Fortunately,
efforts to identify
and protect
Carolina Bays
are underway by
state and federal
agencies in concert
with conservation
organizations.
And this good
work is not just
for the benefit of
birds, frogs and
wildflowers;
Carolina Bays
provide tangible
ecologic and
economic value,
with water as their
priceless currency.
53
Left: A cypress grows at the edge of Lake Waccamaw. Pine woods tree frog on Gordonia, male spring
peeper and a young cottonmouth. Above: “Bladen Bays,” Bladen County, photo etching by Jennifer Page.
Around some ponds you will find vestiges of those ancestors in the
form of rotting stumps, some showing black scorches wrought by
past fires that swept through the area, especially during periods of
drought.
Entering one of these places is a humbling experience, knowing
you are stepping on soil built up from leaves and stems produced
by uncounted generations of trees, each generation with a lifecycle
possibly spanning many hundreds of years. Kneeling at the but-tressed
trunk of a living cypress ten times my age or more provides
a clear sense of being in a hallowed place.
Passion aside, scientific studies of pollen trapped in Carolina
Bay sediments reveal evidence that, up until about 10,000 to 8,000
years ago, southeastern North Carolina was populated by ice age
spruce and hardwood trees, much like the cold climate forests we
find today on the tops of Grandfather Mountain and Mt. Mitchell,
North Carolina’s highest peaks.
With my mind’s eye I can imagine that icy period, when
Carolina Bays served as bathing and drinking areas for bison, musk
ox and the now extinct giant ground sloth, along with the great
predators that hunted them, including saber-toothed cats, lions,
wolves, bears and early American Indians.
Through thousands of years these ponds have continuously
served people and wildlife with water, food and shelter, though
PHOTO ETCHING BY JENNIFER PAGE, CAPE FEAR PRESS
now, instead of bison and lions, we find deer and bobcats,
along with my favorite Carolina Bay inhabitants — frogs, toads
and turtles.
Today, many of our Carolina Bays are mere shadows of what
they once were, as seen in aerial images that reveal oval areas neatly
cross-hatched with crops of one type or another. Such conversions
reduce ground and stormwater storage capacity, leading to flood-ing
during heavy rain events, and water shortages during periods of
drought. These consequences, on top of diminished wildlife popu-lations,
are due simply to habitat loss.
Fortunately, efforts to identify and protect Carolina Bays are
underway by state and federal agencies in concert with conservation
organizations. This good work is not just for the benefit of birds,
frogs and wildflowers; Carolina Bays provide tangible ecologic and
economic value, with water as their priceless currency.
Exactly how Carolina Bays came into being may remain
unknown for years to come, and that’s fine. Their mystery offers
current and future ecologists and conservationists something to
investigate and ponder. In my view, the more pressing question
to answer in this modern world, what some call the Anthropocene,
is how we will hold a place for Carolina Bays, so they may continue
to provide services to the benefit of whole communities — people,
plants and wildlife combined.
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