by C.R. Edgerton 



IVlike Canada steers a pickup 

 truck down a dirt path so bumpy you 

 think you're on a mechanical bull. 



On each side of the muddy road, 

 the cola-colored waters of the 

 Roanoke River bottomlands soak 

 woods and fields. 



"You wanted to see wetlands, 

 well here it is," he says. 



Canada, one of two U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service rangers charged 

 with managing the Roanoke River 

 National Wildlife Refuge in Bertie 

 County, points to a stream of water 

 rushing over the road. 



"That water's coming from the 



Roanoke River Bottoms near Windsor 



s 



The truck slows down 



as a family of 

 raccoons crosses the 

 road and disappears 

 into the thick road- 

 side cover of sweet 

 bay and gallberry. 



Roanoke River," he says. "With all 

 the rain we've been having, things are 

 pretty much saturated." 



Canada maneuvers his truck 

 through large plots of slightly elevated 

 land hosting long rows of young 

 sycamores. The sycamores, medium- 

 hardwood trees that make excellent 

 paper pulp, are a strong reminder that 

 large timber companies like 

 Weyerhaeuser, Union Camp, Cham- 

 pion International and others have a 

 tight grip on many thousands of acres 

 of wetland swamps and pocosins in 

 North Carolina. 



"You see, the timber companies 



10 MARCH /APRIL 1992 



