pone pines, sweetbay, redbay, and red maple. Today selective 

 logging has removed most of the merchantable cypress , and much 

 of the swamp is dominated by second-growth stands of gum and 

 maple . 



Logging operations and associated roads and ditches constitute 

 almost 100% of the disturbance to these areas , although some sand 

 and gravel is being mined in parts of the Roanoke River basin. 



4) Belhaven-Wasda-Roper Association: These are nearly level, 

 very poorly drained soils that have a mucky surface layer 

 and a dominantly loamy subsoil; on broad, level flats. 



Natural Areas Represented: 1) Van Swamp 



2) East Dismal Swamp 

 Percentage of land area of county: 25% 



This soilscape occupies much of what once was known as the East 

 Dismal Swamp, an interior wetland which covered most of the county 

 west of Lake Phelps. 



Up until fairly recently, most of the acreage was forested 

 wetland. Difficulty of drainage, abundance of undecomposed cypress 

 and cedar logs in the mucky soils, and lack of sufficient capital 

 were the factors primarily responsible for thwarting development. 

 All of this changed, however, in the 1950' s and 1960's, when large 

 capital investments combined with new draining and clearing tech- 

 nology to open up these lands to agricultural development. Since 

 that time the majority of the soilscape has been cleared, drained, 

 and converted to corn and soybean production. 



Various blocks of natural vegetation persist in one form or 

 another and two natural areas, Van Swamp and East Dismal Swamp, 

 contain the best remaining examples of this once extensive wet- 

 land ecosystem. 



The bulk of this landscape occurs in the central part of 

 the county west and northwest of Lake Phelps. A smaller area 

 lies in Van Swamp in the southwest corner. In general this 

 association is surrounded on the north, west, and south by 

 slightly higher, somewhat better drained mineral soils of the 

 Cape Fear-Portsmouth-Roanoke association. To the east and 

 southeast the mucky soils are bounded by a slightly higher 

 "dome" of very deep peat, the Pungo association discussed 

 next. 



The natural vegetation of the soilscape was probably originally 

 dominated by great swamp forests of cypress, swamp blackgum, and 



