Natural History
The majority of the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary is a polder, land reclaimed from water by the installation of a dike near the mouth of the Green Harbor River in 1872. The construction of the dike led to the town’s “Dike Feud” in the late 19th century, a political war of words between local fishermen, who opposed its construction, and farmers, who agreed with it, as the draining of the land provided more arable land. Fox Hill, currently the site of an observation platform, routinely sat above water level prior to the dike’s construction, and was known on old maps as Fox Island.
The wet panne is a man-made wetland designed to hold five tiers of water levels in order to attract a variety of birds. Similarly, Webster Pond was created by man, but no record currently exists as to which farmer dug it as his farm pond. The main fields of the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary, as well as the hidden Four-Acre Field, were used for dairy cattle grazing and for growing feed for those cattle.
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