99-18CC Cypress In The Okefenokee Christmas CardThe trees shown in this painting are Bald Cypress, and although they are conifers, they are not an evergreen as they shed their leaves and small immature twigs each fall. The only other deciduous conifers are the Larches.Gazing out at the wilderness of the Okefenokee Swamp it's hard to imagine that a forest thick with fauna and wildlife was once home to hundreds of lumbermen who over 70 years ago cleared nearly 90 percent of the swamp, leaving only the timber stands that were not economically feasible to cut. Logging companies were cutting timber from the swamp before 1890; most of them were unsuccessful operations. At the turn of the century, Charles Hebard, with the help of his two sons Charles and Daniel, founded the Hebard Lumber Company in the southeastern part of Georgia. Based only on the amount of timber brought out of the swamp (over a billion board feet) one would be correct in surmising that the Hebard Lumber Company was a successful venture. But that success was not easily obtained. The Hebards spent 8 years buying additional acreage in the swamp, cruising timber, laying railroad track, incorporating two additional companies, building a mill, and hiring logging crews before the first board from the swamp was sawed in the winter of 1910. The Hebard Lumber Company did not repeat the mistakes of their predecessors. The Hebards intended only to log the swamp, not to drain and develop it. In 1938, they sold their Okefenokee Swamp holdings to the U.S. government. Actually, we owe a debt to the Hebards. If they hadn't taken the trees out, the government would have never bought the land. Alligators were plentiful in the Okefenokee Swamp until man hunted them almost to extinction, causing them to be placed on the list of endangered species. Alligators have since been removed from the list and have made a tremendous comeback. Although the swamp suffered the ravages of nature and man, the land continues to renew itself. (Thanks to the Georgia Forestry Commission for help with this story and oil painting.) |
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