File:Coast watch (1979) (20471483488).jpg

Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_7 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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We meet a small group of hikers that had walked into the swamp a day earlier from a point near Suffolk, Va. Guided only by the experi- ence of swamper Judy Kernell, the hikers have dodged greenbrier, soggy ground and vines as thick as soup cans. Kernell has been leading hikers through the Great Dismal for 18 years by permission and with a special use permit. She explains that there are only a few trails marked through the swamp's rough terrain. (Visitors to the refuge must stay on designated trails.) But she knows them all, having blazed a few herself. She also knows the magnificent flora of the region and carefully points out to her hikers the variety of plant life that springs from the soggy soils. Notable among the swamp's hundreds of plant species is the dwarf trillium, a rare plant found in its northwestern corner near Jericho Ditch. It blooms for two weeks in March. Silky camellia, another rarely seen plant, can be found along the swamp's few hard- wood ridges. And the log fern, one of the rarest of American ferns, is said by biologists to be more common in the Great Dis- mal Swamp than anywhere else in the world. On a later trip into the swamp, I would hike the rutted road that parallels Washington Ditch on the western side of the swamp. It's an easy four-and- a-half-mile trek into the heart of the Dismal. It's the same trail once used by George Washington's mules as they pulled logging barges out of the swamp. The Washington Ditch trail ends at Lake Drummond. During the late winter rainy season, hikers can see the area's amazing hydrology at work. The swamp soaks up water like a sponge, and then the huge hand of nature squeezes it out. The water, colored tea brown by the thick layer of surface organic matter and tannic acid, slips gracefully, and sometimes forcefully, into the drainage ditches. From there it flows into Lake Drummond and out again into the Dismal Swamp Canal through the Feeder Ditch. The Fish and Wildlife Service has successfully restored some of the swamp's natural hydrology by installing water control structures in some of the ditches. A hike down the Washington Ditch is the best way to see it work. Back at the campground, the hikers are still relying on Kernell to blaze their early morning trail. By midmorning, they disappear into the thick undergrowth on the south side of the campground. Another two Continued
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COASTWATCH 5

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