Great Dismal Swamp - Preservation

Preservation

In the mid 20th century, conservation groups from all over America began demanding that something be done to preserve what was left of the Great Dismal Swamp. In 1973, the Union Camp Corporation, a paper company based in Franklin, Virginia, which had had large land holdings in the area since the beginning of the 20th century, donated just over 49,000 acres (198 km²) of its land to The Nature Conservancy, which transferred the property the following year to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was officially established by the U.S. Congress through The Dismal Swamp Act of 1974. The refuge consists of almost 107,000 acres (433 km²) of forested wetlands. Lake Drummond is located in the center of the swamp, and is a 3,100 acre natural lake.

The refuge's resource management programs aim to restore and maintain the natural biological diversity that once existed in the swamp, including its water resources, native vegetation communities, and wildlife species. Water control structures in the ditches help conserve and manage water. Forest management activities which simulate the ecological effects of wildfires are used to restore and maintain plant diversity. Wildlife is managed by insuring the presence of required habitats, with hunting used to balance some wildlife populations with available food supplies.