The valuable timber resources of the swamp forests 

 have been exploited periodically over the last two cen- 

 turies by logging interests. As a result the natural 

 area today is a mosaic of various age classes, i.e., 

 selectively cut stands, recent clearcuts, and scattered 

 old-growth stands, depending on the intensity and methods 

 of past logging operations as well as the accessibility 

 of the stands. Much of the natural area adjacent to the 

 Alligator River is roadless , most of the timber apparently 

 having been removed by long-abandoned tram and scid roads 

 which are no longer visible. Access roads and ditches are 

 primarily located along the margins of the natural area 

 and were built for access to the adjacent agricultural 

 fields. Land-clearing operations continue to eat away 

 at the swamp forest corridor, particularly in the arm 

 of the natural area south of Swan Lake. Recently, ad- 

 ditional roads and ditches have been constructed into 

 some of the pure Atlantic white cedar ( Chamaecyparis 

 thyoides ) stands near Swan Lake, and some of these 

 stands have been clearcut during the past ten years. 

 The logging of swamp forest timber continues today. 



Soils of the natural area are primarily deep Histosols. 

 The area is mapped as the Dare-Pungo-Dorovan association: 

 very poorly drained soils with thick to moderately thick 

 organic surface layers over mineral subsurface layers 

 (SCS 1973) . Detailed soil mapping is not available for 

 the site although the Alligator River swamp forests just 

 to the north in Dare County have been mapped (Barnes, 1981). 

 The Pungo soil series, classified as dysic, thermic Typic 

 Medisaprists, is the most extensive soil unit, occurring 

 as a wide band along the Alligator River. 



VEGETATION 



The predominant vegetation type along much of the Alli- 

 gator River in Hyde County is swamp forest composed of four 

 principal species which form the canopy in a mixture of 

 varying proportions. In most of the stands no single species 

 is a true dominant but rather the canopy is a heterogeneous 

 mixture of species. Swamp blackgum ( Nyssa sylvatica var. bi- 

 flora ) is the tree species which is most widely distributed 

 and a conspicuous co-dominant in most of the stands. Based 

 on canopy dominance data taken in a fairly typical stand 

 south of Swan Creek Lake, swamp blackgum is the predicted 

 co-dominant in most of the swamp forest stands in the natural 

 area. The physiognomy of the mature swamp blackgum stands 

 along the Alligator River is much different from that of 

 stands along brownwater river systems, due to the significant 



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