Anderson Swamp-Edgecombe County, NC

The Anderson Swamp Restoration Project proved an instant success for Restoration Systems, the N.C. taxpayers and wildlife alike.  What was once a semi-productive and difficult to maintain corn field located in northeastern Edgecombe County, has now been converted back to its original state: a beautiful non-riparian swamp.   

After acquiring a permanent conservation easement on the land, Restoration Systems performed intensive labor to revive its crucial life source: water (as well as its ability to retain water once again).  RS placed impermeable plugs made of filter fabric and on-site clay packed hard and strategically into the ditches to stop the site from “bleeding,” or losing water retention.  After the ditches were plugged they were filled with soil.  One large ditch, which was the largest artery that drained the site of its water, was plugged at both ends and left opened due to the discovery of wetlands located on its banks.   

Before RS left the site, ducks and swans had already proven in favor of leaving these restored wetlands open with their prompt return to the site.  A 10-acre irrigation pond located about a mile from the site attracts hundreds of swans and indicates that this area (now including our site) is a wintering ground for tundra swans, the largest migratory bird to winter in North Carolina. Restoration Systems’ final helping hand to this site was the planting of 25,000 hardwood trees.   

Worth Creech, the on-site manager through the entirety of the construction phase, affirmed his strong convictions surrounding the need for mitigation on the site. “I can’t count on both hands how many times RS staff had been stuck out there in 4-wheel drive trucks,” he remarked. "Our surveyor even fatally lost a Honda CR-V to fire on this haunted ground. This site was asking to be left alone from mankind. I think this beautiful place finally got what it wanted… some rest.”