Historic tree’s saplings planted near Dragon Run headwaters

Three young trees grown from seeds of a 2,630-year-old bald cypress in North Carolina’s Black River Swamp found their way to the headwaters of the Dragon Run recently. The saplings, from the oldest bald cypress tree in the Eastern US, were donated to The Friends of Dragon Run (FODR) by Joan Maloof, founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network (OGFN). FODR volunteers planted the trees along the shore of a large, old, and active beaver pond on their 32-acre property located near Powcan Road.

The OGFN describes itself as “the only national network in the U.S. of protected, old-growth, native forests where people of all generations can experience biodiversity and the beauty of nature,” and whose goal is to “locate and designate at least one protected forest in every county in the United States that can sustain a native forest.”

FODR has partnered with the OGFN by inducting two of their properties into the OGFN. One of those properties (Big Island – 203 acres) is in Middlesex County and the other (Eagles Nest – 47 acres) is in King & Queen County. Each of these properties is under conservation easements with the Virginia Outdoor Foundation. They will be managed as old growth forests — defined as a forest that has reached its later stages of development over a long period without significant human disturbance.