Well, Chris, you and I have been talking about the swamp for a few months now.

And I'd like to ask, what is the single-most important element in the swamp?

If you could boil it down to one thing?

>>It's the water.

(both chuckling) Everything revolves around water.

Yeah, it's the life blood of the swamp, it really is.

To support the vegetative communities, the diversity of the habitats, to support the diversity of the wildlife.

>>Well, I'm gonna ask, 'cause it's been dry this summer.

And so, the swamp is not as wet as it has been.

How does that effect the diversity and climate, that all of the ecosystem and the wildlife, and such.

>>Yeah well, the thing is that we, it has a natural hydrologic cycle, right?

Through the seasons, it runs through the seasons.

It has its wet season, its dry season.

We're certainly in the dry season.

And I think the thing with, like this year, with the reduced precipitation, the swamp is very dry.

The water table is low.

And I think the most significant impact that could cause, is if we get that lightening strike, and the wildfire starts, that soil that we have, that peat soil dries out, and is very susceptible to burning.

But as far as the forest goes, it's very resilient.

It can tolerate the drier and the wetter conditions.

>>Well, speaking of the peat, you've got jars of water over there.

And you shared with me that first jar, represents what comes into the swamp.

>>That's right, this is just a jar of water that rainfall, and it flows into the swamp, off the Suffolk Escarpment.

Which is actually a geological formation on the coastal plain of Virginia.

And that water comes off of that little hill, and into the swamp.

As it goes through the swamp- >>Encounters the peat.

>>It encounters the peat soil.

Which is just the leaves and twigs that have fallen to the ground over the years, and not decomposed.

>>Because it's in water.

>>Because it's wet.

>>No oxygen.

>>No oxygen.

And less decomposers.

And over time, as it runs through the swamp, it gets darker and darker.

It's like a tea, a tea bag.

>>Steeping away.

>>Steeping, right.

>>Yeah.

>>And so it gets, it just gets dark as it flows generally west to east, or southeast.

>>How does it affect, I'll say, the aquatic life, though?

All the tannins in that water?

>>Yeah, so it's very acidic.

And so actually, like Lake Drummond.

It's very acidic water.

It makes it low productivity.

So there's not a lot of microorganisms, the primary producers.

That allow for the fish to eat, and so forth.

So it is low productivity.

And the sunlight can't reach the bottom to grow the plants, the aquatic vegetation.

>>But the water itself is still very pure?

>>Yeah, it is.

It's not dirty, it's not murky.

It's just the way it is.

And there's literature that says, hundreds of years ago they would barrel this water up.

They would put it in barrels, and take it across the ocean.

Because it didn't have, it wouldn't- >>Go bad.

>>Go bad, and get algae'd up.

Because again, the low productivity.

>>Excellent.

>>Yeah.

>>Well, I know one thing that will grow in that water.

And that is Bald Cypress.

Which is one of the primary plants of the swamp.

And I see that you've brought a Bald Cypress knee to us.

>>Move these over here.

>>I don't think everybody is familiar with this plant.

>>Right, so Bald Cypress historically, was one of the dominate forest types in the swamp.

And used, it was timbered, and it was logged out to build homes, and ships, and barrels, and things.

And so, one of the unique things is, these can live in water.

In a lot of water.

These Bald Cypress will grow out of Lake Drummond, they could be four to 600 years old, if you're to get out there and see those.

So this is called a Cypress Knee, which is part of the root system of the cypress.

Because it grows in the water, and there's very limited oxygen, the root system will actually grow back up out of the ground into the air, and capture the oxygen to feed the tree.

>>Interesting, because that water of course, has so little oxygen in it that's available for the plant.

>>Right.

>>That's interesting.

Do you know about how many Bald Cypress trees you have in, I'll even say in the Lake Drummond area?

I'm not giving y'all 113,000 acres.

Hundreds?

Thousands?

>>Hundred, thousands, yeah.

Yeah, there's thousands.

And as far as forest community, in the 113,000 acres, we do have about 10,000 acres of still Bald Cypress and Tupelo Gum forest, which like that wetter condition.

>>That's fantastic.

So what else is living in this high water environment?

With these Bald Cypress and acidic water?

What else wildlife-wise can survive in that?

You're saying the fish were low.

Well what about our more terrestrial critters and such?

>>So we have 47 different species of mammals, okay?

And a large population of reptiles and amphibians.

Turtles, snakes, lizards, salamanders.

Because it is that swampy environment.

>>Mm-hm, mm-hm.

I don't know, I don't wanna walk through there at night.

(both laughing) >>No, it's awfully dark and, yes.

You never know what you might run into at night, for sure.

>>Exactly.

I know there are a lot of "Beware of Bear" signs around.

(laughing) When I was there in March, so- >>Oh, come on.

(both chuckling) We do have the highest density of bears in the state.

It's a very good bear habitat.

But, it's okay.

The bears, they're as scared of you as you are of them.

>>I don't know about that.

(chuckling) But you said you have the highest bear density.

But you were basically an island in the middle of a highly dense population of the state.

The Hampton Roads, the whole Virginia Beach area is so densely populated.

And yet, there's the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge.

>>Yes, oasis of forest habitat that does provide.

And being in the mid-Atlantic, it's just in the migratory corridor.

We have, really our habitat for birds.

Song birds, raptors, waterfowl.

And if you're lucky and you go out to Lake Drummond in the winter time, you can see thousands of tundra swans, or snow geese, just roosting on Lake Drummond.

I have been fortunate to see it twice, it's beautiful.

>>Sounds beautiful.

You know, we're gonna end with that vision.

Because I think that's a great way for people to think of Lake Drummond.

So, thank you for being with us.

>>Wonderful, thank you.