre preserve is located in Wading River, Long Island.
Guidelines
To help ensure that this special place can be enjoyed for future generations, please leave no trace and carry out what you carry in. Camping, littering, hunting, fires, or removal or destruction of plants or animals are prohibited. See our full preserve visitation guidelines for more information.
