11a. Prose Description of Site: 



Cypress Park is a 300-acre tract of old-growth swamp 

 forest timber located in a very poorly drained, peat-dom- 

 inated area northeast of Lake Mattamuskeet . The stand has 

 been protected as a natural area for a number of years. 

 It probably is the last remaining stand of virgin or near- 

 virgin swamp forest remaining in Hyde County. 



The topography of the natural area and the surrounding 

 land is essentially flat. There is a poorly defined drainage 

 system connected with Swan Creek Lake to the north which ex- 

 tends south to Cypress Park. This drainage corridor is 

 about 1-1.5 miles wide and is slightly lower (4-5 feet msl) 

 in elevation than the surrounding flat landscape (5-7 feet 

 msl). Before the advent of drainage canals and ditches, 

 natural flow was probably from Cypress Park north along 

 the drainage corridor to Swan Creek then into Swan Creek 

 Lake and eventually the Alligator River. Storm flooding 

 from the Alligator River probably inundated the natural area 

 on rare occasions. Today, a well-intregrated network of par- 

 allel drainage canals connected by a series of lateral ditches 

 has been constructed which completely surrounds the natural 

 area. This drainage network has significantly altered the 

 natural hydrology of the natural area by diverting runoff 

 into adjacent Pamlico Sound and by lowering the water table 

 by several feet. This drainage system, accompanied by large- 

 scale land clearing for row crop agriculture , has effectively 

 isolated the Cypress Park natural area from the drainage cor- 

 ridor. The long-term effects of this development on the vege- 

 tation community is probably substantial and will be discussed 

 later in this section. 



The vegetation of Cypress Park is dominated by an old- 

 growth stand of baldcypress ( Taxodium distichum ) . The com- 

 munity type is Taxodium distichum/ Acer rub rum/Per sea borbonia 

 (baldcypress/red maple/redbay; CT 1) . This community is 

 characterized by a tall, open to partially closed canopy of 

 baldcypress 80-90 feet tall over a subcanopy of red maple 

 and a tall shrub layer of redbay. There is no well-defined 

 low shrub layer although redbay transgressives and seedlings 

 are common throughout. The ground cover is sparse except for 

 scattered patches of Virginia chain-fern ( Woodwardia virginica ) , 

 poison-ivy ( Rhus radicans ) , and yellow jessamine ( Gelsemium 

 sempervirens ) , the latter species locally abundant in openings. 



Although there are occasional canopy specimens of swamp 

 blackgum ( Nyssa sylvatica var. biflora ) scattered throughout, 

 the overwhelmingly dominant tree is baldcypress. This is an 



51 



