time required for cypress to reach its full height and mature 

 form. 

 C. RED MAPLE and various mixtures of red maple, loblolly pine and 

 black gum: This is a disturbance community resulting from 

 wetland drainage attempts. Now the dominant forest type of the 

 Dismal. 



6. FRESHWATER MARSH: A naturally rare community, found only at the 

 mouths of Sarem and Bennett's Creeks and at the mouth of Corapeake 

 Swamp . 



7. LOBLOLLY PINE - either in plantations or as unmanaged old-field and 

 post-logging serai stands: This is now the dominant forest type of 

 the county, having replaced several different presettlement forest 

 communities. 



8. MIXED PINE (LOBLOLLY) - HARDWOODS: Earlier in this century this was 

 the prevailing type, occurring in unmanaged stands following 19th 

 century and early 20th century logging. The present area of this type 

 is about 15% of the uplands, and declining as more intensive forestry 

 is practiced. 



9. AGRICULTURE: Cleared agricultural lands, mostly in row crops, now 

 comprise the largest single vegetation-land use category in the 

 county. 



10. URBAN - towns, trailer parks, houses, paved roads: Only about 1 to 

 2% of the county land area. 



Pine timber presently being cut still comes chiefly from unmanaged 

 woodlands. Loblolly pine ( Plnus taeda ) is the principle old-field pine of 

 the county, springing up wherever a small patch of cultivated land or 

 pasture is unused. 



The original upland vegetation of sandy loam and clay soils was 

 probably a complicated mosaic of longleaf pine with some shortleaf and 

 loblolly; pocosin vegetation, and patches of oak forest. The drier uplands 

 were cleared and farmed first, eliminating longleaf from all but the 

 sandiest lands. As various small tracts were cleared and then abandoned, 

 old-field loblolly pine stands became established, initiating the trend 

 which resulted in dominance of this species by the early to mid 19th 

 century. These were the stands reported by W. W. Ashe (1894) in the first 

 survey of timber of the Coastal Plain by a trained forester. 



Actual logging for sawtimber was apparently a minor practice, and 

 mostly for local consumption until the mid 1800 's. The invention of 

 steam power in the early 19th century, and subsequent development of 

 logging technology using steam equipment, led to the first large-scale 

 removal of timber. A postal survey of individuals knowledgable about 

 local forests, conducted by P. M. Hale, showed that by 1882 whole counties 

 in northeastern North Carolina had been almost completely timbered. 



