Great Dismal Swamp
Great Dismal Swamp
Great Dismal Swamp
Animals: The Great Dismal Swamp consists of animals such as birds, bears, bees, butterflies, and other mammals.
Animals -
- Birds : Swainson warbler
- Wayne's warbler
- Barred owl
- Mammals : black bear
- Grey fox & red fox
- mink
Plants: Mostly consists of bushes, shrubs, ferns & trees
Plants -
- Ferns: cinnamon fern - osmunda cinnamomea
- royal fern - osmunda regalis
- marsh fern - thleypteris noveboracensis
- Shrubs: swamp rose - rosa palustris
- French mulberry - callicarpa americana
- Trees: black oak - quercus velutina
- Sweetbay- magnolia virginiana
- Dogwood - Cornus flordia
Climate:
Since it is a swamp, the climate will be mostly humid most of the time.
- Warmest month in The Great Dismal Swamp is July
- August is the wettest month
- January is the coldest month
- The average temperature daily is around 50 or so degrees.
Location:
It is located in Suffolk, Virgina and in the northern NC counties Camden, Gates, Pasquotank.
Human History:
- The Great Dismal Swamp was a human refuge for slaves when they were escaping for freedom.
- Current swamp is 10 percent of 2000 square miles before Civil War
- Local militias were employed to seize maroons and wreck their communites.
- Leaders were cautious about who came and who left.
- Home to Indigenous Americans / Native Americans
- Swamp life was not easy for the refugees living there.
Environments:
Rainfall is as little as 6in or 15cm each year, the soil is the most important charateristic of a wetland or swamp. The soil also helps determine type of wetland and what types of plants and animals can live in it. The soil contains little oxygen but a lot of water. For the landforms, the physical features are often short lid. They usually form along rivers and lakes and some seacoasts. The water in the swamp may have fresh water or salt water. It may also contain brine. Brine is where fresh and salt water mixes. Brine also happens where a river empties into an ocean.
Efforts to preserve swampland
- In the mid 20th century, conservation groups all across America started making an effort to preserve the remaining Great Dismal Swamp.
- The Great Dismal Swamp was offically established by the U.S. Congress through the Dismal Swamp Act of 1974.
- There is management programs that aim to restore the biological components of the swamp, including water, vegetation, and wildlife species.
- There is also activites that prevent wildfires from happening in the swamp.