Exploring the Big Woods by Moran Matthew D.;

Author:Moran, Matthew D.; [Moran, Matthew D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press

Journey into the Past

When we put into Bayou DeView on an uncharacteristically warm January day, we knew little of what to expect from the swamp. We had been told it was spectacular. We knew from our reading that the trees were old, some over one thousand years, and that most of this swamp forest had been spared the logger’s ax. Warnings had also been given to us, telling us to beware. They said we could get lost, we could overturn our canoes, and we could face unexpected obstacles. In response to the warnings, we only studied the route more carefully, scouring the satellite views and published maps.

So here we stood, January of 2012 with our canoes sitting in the water, paddles in hand. Just three students and one professor wondering how long it would take us to navigate the seven-plus miles of our planned route. The chill of the morning air was already giving way to a warming sun, and a slight southerly breeze rustled the treetops. So, with a definite sense of trepidation, we pushed off from the bank into the swamp.

We had only gone a few hundred feet when we spotted something in the water. Our first thought was a beaver, but when its head popped up again we saw a more interesting creature, a river otter. It submerged and surfaced several times, spying us carefully, seemingly unsure of what to make our two-boat flotilla. We passed, and it went back to its business of finding food while we navigated into the narrowing channel and into a tunnel of trees.

It was only a short distance before we entered the primeval forest, still within earshot of the highway and the reminder of civilization. The contrast with where we were and where we had come from was striking. We were surrounded by thousands of tupelo with their grotesquely swollen bases and their twisted trunks. Interspersed, not common at all compared to the tupelo, but making up for their relative scarcity with their immense size, were the giant bald cypress. They were the biggest we had ever seen on our scouting journeys into the Big Woods. Our excitement was hard to contain, and we paddled over to one after another just to get the sense of their sheer size. It dawned on us how we had gotten used to the “little” cypress that make up most of the Big Woods. These trees were something else entirely. This forest was something different and somehow more what a swamp forest is “supposed” to be.

We paddled on. The giant trees stretched onward mile after mile. The day continued to warm. We could have easily mistaken the day for an early April one, so warm was it for January, and we realized how lucky we were to experience this weather. In the days to come, there would no doubt be a return to wintertime. Even a few frogs, spring peepers and chorus frogs called from the swamp, also fooled by the unseasonable warmth. We wondered if even the plants might be stirring from their winter’s dormancy.

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