The Friends of the Congaree Swamp

The Friends of the Congaree Swamp is a conservation organization that plans trail cleanups, makes recommendations to South Carolina DHEC when appropriate, and is dedicated to the conservation of this treasured part of South Carolina’s ecology; the newsletters they share keep us abreast of current affairs and upcoming opportunities. Recently, President John Grego said we could take advantage of the extreme drought we’d had and could walk into the Congaree National Park to areas usually only accessibly by boat where we could see some of the giant cypress trees growing there. He pointed out other trees found in those associations which included water tupelo, Nyssa sylvatica, and eastern cottonwood, Populus deltoides. Cottonwoods can grow almost anywhere, but they are happiest and best adapted for areas that are occasionally flooded, just the environment where we were walking.