Anybody that knows me knows how I feel about the Green Swamp. The reason I got the idea for this forumwas because I was trying to think of something I could do to get more people aware of what is happening there. I know some of you can't believe that I haven't already made a post here about it. I first wanted to get some info from Swamplady that I could post there. She decided to join and post the info, and I want to thank her for that.
The Green Swamp is alot more than cp's, but for now I'll focus on them. There is no place in the world that has more cp's. There is no place in the world that has more cp species. I know of 17 diffrent speciecs. They are Dionea muscipula, Sarracenia flava, rubra, purpurea, minor, Pinguicula caerulea, lutea, Drosea capillaris, intermedia, filiformis, brevifolia, Utricularia cornuta, juncea, inflata, purpurea, subulata and gibba. There may be more but these are the ones that I have confirmed. I made a post about this in another topic sometime ago. Instead of typing it over I'm just going to cut and paste it here.
The Green Swamp is facing threats from many different sources. Some are the same as all other cp sites, poaching and development.
North Carolina has some very strict laws for poachers. Last time I looked it was $2000 and 6 months in jail for each incident. That may not sound like alot but the thing is every plant you take is a separate offenses. Say that you only take 5 plants, 5 plants equals $10,000. That's enough to make you stop and think about it.
But with all that poaching still happens.
Southeastern NC is one of the fastest growing area's in the country. It's a very big tourist spot, It has the Atlantic Ocean and some very nice beaches and with Myrtle Beach just across the state line, thousands, if not millions of tourist visit the area every year. These people have to have places to stay, eat, shop and entertainment, so countless numbers of hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, golf courses, ect, ect, ect have just been built. I can't imagine how many cp's were and still are being bulldozed.
When most people hear the Green Swamp they think that it's very swampy. It's not. I'd say about 90% of it is pine savannas. So The International Paper Company bought most of The Green Swamp years ago, because pine savannas are perfect for growing pine trees. For years they have cleared the land, drained it and sprayed herbicides and pesticides from helicopters. Of course some of these chemicals drifted into steams and onto what remains of the green swamp. The scariest thing is when you walk in to the swamp and you think how quite and peaceful it is. Then you realize it's too quite, no birds, squirrels, deer. I have yet to see any live animal other than a few bugs there. This is the only wilderness place I have ever been to and not heard a bird singing. That's something to think about.
Look at the pic on this website.
The Green Swamp
When I saw this picture for the first time, It made me think of a song by Lynyrd Skynyrd called "All I Can Do is Write About It" There is a line in there that says:
And Lord I can't make any changes
All I can do is write 'em in a song
I can see the concrete slowly creepin'
Lord take me and mine before that comes
I now have those lines in my signature.
Notice the area with no lines in it. That's what's left of the Green Swamp. Maybe 2 by 4 miles. This swamp use to cover the SE North Carolina and NE South Carolina. And it's been reduced to this. This is about the only undisturbed area that's let of the Green Swamp. To the north and west you'll see land that has alot of lines through it. The lines are logging roads and that's the paper co. land. Of course their land stretches far beyond what this pics show. The ocean is to the south east so all the steams, with all the chemicals run through the Green Swamp on it's way to the ocean.
The landfill is the most immediate threat. They want to built it just NW of the nature preserve area. Keep in mind that the streams run S-SW to the ocean. It's about 3 miles upstream (If I remember right). They are required to have sheeting that will hold all the liquid and other waste inside the mound. The same company is under investigation for a barrier leak at other landfills that they own. It's the same barrier that will be used in this one. Ok let's say that the barrier in the other landfills didn't break and the one that'll be used in the Green Swamp works perfect and never breaks. They are designed to hold so much rain, I forget how much they are designed to hold. In 1984 the area had (I think) 19 inches of rain in 24 hrs.
It was during hurricane Dianna. That would have over flowed the landfill. In 1996 we had 2 hurricanes with in a month Bertha and Fran. I forgot the total rainfall but it was alot and it was enough to overflow the landfill. In 1999 there was 3 hurricanes that hit the area within a month and a half. Floyd was the biggest, I believe we had almost 60 inches of rain. With Floyd dumping close to 30 inches within 24 hrs. That 3 times in 14 yrs that the landfill would have overflowed. Just imagine if the landfill overflows just once. All the chemicals, wastes, nutrients that the landfill holds will be released into the streams and ground water. All of this will settle in the soil. What's one of the most toxic things to cp's. Nitrogen. Think about how much nitrogen will be released, not to mention the other things like sodium. Another thing to thing about. How many landfill have you seen with out seagulls? The seagull population will explode after it is built. I believe that the seagull droppings will fertilize the area. Eventually killing the cp's.
Most of the land that you see undisturbed is owned by The Nature Conservancy. Thank God that they do or nothing would be left. They burn and manage the land, and try to keep it the way it's supposed to be, full of cp's. This is why I think the key to saving cp's are organizations like TNC and people privately buying sites to keep them from being developed.
If anybody wants to learn more about The Grenn Swamp, here are some website to visit.
http://www.geocities.com/greenswamp211/greenswamp.html
http://ccsenc.freeservers.com/
http://www.uhaul.com/supergraphics/flytrap/introduction.html
If you would like to explore the Green Swamp go to this site and you can zoom in and pan around.
The Green Swamp
If anybody would like to sign a petition to stop the landfill, contact me and I'll send it to you.