North River Game Land
LOCATION:
Coastal Plain
Camden and Currituck Counties
SIZE IN ACRES:
14,937
INVOLVEMENT IN ACRES:
1,950
TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP:
Shiloh
Black bear (© Ken Taylor) |
Bobcat (© TNC) |
Topographical maps are available by contacting:
NC Geographical Survey.
1612 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1612.
(919) 715.9718
www.geology.enr.state.nc.us/
ACTIVITIES & AMENITIES:
Birding / Small Boats
OWNERSHIP & ACCESS:
N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission
1701 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1701
(919) 733-7291
SITE INFORMATION:
The North River wetlands complex is a large network of relatively pristine swamp forests and freshwater marshes encompassing over 30,000 acres. The North River Game Land contains Indiantown Creek Cypress Forest, a natural area with nearly 2,000 acres of relatively mature swamp forest and some areas of bottomland forest. The game land also contains about 90 acres of apparently virgin bald cypress. While bald cypress is a common tree in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain swamps, virgin stands are rare.
Other parts of the swamp are dominated by swamp tupelo, water tupelo, and pumpkin ash, with red maple in the understory. A slightly higher area supports a small remnant of the much rarer nonriverine wet hardwood forest community dominated by cherrybark oak, southern red oak, swamp chestnut oak, and water oak.
Containing no improved roads, the North River is an important wildlife corridor for large mammals like black bear and bobcat and provides extensive forested habitat for migratory songbirds like prothonotary and Swainson’s warblers.
CONSERVATION HIGHLIGHTS:
In early 1997, The Nature Conservancy acquired 1,421 acres of Indiantown Creek Cypress Forest and transferred it to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. This particular tract is contiguous with nearly 9,000 acres owned and managed by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. In 1998, the Conservancy purchased 529 acres along the North River from the Canal Wood Corporation that include high quality examples of Atlantic white cedar forest and tidal freshwater marsh, and transferred the property to the Wildlife Commission.
DIRECTIONS:
Portions of this area are featured in the Albemarle Region Canoe Trail system. Northeast of Camden, take US 158 and then go south on SR 1148. A marked canoe trail begins at a double culvert on SR 1148 and continues downstream past a boat ramp at the Camden-Currituck County line on SR 1147. This trail follows the headwaters of Indiantown Creek through beautiful hardwood and cypress swamps. The creek is slow moving, so it is easy to paddle upstream back to the put-in, or you may continue downstream to the wider sections of the river.
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