Great Cypress Swamp

• Category: Inland Aquatic Biomes.
• Geographic Location: North America.
• Summary: The Great Cypress Swamp was a rich base of diverse wetland habitats until the land was drained and clear-cut; more recently, efforts to restore and conserve the ecosystem are slowly producing positive results.

Locally known as Burnt Swamp, the Great Cypress Swamp is the northernmost cypress swamp in the United States. This wetland, located in what is now part of Delaware and Maryland, was once home to bears, wolves, and cougars, as well as many smaller mammals, and a great diversity of birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. With European settlement of this coastal region—and the eventual practices of logging and the associated fires, iron ore mining, and drainage of some areas of the swamp for agricultural purposes—most of the wetlands were lost. Currently, work is being done to reclaim and restore some of the vegetation and habitat that were once sustained here.

Original Ecosystem

The Great Cypress Swamp originates on the Delaware-Maryland border and flows through the state of Maryland about 75 miles (120 kilometers) before emptying into the Pocomoke Sound of Chesapeake Bay. The swamp is the largest tract of forest remaining on the Delmarva Peninsula, covering roughly 50 square miles (150 square kilometers) of this mid-Atlantic coastal region.

The Great Cypress Swamp and the surrounding forests were historically dominated by bald cypress, swamp tupelo, sweetgum, and Atlantic white cedar. As a core species, bald cypress trees are deciduous trees that have needles similar to those of pine trees—but do not remain green year-round. Bald cypress trees can grow up to 120 feet (37 meters) tall and live up to 600 years; they are easily recognized by the buttressed trunks and tall knees that aid in stability and possibly oxygen retrieval. Cypress swamps are characterized by tea-colored water, which is created from the tannic acid produced as leaves and roots from the forest decompose. Indeed, the name of the local Indigenous tribe, the Pocomoke, means black water.

Human Onslaught

The swamp's first human inhabitants lived here more than 10,000 years ago, around the end of the last ice age, when the swamp covered as much as 93 square miles (240 square kilometers). Indigenous American tribes such as the Pocomoke, Nanticoke, and Nassawattox, among others of the Algonquin Nation, set up villages along the borders of the swampland to take advantage of the abundance of wildlife and fertile soil that the swamp produced. By the late 17th century, these communities were displaced by European settlement.

As the region was rapidly colonized, demand for raw materials increased. Cypress is strong and rot-resistant, and settlers found this wood to be excellent for building ships, house shingles, and water tanks. From the 17th century through the early 1900s, lumber industries began to clear-cut the trees around the edges and into the heart of the swamp. By the late 18th century, cypress was in high demand. As was the case in much of the eastern United States, tree growth could not keep up with demand for wood, and many of the slow-growing cypress tree stands were lost. The last straw for the cypress swamp was an extensive peat fire in the 1930s that destroyed much of the remaining forest. This fire burned for eight months, resulting in the moniker Burnt Swamp provided by local residents.

The swamp produced other valuable resources: iron ore, which was used for making industrial, agricultural, and household products beginning in the early 19th century; and clay, used for manufacturing bricks. The extraction of these materials added to the swamp's degradation.

The ultimate clearing of the swamp left the land open to other uses, primarily agriculture. A burgeoning population in the eastern United States meant that more food was needed; land without any forest cover was more easily converted to cropland. However, the land of the Great Cypress Swamp was wet through much of the year, and needed to be drained in order to be cultivated. A large drainage canal was built in 1936 to connect the swamp to the estuary at Pocomoke Sound, rapidly draining water from the swamp, leaving behind dry, fertile soil. Though this process resulted in a large increase in farmland, the loss of the wetland had an immeasurable impact on the local ecosystem and its previously existing flora and fauna.

In more recent times, the effects of global warming are working against some of the remnant habitat of the Great Cypress Swamp. Chesapeake Bay waters are rising faster than the global average sea-level rise, meaning the estuary of the swamp is transporting more saline waters further inland. Coastal erosion, too, has been eating away at the downstream reaches of this biome. The projected rise in average temperatures will have unpredictable effects on the plant and animal species that might otherwise return to their former habitats around the swampland. Unless they adapt, they will be more likely to yield the area to invasive species.

Restoration Campaigns

Today, the Great Cypress Swamp has at last been recognized by the prevailing settlers for its ecological value. In the 1970s, two nonprofit groups—Delaware Wetlands and The Conservation Fund—took the initiative to begin the process of reclaiming parts of the swamp. In 1980, U.S. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware proposed that the swamp be named a national park, although many advocates feared that the mass of visitors to such a park would precipitate further harm to this extremely fragile ecosystem.

Later, however, the state of Maryland designated the Pocomoke River—which flows through the swamp—a State Scenic and Wild River, mandating the protection of the natural infrastructure associated with the river, as well as the practice of conservation measures, at both state and local levels. Because this river and surrounding wetlands provide wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and protection for Chesapeake Bay shellfish populations, the recognition it has attained is leading to a concerted effort to restore the swamp.

Delaware Wild Lands is working with Ducks Unlimited, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Center for Inland Bays to restore the swamp. In 2009, these groups began restoring 769 acres (311 hectares) of swamp by installing water-control structures and plugging ditches, all in an effort to retain more water in the swamp. When the hydrology is restored, the cypress trees, Atlantic white cedars, and other species that thrive in wet soils and standing water will be able to return. Delaware Wild Lands has already protected and restored nearly 200 acres of tract. The organization is on the path to conserving 30 percent of the watershed by 2030. Today, one may find within the slowly returning Great Cypress Swamp increasing numbers of largemouth bass, trout, perch, shad, and bluegills; a variety of toads, frogs and salamanders; warblers, great blue herons, pileated woodpeckers, bald eagles, osprey, and other birds of prey.

Bibliography

"Eighty-Acre Wetland Restored at Great Cypress Swamp." Cape Gazette, 5 Dec. 2020, www.capegazette.com/article/eighty-acre-wetland-restored-great-cypress-swamp/212388. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.

“Great Cypress Swamp.” Chesapeake Conservation Effort, 11 Aug. 2023, www.chesapeakeconservation.org/success-stories/great-cypress-swamp/#:~:text=Great%20Cypress%20Swamp%20%C2%B7%20Botanic%20inventory%20of,monitoring%20system%20%C2%B7%20Completion%20of%20an%20early%2Dcareer. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.

Heckscher, C. “Forest-Dependent Birds of the Great Cypress Swamp: Species Composition and Implications for Conservation.” Northeastern Naturalist 7, no. 2 (2000).

Holden, Christina. “Southern Exposure: The Great Cypress Swamp at Pocomoke Park.” Maryland Department of Natural Resources, 2005. dnr.maryland.gov/centennial/Pages/Centennial-Notes/SouthernExposure.aspx. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.

Mansueti, Romeo. A Brief Natural History of the Pocomoke River, Maryland. Solomons, MD: Maryland Department of Research and Education, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, 1953.