Healthy Meadow: Factors of a healthy meadow include: meadow hydrology, soils and vegetation and interdependent; diverse mosaic of habitat with wet meadow and riparian vegetation; surface flow from snowmelt; high water table; inundation during floods with sediment deposition and attenuated flood flows; subsurface flow of snowmelt; and percolation with groundwater recharge.
Illustrations by Restoration Design Group for American Rivers
Unhealthy Meadow: Factors of a degraded meadow include: reduced natural storage of water; lowering of groundwater table; flood flows confined to channel with no inundation during floods; disconnect of channel from meadow floodplain; reduced percolation; xeric (or dry) vegetation; incised stream channel with increased sediment transport; and compacted soils.
