Wading River Marsh Preserve
Wading River, Riverhead, Suffolk County, Long Island, NY

Directions:

Take the Long Island Expressway and get off at exit 68 for the William Floyd Parkway (County Road 46) north to its end at NY 25A and turn right (east); drive 0.75 of a mile and turn left onto Randall Road; take it to its end at North County Road and turn right; drive 0.1 of a mile to the center of Wading River village; turn left at the stop sign onto Sound Avenue; drive 0.3 of a mile and turn left into a private drive; drive 100 yards to the parking area on the right.

History:

Here the local Indians harvested quahogs and periwinkles from the shellfish flats.

1671 -- founding of community of Wading River. The name is probably English of the Indian Pauquaconsuk, meaning "the river where we wade for thick, round-shelled clams." Some of the early settlers tried unsuccessfully to rename their community Westholde.

World War II -- Wading River was the base of an FBI counter-intelligence operation that sent false information to Germany.

(Cynthia Blair, Newsday Names of Long Island; http://www.newsday.com/features/custom/names)

Habitat:

salt marsh (one of the few on the North Shore of Long Island); freshwater creek

PLANT LIST:

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Carya sp. (hickory)
Nyssa sylvatica (tupelo)
Quercus spp. (oak)

Vines:
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Smilax sp. (greenbrier)
Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet nightshade)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)

Herbs:
Lysimachia terrestris (swamp candle)
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Thalictrum pubescens (tall meadow rue)

Grasses:
Distichlis spicata (spike grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Spartina alterniflora (salt marsh hay cordgrass)
Spartina patens (salt meadow cordgrass)

Ferns:
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)
Osmunda regalis (royal fern)
Thelypteris palustris (marsh fern)