Cypress Swamps and Longleaf Pine Barrens, the Dogwood Alliance crew keeps exploring.
After a restful night’s sleep out under the stars at
Pettigrew State Park, Eva, Josh and I headed north in search of Merchant’s Mill
Pond State Park near the North Carolina and Virginia border. The drive through the countryside was
inspiring, all en route we saw countless signs in people’s yards opposing the
OLF the Navy wants to build near important bird sanctuaries and
multi-generational family farms. It was
heart-warming to see such organized opposition in such a pastoral place.
We finally reached the park and rented a canoe to head into
the ancient cypress swamp. This small
remnant represents some of the best of what is left and what could have been if
the entire area had not been laid to waste to make paper and timber products
like fast food packaging. We meandered
through the primordial swamp, I’ll use my colleague Andrew’s reference here, it
was quite like the Dagoba
Swamp where Yoda taught
Luke the ways of the Force. Slowly
paddling though this ancient place I was inspired by the breath-taking beauty
and knew that we must redouble our efforts to protect any special places that
remain like this along the Southeastern coast.
Our band of travelers then set off for the north and finally
crossed into Virginia. Our goal for the afternoon was to find the
Zuni Pine Barrens in Zuni, Virginia.
This tract is the last stand of longleaf pine in Virginia.
The good folks at Old Dominion University
are working to maintain and restore this historic landscape that used to
stretch from SE Virginia to North Florida and across the Gulf
Coast to Texas and now occupies less than 2% of its
original range.
With only a couple of news stories to guide us and no directions,
we arrived in Zuni. We stopped at the
local general store and were surprised and excited that someone there knew exactly
what we were speaking of. Teresa
volunteered to guide us there when her shift ended. So thirty minutes later we were following
Teresa in her minivan out some sandy country roads. She thought that the restoration efforts were
so important and even offered to help her neighbor in his efforts to replant
the species for his commercial purposes.
The first seedling we spotted brought unfathomable amounts of joy to all
of our hearts, after countless hours searching we had finally arrived.
After leaving Teresa we headed up the road and found an “official”
entrance to the Pine Barrens. Eva, Josh and I hiked in and marveled at the
glory of the place. Picturing in our
mind’s eye what the Southern landscape must have looked like hundreds of years
ago and knowing that our mission to protect Southern forests and especially
these coastal swamps and savannahs was of utmost importance. Yum! Brand Foods and others need to rethink
their packaging choices now before these special places that define local
culture and harbor countless amazing species disappear.
From the forests,
Scot
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I can't believe how close you came from visiting Synchronicity farm. Teresa drove you past and you talked to some of my neighbors. We are not a commerical venture but a preserve. We have about 400 seedlings of longleaf in all stages of development in the ground. These are true Virginia Longleafs of which there are less than 2000 trees left of the 1.4 million acres in the wild. We (my wife and I) planted 9000 seeds this spring all from virginia trees and with any luck could double or triple the amount of native trees in Virginia. We also have some of the last native pitcher plants and 3 world record trees (black gum, turkey oak and margaretta oak) on the farm. I hope that some day you could come back and see the real Zuni pine barrens.