Drivers on N.C. 211 in Brunswick County should not be surprised in the coming weeks to see logging at The Nature Conservancy’s Green Swamp Preserve.
The Nature Conservancy is beginning a multi-year project to restore its Green Swamp Preserve north of Supply. The end goal is to recreate the robust longleaf forest savannas that existed before Europeans made their mark on the landscape. The conservancy recently signed a contract with Canal Woods LLC to conduct the restoration.
“We don’t want people to be concerned if they see logging,” said Angie Carl, who is directing the restoration for The Nature Conservancy. “We’ve got more than a decade of research in the swamp to show us what we need to do to restore the forest. And Canal Woods was chosen because they understand the complexity of working with conservation restoration in a sensitive landscape.”
Originally, the preserve was a mixture of pocosin (Algonquin for “swamp on a hill”) and longleaf savannas, with widely spaced trees of varying age and an open canopy that allowed sunlight to reach the ground. This ensured that young longleaf and plants such as carnivorous Venus flytraps could thrive.
Longleaf pine forest was once dominant across the Southeast, blanketing 90-million acres from North Carolina to Texas. Today it covers less than five-million. A combination of factors led to the forest demise, including development and removal of fire from the landscape. In many cases, businesses intent on quick profit replaced longleaf forest with faster-growing trees such as the slash pine found in the Green Swamp. Slash pine isn’t native to North Carolina, but it will grow here. Because it grows fast, it can be harvested much more quickly than longleaf, which takes a hundred years to mature.
From StatePortPilot.com: https://stateportpilot.com/news/article_8a6f12ca-77c3-11e7-83c4-ef0089400953.html