mining, will remove all the organic horizon and the resulting 

 land surface will be lowered from several feet to several meters 

 below the original. To the north, in the Dismal Swamp National 

 Wildlife Refuge, it is possible to use water control structures 

 to permanently maintain the hydrology of the swamp. This will 

 eventually by the only significant remnant of the Dismal in 

 Gates County. 



Since it is possible to restore normal water levels to 

 some areas in the southern half of the Refuge, it might be 

 desirable to attempt reversal of drainage efforts on selected 

 sites. Insofar as vehicular access would not be needed or 

 appropriate in areas with higher water tables, managed as 

 natural communities, it would be desirable to actually remove 

 existing roads. It would be prohibitively expensive to do 

 this on a large scale, since a great quantity of road fill was 

 trucked in to build up roadbeds. However, on an experimental 

 basis, it might be feasible to slowly mine fill from one or 

 two roads over a period of years, using the material elsewhere 

 as needed o The adjacent ditches could be permanently closed 

 and allowed to fill with organic matter, reestablishing the 

 original continuity. 



72 



