Development and Purpose

The Dismal Swamp Boardwalk Project was completed and dedicated by Elizabeth City State
University in the spring of 1994. The wetlands property, consisting of 639 acres, was acquired
by the University from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The half-mile long
boardwalk and observation tower were constructed with Title III funds, and its primary function
is to provide access to a wetlands wilderness area for use in research and educational activities.
 
 
 

How Old is the Dismal Swamp?

Evidence from geology and fossil plants indicate that the Dismal Swamp began forming at the
close of the Pleistocene Ice Age around 12,000 years ago. The last great ice advance of the
Pleistocene was coming to an end, and the climate slowly began to warm. As the glacial ice
melted, sea levels which had dropped about 300 feet below present levels, was raised rapidly
for the first several thousand years. As sea level rose, so did the water table, and wetlands
formed along flooded stream valleys, gradually extending inland to the present western margin of
the swamp. Sea level reached its present elevation about 3,000 years ago, and by that time peat
was developing throughout the entire wetlands area. Trees making up the forests gradually
changed, as the climate warmed, from northern species, including jack pines and spruces, to the
present day cypress-gum associations. The forest groups of today have been fairly stable for the
past 3,500 years.
 
 

 What Are Wetlands?

Wetlands come in all sizes and shapes. They may be found in prairies, at high elevations in
mountainous areas, in hill country, and especially in deltas and coastal lowlands. The areas of
immediate concern is a parcel of the Great Dismal Swamp, a coastal plain fresh water wetlands
in northern Currituck County. It is difficult to define wetlands, because there is so much variety.
However, they are all generally low compared to the surrounding area. They are often
waterlogged or covered by shallow water for all or part of a year, and they support plant and
animal communities which have adapted to water budgets with marked seasonal variations.
 
 

Why Are Wetlands So Important?

The extremely important coastal fishing and shell fishing economy of North Carolina demands
clean healthy estuaries, and it is the bordering wetlands which determine the condition of
estuarine waters. Wetlands perform as natural filters which clean the nutrients and sediments
from waters that drain into the estuaries. They also provide for pollution retention, flood control,
habitats for wildlife, ground water recharge, and aquatic life production.

Increased nutrient levels from agricultural runoff, construction of canals, and lumbering operations
have combined to deteriorate the effective role that wetlands play in providing clean water runoff
at controlled rates for the estuaries and primary nurseries along their fringes. Without these
controls the nurseries will cease to function, and most of the animal life in the coastal waters of
North Carolina will disappear: no wetlands, no estuaries, no seafood. According to information
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others, about fifty percent of the nation's swamps
and marshes (wetlands) have been effectively destroyed just during the last forty years.
 
 

Things To Look For

The careful observer may see evidence of a variety of mammals that inhabit the swamp.
White-tailed deer, black bear, gray squirrel, bats, otter, mink, raccoon, gray and red foxes, and
bobcat have been observed and hunted or trapped in the swamp.

Wetland habitats provide the ideal environment for a diversity of amphibians and reptiles.
Lizards, salamanders, frogs, toads, and turtles share the swamp habitat with twenty-one varieties
of snakes. The poisonous snakes are the copperhead, canebrake rattlesnake, and cottonmouth.

The ideal time for observing the greatest variety of birds in the swamp is during the spring
migration---from April through June. More than 200 species of birds have been identified in the
Dismal Swamp.

Wetlands may be second only to the great rain forests in life diversity and the impact they have
on world ecosystems. Yet, they are indeed fragile and need out serious consideration if they are
to survive.