Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 13 OctOber 2017

250 years after Washington drained it, feds soak a swamp

By BEN FINLEY ly raising the water table another 50 to understand concern, sending millions able it to store more car-
Associated Press in the swamp’s remaining the swamp.” of tons of pollution into the bon instead of leaking it.
SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) — This is 113,000 acres by capturing Such projects have be- atmosphere. According to Drexler said scientists have
a story about a future presi- and rechanneling rainfall in come more urgent, with the U.S. Geological Survey, long known that peat bogs,
dent who tried to drain a when dried out, can con-
swamp, and government tribute to global warming.
workers who are making it But only relatively recently
wet again. has the issue gained atten-
By returning the habitat to tion, partly because of the
its natural state, they just massive fires in places like
might keep the Great Dis- Indonesia.
mal Swamp from heating “It’s finally starting to get
up the planet. traction,” she said.
It was a young George The Great Dismal Swamp
Washington, working as was once ten times bigger
a surveyor 254 years ago, than it is now, stretching
who saw profits in the wet- for a million acres. In 1728,
lands straddling the Virgin- land surveyor William Byrd
ia-North Carolina border. described its heart as a hor-
The seemingly impene- rible desert that “no beast
trable swamp had been or bird approaches,” with
dismissed as a deadly mo- woods so thick, “friendly
rass where explorers van- beams of the sun can nev-
ished and runaway slaves er penetrate them to warm
escaped. Today, scientists the earth.”
have discovered that the Today, nearly 150 miles of
swamp’s peat soil is a vi- ditches mar the landscape,
tal piece of the climate In this Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017 photo, Chris Lowie, refuge manager Great Dismal Swamp but nature remains. Driving
change puzzle, able to National Wildlife Refuge, gestures as he looks over a historical marker at the location of the town through the refuge recently,
either contain or release constructed by George Washington in Suffolk, Va. Lowie passed a black bear
a greenhouse gas that Associated Press cub that scampered away
causes global warming. the vast network of ditches far-reaching consequenc- the last two big fires at the in a blur. A bald eagle —
Washington and his fellow that scar the land. Alumi- es, as scientists pay more Great Dismal Swamp re- part of another comeback
investors had slaves dig a num pipes and wooden attention to how peat leased an estimated total story — soared above an
ditch to drain the spongy boards now control water swamps impact climate of 6.2 million metric tons open swath of shallow wa-
peat soil and log the cy- levels in about a third of the change. of carbon dioxide — more ter and dead trees, left by
press and cedar trees. refuge. Peat soil consists of par- than the annual output of a a fire that raged for months
Their rot-proof lumber was Just how wet the Dismal tially decomposed twigs, million cars. in 2011.
perfect for ship masts, roof should be, and where, leaves and roots of plants Last year, the refuge The thick stands of cypress
shingles and fence posts. could take years to deter- that have accumulated in agreed to share rewetting and cedar trees Washing-
Washington never drained mine. wet conditions over centu- research with Sebangau ton spotted in the 1760s
the whole swamp, but log- It will depend on future ries. When this soil dries and National Park in Indonesia, have mostly given way to
gers kept plundering it for goals for wildlife, the ref- is exposed to oxygen, mi- a country whose recent trees that grow in drier con-
generations thereafter, uge’s ultimate responsi- croscopic organisms break peat fires briefly rivaled the ditions, such as red maple
drying out the soil, altering bility. For example, they down the peat into carbon carbon emissions of the en- and gum.
the habitat and making it could try to grow more na- dioxide and release the tire U.S. economy. Still, the black peat soil is
more vulnerable to wild- tive pines to support the greenhouse gas. “What we’re learning is that healthy where the refuge
fires. What’s left of it didn’t precarious population of “You simply put the lid we’re not alone in this,” has managed to make it
become a national wildlife red-cockaded woodpeck- back on the pot by rewet- said Lowie. “This is a world- wet again. Lowie proves it
refuge until 1974. ers. They’re trying to take ting,” said Hans Joosten, wide issue.” by grabbing a dead tree
Now the U.S. Fish and Wild- careful steps, and to avoid a professor who leads the Judy Drexler, a USGS wet- branch and plunging it
life Service is trying to undo doing more harm to an al- Department of Peatland land ecologist who has slowly down, nearly two
the damage by gradually tered landscape. Studies and Palaeoecol- studied the swamp, said re- feet into the moist soil.
“rewetting” the swamp. “It took 250 years to get ogy at Greifswald University wetting should reduce the Lowie knows the swamp will
Refuge manager Chris to this point,” Lowie said. in Germany. risk of fires, stop the peat never again resemble the
Lowie and his staff are slow- “Maybe it’s going to take Peat fires are also a major soil from receding and en- place Washington knew.q