Big Island on the Dragon Run

This Bald Cypress forest is comprised of 203 acres of wetlands and forest in the midst of the Dragon Run Swamp.  Logging was stopped over 50 years ago though some segments of the property may not have ever been logged.  One Bald Cypress in particular is estimated to be over one thousand years old and when last measured fifteen years ago (2004) was over 22.5 feet in circumference.  In 1976, The Nature Conservancy joined with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to commission a Smithsonian Institution study of 232 rivers and streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Dragon Run ranked second in terms of ecological significance.  The Dragon wilderness covers 12,600 square miles of the Chesapeake Bay region.