Wolves Swamp was once part of a tidal wetland network covering hundreds of acres and stretching south to Long Island Sound, east to Ash Creek, and west to Pine Creek. For centuries, the Unquowa fished and hunted there, made wampum and tools from stone and shells, and bundled salt hay to thatch their shelters; pottery, debris, and piles of bones and shells place them there as early as 1220-1280 C. E. The marsh also became a vital resource for Fairfield's English settlers, whose first farmland grew from the surrounding Indian fields and who mowed the salt marshes for horse and cattle feed. In the 1700s, Fairfield residents dammed the waterways to build grist and saw mills that operated into the 1840s, and by 1790 these mills were already harming the marsh's ecosystem, prompting attempts to remove the dams to restore clams and shad. Continued human alteration into the 1900s permanently fragmented the larger marsh through dredging for shipyards, dams for flood and mosquito control, and filling for roads, bridges, wharves, stores, and homes. Today, phragmites is replacing native grasses at Wolves Swamp, but the marsh remains active with deer, raccoons, possums, wading birds, hawks, and migratory birds feeding among the reeds.