Lee Meadows Swamp

Last updated April 17, 2019

The Lee Meadows Swamp is a swamp that originally covered 500-acre (2.0 km²) with low woodlands surrounding it. It is located in the southeastern section of Parsippany-Troy Hills Township and the western section of Hanover Township, in Morris County, New Jersey, United States.^[1] Due to the construction of office buildings and roads in the 1980s, the swamp has been reduced in size.

A swamp is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along large rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation or soil saturation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more correctly termed a bog, fen, or muskeg. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water or seawater. Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo.

Hanover Township is a township in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 13,712, reflecting an increase of 814 (+6.3%) from the 12,898 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 1,360 (+11.8%) from the 11,538 counted in the 1990 Census. The township comprises the unincorporated communities of Whippany and Cedar Knolls.

Morris County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey, about 25 mi (40 km) west of New York City. According to the 2010 United States Census, the population was 492,276, up from the 470,212 at the 2000 Census, As of the 2017 Census estimate, the county's population was 499,693, making it the state's 10th-most populous county, and marking a 1.5% increase from 2010. The county is part of the New York Metropolitan Area, and its county seat is Morristown. The most populous place was Parsippany-Troy Hills Township, with 53,238 residents at the time of the 2010 Census, while Rockaway Township covered 45.55 square miles (118.0 km²), the largest total area of any municipality.

Geology

During the late Triassic and early Jurassic periods, when the North American plate separated from the African plate, an aborted rift system was created. The resulting rift valley, known as the Newark Basin, was filled with alternating layers of red bed sediment and flood basalts. Over millions of years, the rift valley was faulted, tilted, and eroded, until the edges of the hard flood basalt layers formed ridges. Prior to 20,000 years before the present, an ancestral Passaic River flowed through a gap in these ridges. This changed when the Wisconsin Glacier, a massive continental ice sheet which formed during the last ice age, advanced on the region and permanently plugged the gap with glacial rubble. As the glacier eventually melted back, water pooled behind the ridges (known today as the Watchung Mountains), forming Glacial Lake Passaic. After thousands of years, the lake drained leaving behind many swamps, including Lee Meadows.

The Triassic is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.9 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.3 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period of the Mesozoic Era. Both the start and end of the period are marked by major extinction events.

The Jurassic period was a geologic period and system that spanned 56 million years from the end of the Triassic Period 201.3 million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period 145 Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era, also known as the Age of Reptiles. The start of the period was marked by the major Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. Two other extinction events occurred during the period: the Pliensbachian-Toarcian extinction in the Early Jurassic, and the Tithonian event at the end; however, neither event ranks among the "Big Five" mass extinctions.

The Newark Basin is a sediment-filled rift basin located mainly in northern New Jersey but also stretching into south-eastern Pennsylvania and southern New York. It is part of the system of Eastern North America Rift Basins.

Geography

The swamp is fed by three small streams. The first exits Mirror Pond, flowing through a low lying woodland. The second stream exits a pond on the western side of U.S. Route 202 and once flowed through open fields but now flows through an office building complex. The two streams meet and this is where the woodland swamp starts. The third stream starts near the intersection of Route 10 and U.S. Route 202, on the north side of Route 10, and flows east toward Interstate 287.

U.S. Route 202 (US 202) is a U.S. Highway running from New Castle, Delaware northeast to Bangor, Maine. In the U.S. state of New Jersey, the route runs 80.31 mi (129.25 km) from the New Hope–Lambertville Toll Bridge over the Delaware River at the Pennsylvania border in Delaware Township, Hunterdon County near Lambertville northeast to the New York border in Mahwah, Bergen County. Along the route's journey, it passes through a variety of suburban and rural environments, including the communities of Flemington, Somerville, Morristown, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Wayne, and Oakland as well as five counties: Hunterdon, Somerset, Morris, Passaic, and Bergen. US 202 encounters many major roads in New Jersey, including Route 31, US 206, US 22, Interstate 80 (I-80), US 46, Route 23, and Route 17. From Somerville to the New York border, US 202 generally runs within a close distance of I-287 and interchanges with that route several times. The road ranges from a four-lane freeway between Lambertville and Ringoes in Hunterdon County to a two-lane undivided road through much of the northern portion of the route. North of the Route 53 intersection in Morris Plains, US 202 is maintained by individual counties rather than the New Jersey Department of Transportation with a few exceptions.

