Natural History

• Established to preserve and protect a unique wetland habitat type - the pocosin - and its associated wildlife species. (Pocosin is a Native American word meaning ''swamp-on-a-hill'' and is characterized by poorly drained soils high in organic material).
  
  
• Diversity of habitat types including high and low pocosin, bogs, fresh and brackish water marshes, hardwood swamps, and Atlantic white cedar swamps. Plant species include pitcher plants and sun dews, low bush cranberries, bays, Atlantic white cedar, pond pine, gums, red maple, and a wide variety of herbaceous and shrub species common to the East Coast.

• One of the last remaining strongholds for black bear on the Eastern Seaboard.
  
  
• Concentrations of ducks, geese, and swans; wildlife diversity includes wading birds, shorebirds, American woodcock, raptors, black bears, American alligators, white-tailed deer, raccoons, rabbits, quail, river otters, red wolves, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and neotropical migrants.
  
  
  
  Black bears by FWS Larry Wade