THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 15, 1996 TAG: 9601150038
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
Deep in the bowels of the Great Dismal Swamp, three men climbed from their pickups and trudged across a clearing that was once a forest, the cut-over stubble crackling beneath their boots.
Carrying plastic pails that looked more appropriate for berry picking, the trio headed toward a wind-felled tree in the field, where only a few tall cedars remained standing.
Dale Manns led the way to the fallen tree, a rare American white cedar, that would enable them to carry out their mission - to lend Mother Nature a hand. From its branches, they would cull tiny cones containing flea-sized seeds, the hope of a future for the threatened species.
``What we're doing is taking perfectly good seeds off a useless tree,'' said Manns, volunteer coordinator for the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
But time was running out. Soon the cones would open, and the seeds would be scattered and lost.
For several weeks, he had led similar expeditions to the South Ditch - about a 30-minute drive from Desert Road in southern Suffolk. To reach their destination, the men had driven along a rutted, dirt roadbed bordered on one side by a canal cutting a long, straight swath through a seemingly endless canopy of trees and brush.
Manns, a heating and air-conditioning technician at Newport News Shipbuilding, had recruited friends, neighbors, Scouts, civic clubs and anyone else he could find to help with the project.
The previous weekend, he had supervised an outing of Cub Scouts from Magnolia United Methodist Church. They braved frigid temperatures to pluck the tiny cones with bare fingers.
That day, in mid-December, he had brought Estle Blevins, who also works at Newport News Shipbuilding; and Otis Eanes, who is retired from the Naval Aviation Depot.
Last fall, while Manns was on furlough from his job because of an injury, he started volunteering at the Refuge, helping first with deer check points. Since then, he's also donated time as a roving interpreter for swamp visitors, handing out brochures and giving tours.
When Refuge officials needed help with the tedious chore of collecting the cones, Manns was the first person they called to help line up volunteers.
After a total of about 90 man hours, the workers had gathered a mere two and a half gallons of cones.
Each cone contains six to 10 seeds, but only about half grow into usable plants, said Dave Brownlie, Refuge forester.
``Three years ago, they expected about 20 percent of the seed they actually collected would produce plantable seedlings,'' he said.
Recent research, however, has improved the chances for the fragile seed.
About 200 seeds weigh about two-tenths of a gram, he said.
``This stuff, when you get down to the clean seed, is extremely valuable,'' Brownlie said.
The cones - each smaller than a pencil eraser - would be sent to two tree nurseries, where they would be dried with warm air to make them pop open. The seeds would then be planted in special beds warmed by solar-powered cables. When the seedlings grow to about eight to 10 inches, the foresters buy them back, some at 50 cents apiece, and replant them in the swamp.
Others would go to other areas where the cedar is threatened.
``If we don't provide the nurseries with the seed, they will not plant them,'' Brownlie said. ``They can't afford it.''
In Virginia and North Carolina, the type of cedar - often mistaken for juniper - is on the ``special concern'' list, one step from ``endangered.''
The tree grows in a narrow strip along the East Coast.
``What we're trying to do is keep it from ending up on the endangered species list,'' Brownlie said.
The sprawling Dismal Swamp that stretches across parts of Suffolk, Chesapeake and northeastern North Carolina was once dominated by American white cedar and bald cypress. But logging efforts - started by George Washington - have drained so much water from the former wetlands that hardwoods are now more common.
Creation of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was started in 1973, when Union Camp Corp. donated 49,100 acres to The Nature Conservancy, which conveyed it to the Department of the Interior. The refuge consists of nearly 107,000 acres of forestted wetlands.
Today, red maple dominates the swamp, but the foresters hope to restore the area to much the same condition it was in when Washington found it.
The cedar, they hope, will make a comeback.
``They now occupy 10 to 20 percent of the acreage they probably did at the time of the European settlement,'' Brownlie said. ``The charge of this refuge is to restore those original stands.''
Historically, the tree has a difficult time regenerating naturally because many of the tiny seeds are carried away by birds or washed from the soil before they can germinate, Brownlie said.
Filling a pail with the cones is a time-consuming project.
``It took forever just to cover the bottom,'' said Blevins, a first-time volunteer, as he looked at his harvest.
The work is tedious because the cones are so small.
``I don't need a few good men,'' Manns said. ``I need an Army.''
Refuge foresters had logged the field, removing all but a few, tall American white cedars.
``This is an experimental station,'' Manns said. ``We want to see just exactly what they would do on their own.''
And with a little boost from the foresters and volunteers, the cedar forest could be rekindled.
``Hopefully, we will come back five years from now and see little cedars growing up in here,'' Manns said. ILLUSTRATION: MICHAEL KESTNER
The Virginian-Pilot
Dale Manns, above, painstakingly harvests pine cones from a
wind-felled American white cedar in the Great Dismal Swamp National
Wildlife Refuge. Below, Dave Brownlie, refuge forester, examines a
handful of the tiny cones whose flea-sized seeds will be germinated
in North Carolina and planted in the swamp as seedlings.
by CNB