BLADEN COUNTY — An ancient tree forest was identified inside the 60-mile-long Black River in Bladen County. (You can view Port City Daily’s photo gallery from inside the ancient tree forest below.)
University of Arkansas’ Dr. David Stahle, distinguished professional and world-renowned dendrochronologist, revealed his research Thursday, which dates one bald cypress on The Nature Conservancy’s Bladen County property back to 605 B.C.
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“You’ve got millennium old trees — multi-millennium old trees — cheek to jowl, all around here,” Stahle said Thursday.
The bald cypress can be found all along the Cape Fear region, but deep in the Black River, a forest has remained untouched for centuries.
Less than an hour from Wilmington, the tree forest contains the oldest known wetland species in the world, the fifth oldest tree species in the world.
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