Route 10 is a 23.51 mi (37.84 km) state highway in the northern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It runs from an intersection with U.S. Route 46 in Roxbury Township, Morris County east to County Route 577 /CR 677 in West Orange, Essex County. Route 10 is a major route through northern New Jersey that runs through Ledgewood, East Hanover, and Livingston. It is a four-lane highway for most of its length with the exception of the easternmost part of the route. Route 10 features intersections with many major roads including Route 53 and US 202 in Morris Plains and Interstate 287 (I-287) in Hanover Township.

Interstate 287 (I-287) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US states of New Jersey and New York. It is a partial beltway around New York City, serving the northern half of New Jersey and the counties of Rockland and Westchester in New York. I-287, which is signed north–south in New Jersey and east–west in New York, follows a roughly horseshoe-shaped route from the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95) in Edison Township, New Jersey, clockwise to the New England Thruway (I-95) in Rye, New York, for 98.72 miles (158.87 km). Through New Jersey, I-287 runs west from its southern terminus in Edison through suburban areas. In Bridgewater Township, the freeway takes a more northeasterly course, paralleled by U.S. Route 202 (US 202). The northernmost part of I-287 in New Jersey passes through mountainous surroundings. After crossing into New York at Suffern, I-287 turns east on the New York State Thruway (I-87) and runs though Rockland County. After crossing the Hudson River on the Tappan Zee Bridge, I-287 splits from I-87 near Tarrytown and continues east through Westchester County on the Cross-Westchester Expressway until it reaches the New England Thruway.

The elevation of the swamp area ranges from 280 to 320 feet (85 to 98 m) above sea level.

Route 287 was built in the early 1970s which cut through the eastern section of the swamp. On the south side of the swamp is Route 10.

The western side was used as the Alderney Dairy Farm from the 1940s to the late 1960s. It had three barns in the fields near the western side of the swamp.

Flora and fauna

This swamp is feed by three small streams and because of this the water table did not rise much. Due to the water table not rising, animals were able to establish themselves in the swamp and surrounding area. The area had fields, corn fields, and deciduous forests around the swamp. This is why the area was once full of game. The area is inhabited by white tailed deer, gray fox, muskrats, raccoons, skunks, possums and weasels.

The muskrat, the only species in genus Ondatra and tribe Ondatrini, is a medium-sized semiaquatic rodent native to North America and is an introduced species in parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. The muskrat is found in wetlands over a wide range of climates and habitats. It has important effects on the ecology of wetlands, and is a resource of food and fur for humans.

The raccoon, sometimes spelled racoon, also known as the common raccoon, North American raccoon,, northern raccoon, or coon, is a medium-sized mammal native to North America. The raccoon is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of 40 to 70 cm and a body weight of 5 to 26 kg. Its grayish coat mostly consists of dense underfur which insulates it against cold weather. Three of the raccoon's most distinctive features are its extremely dexterous front paws, its facial mask, and its ringed tail, which are themes in the mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Raccoons are noted for their intelligence, with studies showing that they are able to remember the solution to tasks for at least three years. They are usually nocturnal and omnivorous, eating about 40% invertebrates, 33% plants, and 27% vertebrates.

Skunks are North and South American mammals in the family Mephitidae. While related to polecats and other members of the weasel family, skunks have as their closest Old World relatives the stink badgers. The animals are known for their ability to spray a liquid with a strong, unpleasant smell. Different species of skunk vary in appearance from black-and-white to brown, cream or ginger colored, but all have warning coloration.

There are different types of hawks. Waterfowl such as mallards, wood ducks, woodcock migrated through the area in the autumn and rested in the swamp.

The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus Scolopax. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name was first recorded in about 1050.

There were many types of snakes and turtles that lived in the area before the office complex was built. Garter snakes, brown snakes, ringneck snakes, water snakes, and milk snakes inhabited the area. Turtles included snapping turtles, box turtles, wood turtles, spotted turtles, musk and mud turtles.

The swamp is surrounded by a northern deciduous forest of maples, various oaks, beech, hickory, elm, ash, sweet gum, cherry, sycamore, and walnut.

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References

↑ US Gazetteer Physical Feature: Swamp - Lee Meadows.

Coordinates: 40°50′24″N74°26′43″W / 40.8401°N 74.4454°W / 40.8401; -74.4454

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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[1] US Gazetteer Physical Feature: Swamp - Lee Meadows.