Cedar Swamps

Cedar Swamp

Cedar Swamp (.jpg - 80k).

Atlantic white cedar swamps are globaly threatened ecosystems native only to isolated hollows in a 100-mile wide strip on the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts.  They are characterized by saturated, acidic organic-peat soils, and dominated by Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides). Abundant sphagnum mosses cover the cedar roots and the tea-colored, tannin-rich water. Atlantic white cedar only colonize open boggy areas because its seedling do not grow well in the shade. Common red maples will replace cedar.

Atlantic white cedar swamps are home to a variety of plants and wildlife, some rare, including: bushy sweet gale (Myrica gale), highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), swamp azalea (Rhododendron viscosum), heartleaf twayblade (Listera cordata), spotted turtles (Clemmys guttata), and sharp-shinned hawks (Accipiter striatus). In fact, in Massachusetts, heartleaf twayblade is only found in one swamp on the Cape.

Cedar Swamps Woods Hole   

Cedar Swamp, Woods Hole (.jpg - 79k)

  

Swamps also act to buffer surrounding communities from flooding by holding large amounts of rainwater and spring runoff. This globally rare habitat was once abundant, but was largely destroyed, along with the rest of Cape Cod's native forests, for lumber, fuel, and through the conversion of land to agriculture. The largest cedar swamp remaining on the Cape (11.9 acres) is at Marconi Station in Wellfleet. There are few wetlands suitable for cedar colonization left on highly developed Cape Cod, and the current number and distribution of seed-producing cedars is low.

Remaining swamps are threatened by development, which may fill the wetland, or channel excessive runoff directly into a swamp, thereby drowning the cedars.