Live Green: Trap Pond Cypress Trees

LAUREL, De – Trap Pond State Park has a lot of history and it is Delaware’s first state park, home to the bald cypress tree.

Trap Pond State Park started out as a logging site in the seventeen-hundreds, and later for grain and gristmills. The Interpretive Programs Manager, William Koth, said cypress trees became the center of recreation in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

“When the European settlers came in, they found the bald cypress trees were really good for things like shingles and siding, anything that needed to withstand the weather, the rot and insect resistance of the cypress,” Koth explained, “Even though a lot of the bald cypress were taken out, we still had seed banks and we still had smaller trees to sort of repopulate the swamps after that period of history.”

Once the dam stopped operating, this exposed mudflats in the pond. Between 1930 and 1937, this allowed cypress seeds to sprout, causing a rebirth of the majority of cypress trees we see today, surrounding the 90-acre pond.

Another unique feature that Koth had pointed out to me on the pontoon boat are their roots poking out from the water, also known as knees. These knees help with storm water management.

“As the water over the year slowly rises up and down back in these cypress swamps, little bits of dirt and sediment that’s carried by the water gets caught in these little fissures in the cypress knees and the fibrous root systems, and then the seed floats by and you have other things popping up.” Koth explained.

“There’s some stinging nettle over there. We have Jule Weed. We have blueberry bushes over there. You know, blueberries don’t typically grow in water, so the cypress trees basically create that habitat and make it available for other species to come in here,” He pointed out the various plants growing under these cypress trees.

With having these micro islands, as Koth puts it, along with shade, you get more insects, birds, and more species of plants that can grow in that area.

“Most of the bird species that are back here, except for regular game birds that they have limits for, pretty much all birds are protected,” Koth listed the bird species, “We have the cormorants, bald eagles, ospreys, kingfishers, and they’re drawn here because we have such a healthy fish population.”

We were able to see some birds out on the water, as well as various turtle species.

“Most of the ones that you see out on the logs are either red bellies or painted turtles. But we do have a lot of mud turtles, musk turtles and even snapping turtles here at Trap Pond,” Koth Said.

Trap Pond has a uniquely healthy environment because of the cypress trees, but in cypress swamps further south, trees face saltwater intrusion and logging.

“Cypress trees outside of state parks and outside of protected areas. There’s no law against lumbering them. We’ve purchased it ourselves at the park to redo some of our pavilions and dams and things like that,” Koth said.

There are ways to help protect these trees, and that’s by reducing your carbon footprint, and conserving water.

“The biggest thing is to be aware of the cypress swamps. If you’re buying lumber or you want to get cypress lumber, look into where that lumber comes from and how it’s harvested, whether it’s harvested sustainably or not.” Koth explained.

Anyone can come out to view these trees on the water. For more information visit Delaware State Parks.