CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A conservation group is buying about 1,300 acres of land that’s next to the Great Dismal Swamp in hopes of restoring it to the environmentally unique wetlands it once was.
The Virginian-Pilot reported Monday that Ducks Unlimited is a national nonprofit that bought the land in the city of Chesapeake. The group’s goal is to one day create a “conservation corridor” that could connect the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge to state-run Cavalier Wildlife Management Area.
The swamp was once an impenetrable morass where explorers vanished and runaway slaves escaped.
George Washington, the future U.S. president, kicked off generations of logging there before the swamp became a national wildlife refuge in 1974.
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