CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) - A conservation group is buying about 1,300 acres of land that’s next to the Great Dismal Swamp in hopes of restoring it to the environmentally unique wetlands it once was.
The Virginian-Pilot reported Monday that Ducks Unlimited is a national nonprofit that bought the land in the city of Chesapeake.
Emily Purcell, the organization’s director of conservation programs for the South Atlantic said the acquisition will ultimately cost about $8 million. The property is currently owned by a real estate investment fund and was once farmland.
The group’s goal is to one day create a “conservation corridor” that could connect the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge to state-run Cavalier Wildlife Management Area.
The Great Dismal Swamp was once an impenetrable morass where explorers vanished and runaway slaves escaped. George Washington, the future U.S. President, kicked off generations of logging there before the swamp became a national wildlife refuge in 1974.
The swamp’s unique and carbon-heavy peat soil consists of partially decomposed twigs, leaves and roots of plants that have accumulated over centuries. The refuge has been in the process of rewetting much of the swamp in an effort to protect and restore the soil.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.