more recently, managed as wildlife preserves. Adjacent lands are 

 often owned by timber companies which have attempted to replace 

 the inferior forests of pond pine with other species. 



The term "bay" is often used in reference to elliptic depressions 

 known more completely as "Carolina bays;" however, the size, shape, 

 and surrounding features of Angola and Holly Shelter suggest instead, 

 a geomorphological origin as gigantic embayments. Close inspection of 

 aerial photographs reveals that within these embayments are typical 

 Carolina bay ellipses. Thus the origin of interior Carolina bays 

 postdates the origin of Angola and Holly Shelter. Several sand ridges, 

 ranging in elevation from a foot or two above the adjacent pocosin 

 swamp to ten to fifteen feet, are located within the boundaries of the 

 pocosin. In Angola Bay, not far from the Duplin County line, one such 

 ridge is used as a Forest Service landing strip. 



The history of the bay vegetation is closely linked to wildfires. 

 Old photography occasionally shows fire scars — darkened areas, or 

 tracts of regrowth timber which differs markedly from nearby stands . 

 Because of the impassibility of heavy machinery over the boggy soil, 

 fire fighting is difficult, and may be restricted to aerial application 

 of retardents. Historically, fires were allow to burn and smoulder 

 until rains or soil moisture eventually extinguished them. Thus the 

 vegetation has changed during the past century as a combination of 

 factors — fire prevention, drainage, natural succession — have all 

 interacted to give the ecological conditions observed today. 



Vegetation of the bays differs, not so much in overall species 

 composition, but in the relative acreage of communities. Angola Bay 

 is, for the most part, a treeless or near- treeless expanse of ever- 

 green shrubbery, with pond pines scattered here and there, or sometimes 

 a localized zone of sweet bay or loblolly bay. The interior of 

 Holly Shelter has much larger volumes of pond pine timber than Angola 

 Bay, but it nevertheless does have a large treeless area in the 

 northeastern part. The southeastern part of Holly Shelter, in what 

 might be termed the "rim" contains higher-elevation sand and sandy 

 clay, which is covered with longleaf pine that is periodically burned. 

 As a result, the southeast quadrant of Holly Shelter has superlative 

 longleaf pine savannas, which gradually dip toward the northwest into 

 titi and bald cypress wetlands. The only known stand of Atlantic 

 white cedar in either of the two bays occurs in Holly Shelter in the 

 drainage basin of Trumpeter Swamp. 



Wildlife in the bays enjoys the seclusion afforded by thousands 

 of acres of pocosin. Black bear populations exist in both bays, and 

 there is probably migration between the two bays. Deer are plentiful, 

 and the Holly Shelter Game Lands provide hunters with bow and conventional 

 firearm seasons. A large shallow waterfowl impoundment of approximately 

 200 acres has recently been constructed in Holly Shelter, and contains 

 adult alligators as well as waterfowl. Water in the embayments is highly 

 acidic, and hence, is not conducive to gamefish management. 



