Juniper

Of all of the rivers in Virginia, there is one that calls out with a voice of its own and stands out above them all. The North Landing River is located in the embayed region of Virginia and North Carolina in Virginia Beach. Not only is the North Landing a Virginia Scenic River, but it is the most biodiverse place in Virginia east of the Blue Ridge. Stained by the earth itself, it is a beautiful blackwater river draining the wetlands in Virginia Beach and flowing into the ‘Yellowstone of the East’, the Albemarle. Within this wild, sodden world are many rare and threatened natural communities, of which Peatland Atlantic White Cedar Forests may be the most singular.

Peatland Atlantic White Cedar Forests were once abundant along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia, but logging, land use changes and the escalating impacts of climate change have taken a grievous toll on the forests and they are now globally threatened. These forests are found within 130 miles of the coastline on slightly elevated hummocks in wetlands. Less than 5% of the original acreage remains of this special type of wetland and what has not been lost is found primarily in North Carolina and southeastern Virginia in the Great Dismal Swamp and along the winding course of the North Landing River.

Actually, Atlantic White Cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) is not a cedar at all. It is in the cypress family, but the local name for this tree is juniper. On the North Landing River the remnants of these woodlands are located on peat flats situated on terraces formed by ancient erosional and depositional processes. These forests play a vital role regulating water quality, store huge amounts of carbon in the peat below the surface and are critical habitat for a variety of specialized flora and fauna such as the endangered Hessel’s hairstreak butterfly, a testament to the irreplaceable wonders sheltered by this extraordinary river.

Schedule your ecotour to explore this environmental wonderland.