Congaree April 18 '09

Saturday, April 18th, saw us heading off with Kat in our RV to Congaree Swamp National Park.   The Congaree NP Forest is rated as being one of the top ten “ Old  Growth Forest” in the world.   For those of you who are not familiar with the term, “old growth” refers to a forest which is tall enough that its upper canopy has shaded out the under-story vegetation, leaving the forest floor relatively open to view.

Open Under story

Dogwood in Bloom

In North America, only the conifer forests of the Western U.S. coastal region are substantially taller. (E.g. the California Sequoia forests, and the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula are taller).  East of the Mississippi, just a few patches of white pine and some cove forests in Great Smoky Mountains NP are taller. When compared to all of the world's forests, Congaree is among the tallest. 

The average canopy height is over 100ft tall.  Congaree has one of the tallest temperate deciduous forests in the world, and is taller than the old-growth forests found in Japan, the Himalayas, Southern South America and all of Eastern Europe. 

That being said, we were still startled by how different this forest is than any other we have ever visited.     

 For one thing it is a true swamp.  The Congaree River snakes its way through much of the Park.  Much of the forest is regularly flooded by the overflow of the Congaree River.  Many of the trees in the flooded wet sections of the forest are bald cypress. 

 

Bald Cypress

  (If you look at the dark moss around the lower trunk of the tree you can tell how high the flooding reaches on the tree.) 

Dark line indicates water level during flood season

This is what the same section  looks like during the rainy season

Bald Cypress trees put up “knees” all around them.   Know one knows quite what the purpose of these knees are, but   the best guess is that they both aerate the tree, and help to stabilize it during floods. 

Cypress knees

 No matter what their function, I appreciated their unusual shapes …. They look like little gnomes squatting at the foot of the bridges. 

Cypress knees

  Because of the flooding, the Elevated Boardwalk at Congaree National Park is raised roughly 8 feet off the ground, 

BJ atop Elevated Board Walk

is 3 miles from the Congaree River, and floods over about every 4 to 5 years.  

Elevated Board Walk

 Here are some forestry service pictures of the board walk through the park during the rainy season (late winter and summer).   

Here is a picture of a ranger standing on the ground beside the board walk during one of the overflows, and another of Bruce standing in the same spot when it is dry.

BJ would be under water during the rainy season

 There are many natural lakes called “Oxbows” within Congaree National Park, which used to be bends in the Congaree River. Some formed thousands of years ago.   

CC by an Oxbow Lake

The reflections in these areas are beautiful

And the moisture supports a wide variety of wildlife like this little skink