Young Blonde Girl Walking Outside On Open Glades And Meadows In The Nature

A transitional meadow occurs when a field, pasture, farmland, or other cleared land is no longer farmed or heavily grazed and starts to overgrow. Once meadow conditions are achieved, however, the condition is only temporary because the early colonizers will be shaded out when woody plants become well-established.
In North America prior to European colonization, Algonquian, Iroquois and other Native American people regularly cleared areas of forest to create transitional meadows where deer could find nutrition and be hunted. Many places named "Deerfield" are located at sites where Native Americans once practised this form of land management.