What's so special about
 THE GREEN SWAMP IN N.C?

quiet marsh in Green Swamp is home to many species     If all the pictures do not load, click refresh

  UPDATE

This website was created in the year 2000 to call attention to the unique value of the Green Swamp in North Carolina and to raise the alert that a mega-landfill was being planned for this exceedingly unsuitable location.  People who care about the Green Swamp have rallied together, and seven years later, the landfill project is still nothing more than a pipe dream.  Click HERE for the story behind the story.

The Green Swamp is recognized as an important and unique environment by: (1) The Nature Conservancy, (2) The North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, (3) The North Carolina Parks and Wildlife Department, (4) The National Wilderness Preservation System, (5) The United Nations' Biosphere Reserve Program, and (6) the National Natural Landmark Program of the U.S. Park Service. Surely these guys can't all be wrong.   Yet the Riegel Ridge Corporation is petitioning the State of North Carolina to place a LANDFILL at Clewis Corner.

pitcher plant, aka Jack-in-pulpit near Clewis Corner     cypress knees at Lake Waccamaw

Venus Flytrap
Photo courtesy of 
Dr. Sarah C. Goslee, Ecologist

 Fourteen species of rare carnivorous plants, including the Venus flytrap, are indigenous to the Green Swamp.  The endangered red-cockaded woodpecker lives here, as well as black bear and bobcat.  The Nature Conservancy has a page on the Green Swamp Preserve, which is just below the Columbus and Brunswick County line.  

Consider the following:

1. Lake Waccamaw State Park is approximately 4 miles NW from the site;

2. The Nature Conservancy has its largest Nature Conservancy reserve in North Carolina about 3.5 miles SE of this site;

3. NC Natural Heritage Trust is planning to purchase an area ecologically identical to the proposed landfill site that lies about 2.5 miles to the west;

4. The Honey Island watershed that would be polluted by runoff from a landfill site at Clewis Corner will affect many areas:
a. Honey Island empties into Little Swamp;
b. Little Swamp empties into Juniper Creek;
c. Juniper Creek empties into Waccamaw River;
d. Waccamaw River traverses 110 miles from Juniper Creek in North Carolina to Georgetown, South Carolina;
e. More than 500,000 citizens of both North and South Carolina will be drinking water that came out of the landfill.

5. Unexplored sites of the earliest settlements of this part of North Carolina dating to no later than 1790 are close in proximity to the proposed site. Importantly, the proposed site will destroy remnants of a settlement that dates to the 1840's.

rare human species may also be endangered by proposed landfill    footprint among cypress knees at Lake Waccamaw

Friends of the Green Swamp (FOGS)

 photographed on landfill site property
Photo courtesy of
Mason B. Malpass

 Interested in attending upcoming meetings to discuss the landfill and present concerns to county and state leaders?  Don't miss out on important FOGS information and events!  email Mason Malpass, Co-Chairman of FOGS, at mbmalp@netzero.net.
??? ON THE FENCE? ??? 
Click HERE for a very interesting list of questions and issues compiled by Forrest Riggs for those who are "on the fence" about the proposed landfill. 

Green Swamp Photos & Graphics

Looks pretty wet to us. . . 
Photos of proposed landfill site underwater in hurricane and normal conditions.
Photos taken by Grady Simmons.  Click HERE
Come Stroll With Me. . . 
Nature Photos Taken at the Proposed Landfill Site
See cypress, pitcher plants, and Venus flytraps on this special tour, photographed by Mason Malpass.  Click HERE.
Topographical Map
Click here for a TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP of the area of the proposed landfill. This map was generated by http://www.mapquest.com.


NC Floodplain
Mapping Program

 Floodplain Map
Click here for a FLOODPLAIN MAP of the area of the proposed landfill. Or visit the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program site.

Landfill Information

DID YOU KNOW that "FREE" garbage disposal means free to the COUNTY, not to YOU . . .  a few things that Reigel Ridge and your commissioners would rather you did not know.
LANDFILL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, compiled by Lee Hinnant, News Editor, THE NEWS REPORTER.

Kindred Links

GROUPS WHO CARE: Others have been concerned about the Green Swamp long before the County Commissioners decided it would be cool to bury it under trash.  Click HERE for kindred links. 

Writings about the Green Swamp

BALANCED COMPENSATION: A visit to the landfill site evokes memories of long ago.  Click HERE for article. 

This Website is brought to you by two cousins who grew up in the Green Swamp: 
D. Wint and Bert Little, Ph.D.    
Upd. October 2007  


sign near Clewis Corner marks Green Swamp ecological reserve

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