Arlington's Great Meadows

Arlington's Great Meadows in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a one hundred eighty-three-acre wet meadow preserve that has shifted from colonial-era Alewife Meadows to pasture, dairy farming, peat cutting, and later a flood-control reservoir tied to the Mystic River system. Arlington acquired it in eighteen seventy-one for water storage and flood prevention, but the reservoir was drained in nineteen oh two, restoring the wet meadow. Since then it has supported abundant wildlife, with more than four hundred recorded plant and animal species, while also serving as an accessible recreation area linked by trails to the Minuteman Bikeway. Despite damaging wildfires in two thousand eight and two thousand nine, it remains a valued open space.

Lexington, Massachusetts · United States