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Wet Meadow Wet Meadow occurs within wetlands throughout all of Minnesota. The ground layer of the Wet Meadow community is composed of dense, closed stands of predominately wide - leaved sedges (e.g., Carex lacustris, C. stricta, C. aquatilis C. rostrata, C. haydenii) or grasses (e.g., Calamagrostis canadensis, C. inexpansa). Forb cover and diversity usually are high. Forbs such as spotted joe -pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum), common mint (Mentha arvensis), turtlehead (Chelone glabra), and swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) are conspicuous. Shrub cover in Wet Meadows ranges from 0 to 70% and is composed of Bebb's willows and pussy willows. Mosses are rare or absent. Wet Meadow occurs on wet mineral soil, muck, or shallow peat ( <0.5 m). Standing water (generally stagnant) is present in the spring and after heavy rains, but the water table is generally below the soil surface for most of the growing season. The drawdown of the water table as the growing season progresses enables the oxidation of dead organic matter that has accumulated on the ground surface from previous years. This process makes available nutrients for some of the nutrient - demanding species present in the community. Occurrences of Wet Meadow along stream courses or adjacent to lakes often have fairly constant water levels relative to Wet Meadows in depressions or basins. On these sites siltation may be important in maintaining high nutrient levels. Wet Meadow tends to succeed to Shrub Swamp communities in the absence of fire, and therefore, there is a Shrub Subtype of the Wet Meadow community. Water -table lowering caused by drought or by ditching promotes succession of Wet Meadow to Shrub Swamps. Wet Meadows on organic soils, like other communities that occur on organic soils, recover very slowly, if at all, once altered by artificial flooding or draining. Shallow/Mixed Emergent Marsh Mixed emergent marsh is dominated by wetland species other than cattails. Bulrushes are the most common dominants, especially hard - stemmed bulrush (Scirpus acutus), river bulrush ( Scirpus fluviatilis), softstem bulrush (Scirpus validus), Scirpus americanus, and Scirpus heterochaetus. Common reed grass (Phragmites australis), spike rushes (Eleocharis spp.), and (in some river backwaters) prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata) are less common dominants. In general, Mixed Emergent Marsh tends to occur on harder pond, lake, or river bottoms than Cattail Marsh and is less likely to contain the forbs that grow on the floating peat mats present in many cattail marshes. Broad - leaved arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia) and aquatic macrophytes are the most common non - graminoid associates. Many Mixed Emergent Marsh species are sensitive to fertilizer run -off and other artificial disturbances, and disturbed Mixed Emergent Marshes (especially in the Prairie Zone) tend to convert to Cattail Marshes or become strongly dominated by reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) or common reed grass (Phragmites australis), species that increase in abundance with disturbance. Mixed Emergent Marsh is a broad community type, encompassing all marshes dominated by species other than cattails. Therefore, sub - typing or recognition of new marsh types is likely following more thorough inventories of these marshes. New divisions most likely will be made according to dominant species or basin types (e.g., lacustrine versus riverine), or both. There are two geographic sections, a Forest Section and a Prairie Section. The dominant species in the The Preserve Conservation Development - Restoration and Management Plan 14