[Leica] The Bay 101 - Bald Cypress Trees

[bquinn at sgi.com (Bernard Quinn)]

Last week my friend Dick Seabrook told me about a place on the Eastern
Shore of the Chesapeake Bay that was new to me. The place is called Trap
Pond. It is actually located in Delaware, just off Route 24, east on
Cambridge, Maryland. It is one of the few remaining stands of Bald
Cypress trees in the northern part of the Chesapeake. The only one that
I know of in this part of the country is located on the Western Shore. 

It is the Battle Creek Cypress Swamp in Calvert County, Maryland. But, I
digress. My wife Judy and I drove over to Trap Pond on Saturday to take
a look at it. Here's what I saw.

 

The most notable thing about Cypress Trees on the Bay today is their
absence. I think that they are wonderful, majestic trees. They have
flared bottoms, like bell bottom jeans. They grow in water. They are
fairly unique. They don't have leaves, they have needles, like pine
trees. The needles are short. But, unlike Pine trees they shed their
needles in the fall, like hard wood trees. They are hardy, and the heart
wood of a Bald Cypress Tree is very resistant to rot. This has not
proven to be good news for these trees.

 

When the settlers from England first arrived on the Bay in the late
1600"s Cypress, Pine, and Oak trees were numerous. I have read that
there were Bald Cypress trees which were ten and fifteen feet in
circumference. These wonderful trees were all cut down long ago to make
boats, houses, and what have you. The old timers say that if you know
where to look you can still see the ghosts, the stumps, of these trees
just under the surface of the water at low tide. I've never seen one,
though.

 

www.leica-gallery.net/barney/image-91379.html

 

www.leica-gallery.net/barney/image-91380.html

 

 

Barney