CHAPTER IV: WILDLIFE HABITATS FOR MISSISSIPPI’S SGCN,

THREATS AND CONSERVATION ACTIONS^171

T here are about 600,000 acres of swamp habitat in Mississippi, equivalent to about two percent of the

state land area. Oxbow lakes, low floodplain terraces, bottomland flats, backwater areas or

springheads are common areas to find swamp forest vegetation. The soils of swales or depressions are

seasonally to semi-permanently flooded and remain saturated for long periods throughout the year.

Under this classification, two swamp forest subtypes occur in Mississippi. Bald cypress/blackgum/

water tupelo swamps are found in depressions associated with riverine floodplains. The second

subtype, small stream swamp forests, include wet pond cypress depressions, white cedar swamps and

bay swamp forests.

This type includes two subtypes: 10.1 Bald Cypress/Gum Swamp Forests and 10.2 Small Stream Swamp

Forests.

GENERAL CONDITION

The state was once covered with mostly unbroken forest, but centuries of land clearing and

development have seriously impacted southern swamplands. Fifteen percent of the land surface area

of the Southeastern United States was once wetland as compared to five percent nationwide. The

Southeast accounted for about 47 percent of the total wetland area and 65 percent of the forested

wetland area of the conterminous United States. Despite dramatic losses, such as those documented in

the previous bottomland forest section, the region currently accounts for about 36 percent of all

wetlands and 60 percent to 65 percent of all forested wetlands. Although loss rates have declined

recently, most wetland acreage lost every year in the United States is still from southern forested

wetlands. Annual loss rates of forested wetlands for the period from 1960 to 1975 was estimated to

average 3.1 percent in Arkansas, 0.9 percent in Louisiana, and 0.5 percent in Mississippi. US Forest

Service inventories completed by the early 1990's indicate continued annual loss rates of 0.7 percent

and 1.0 percent for the oak-gum-cypress forest type in the Louisiana and Mississippi portions of the

Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Plain. Estimates of one million acres of cypress-tupelo swamp

remain in the Lower Mississippi River Valley, within the states of Louisiana, Arkansas and

Mississippi.

In the past, wetlands have been regarded as a menace and a hindrance to land development and were

considered mere wastelands, made valuable only if drained. During the mid-19th century, Congress

passed the Swamp Lands Acts of 1849, 1850, and 1860, granting swamp and periodically flooded

bottomlands to the states. Five southern states received 40 million acres for draining. Most wetlands

10. SWAMP FORESTS