Ken Taylor 



Ken Taylor 



LEFT: Waccamaw Outdoor Center is near the headwaters of the Waccamaw. RIGHT: Lundie Spence is dwarfed by a huge cypress. 



of his Waccamaw adventures in the Voyage 

 of the Paper Canoe. 



"Down the tortuous, black, rolling 

 current went the paper canoe, with a giant 

 forest covering the great swamp and 

 screening me from the light of day," Bishop 

 wrote. "The swamps were submerged, as the 

 water poured out of the thickets into the river 

 it would shoot across the land from one bend 

 to another, presenting in places the mystify- 

 ing spectacle of water running up the stream, 

 but not up an inclined plain. 



"Festoons of gray Spanish moss hung 

 from the weird limbs of monster trees, giving 

 a funeral aspect to the gloomy forest, while 

 the owls hooted as if it were night." 



WACCAMAW STUDY 



A recent study of the Waccamaw River 

 system by East Carolina University geolo- 

 gists recommends the creation of an 

 independent commission to protect the water 



system and associated ecosystem's abundant 

 animal and plant populations. 



"Wetlands in the vast Waccamaw 

 drainage system originally represented 7.3 

 percent of the original total wetlands in North 

 Carolina," according to the study. "However, 

 today the Waccamaw system is in serious 

 jeopardy due to centuries of extreme land-use 

 modifications resulting from growth and 

 development pressures." 



The use of these lands for expanded 

 agriculture and timber production, along with 

 growing industrial and urban development, 

 has led to accelerated ditching and draining, a 

 team of researchers wrote in the report published 

 by the N.C. Division of Water Resources. 



"If people want to save the swamp and 

 drainage system, it needs to have a compre- 

 hensive management plan that is developed 

 by and implemented on a local basis by local 

 citizens and user groups," says ECU 

 geologist Stanley R. Riggs, a former Sea 



Grant researcher who led the five-year study. 

 "We need to get all user groups around the 

 table talking and working together," Riggs adds. 



"The drainage system has been severely 

 abused by groups that have ignored the 

 cumulative impacts of all other activities and 

 the long-term processes. We must use it and 

 manage it based upon the dynamics of the 

 drainage system." 



Riggs says the regional water manage- 

 ment plan must include the interaction and 

 linkage between ground and surface water. 



"The drainage system is like an 

 organism with many parts that all work 

 together and interact," says Riggs. "User 

 groups need to pay attention to this." 



To protect the river, North and South 

 Carolina residents formed the Winyah Rivers 

 Foundation. 



This summer, the grassroots organiza- 

 tion is hiring a riverkeeper to protect the 

 river's resources. 



10 HIGH SEASON 2002 



