Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve
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Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve is a North Carolina state park in Moore County,
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Located near
Southern Pines, North Carolina Southern Pines is a town in Moore County, North Carolina, Moore County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 12,334 as of the 2010 United States Census. History Southern Pines was founded as a winter health resort for Northeastern U ...
, it covers in the Sandhills region of the state.


Geology

The unconsolidated sand of the Carolina Sandhills is mapped as the
Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...
Pinehurst Formation, and is interpreted as eolian (wind-blown) sand sheets and dunes that were mobilized episodically from approximately 75,000 to 6,000 years ago.


Human History

In the mid-18th century, when
Scottish Highlanders The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sc ...
settled in the Sandhills region, the vast forest consisted of original growth longleaf pines that reached heights of 100 to . Merchants cut the forests for timber and cultivated choice stands for use as masts for the Royal Navy ships. Merchants also harvested resin from the longleaf pines for the naval stores industry. Resin from longleaf pine yielded four basic products: tar, pitch, turpentine and rosin. By 1850, North Carolina's pine forests were producing one-third of the world's supply of naval stores.
Resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...
collected from elongated, inverted V-shaped cuts in the tree trunks was distilled into
turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...
. Turpentine was used as a solvent and illuminant.
Tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bit ...
, pitch and
rosin Rosin (), also called colophony or Greek pitch ( la, links=no, pix graeca), is a solid form of resin obtained from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers, produced by heating fresh liquid resin to vaporize the volatile liquid terpene comp ...
were used for sealing the hulls, decks, masts, ropes and riggings of sailing vessels. When railroads arrived in the Sandhills in the 1870s, large-scale logging and lumbering began. As a result of logging and naval stores operations, most of the virgin growth of longleaf pines had disappeared from the Sandhills by 1900. Many of the older trees that survive today bear prominent scars of this human exploitation. Early in the 20th century, the grandfather of James Boyd, a well-known North Carolina author, purchased a substantial tract of land east of Southern Pines to save the longleaf pines from logging. He named the estate Weymouth because the pines reminded him of trees in
Weymouth, England Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, on the English Channel coast of England. Situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey, south of the county town of Dorchester, Weymouth had a population of 53,427 in 2021. It is the third l ...
. In April 1963, Boyd's widow, Katharine, donated of land to the state, establishing the first natural area in the North Carolina state parks system. Additional land has been acquired, including a satellite area of known as the Boyd Round Timber Tract, which was added in 1977.


Ecology

James Creek, which bisects the preserve, is home to the rare
mud sunfish The mud sunfish (''Acantharchus pomotis'') is a freshwater ray-finned fish, a sunfish from the family Centrarchidae, which widely distributed in the fresh waters along the Atlantic coast of North America, ranging from New York to Alabama. It is t ...
and the sandhills chub, a fish native only to the Sandhills region. The creek is also home to
brown bullhead The brown bullhead (''Ameiurus nebulosus'') is a fish of the family Ictaluridae that is widely distributed in North America. It is a species of bullhead catfish and is similar to the black bullhead (''Ameiurus melas'') and yellow bullhead (''Am ...
, bluegill, and is nearly at the northernmost terminus for the dollar sunfish. The creek here, like most creeks in the region is described as a blackwater creek, a special environment characteristic of dark,
tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'', ...
-stained water as well as high acidity, allowing a range of unique species to flourish.


Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve Museum

The preserve's exhibit hall focuses on the natural history of the
longleaf pine The longleaf pine (''Pinus palustris'') is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as ...
forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
, including
geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...
, plants, animals and the use of
prescribed fires A controlled or prescribed burn, also known as hazard reduction burning, backfire, swailing, or a burn-off, is a fire set intentionally for purposes of forest management, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. A control ...
to maintain the forest. One exhibit highlights the use of pine
resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...
in the
naval stores industry The naval stores industry collects, processes, and markets forest products refined from the oleoresin of the slash pine and longleaf pine trees (genus ''Pinus''). The industry was associated with the maintenance of the wooden ships and sailing tac ...
.http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/wewo/activities.php Activities The museum is located in the park's visitor center and is open daily. Naturalists also offer
environmental education Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating discip ...
programs for the public and school groups.


References


External links

* {{authority control State parks of North Carolina Protected areas of Moore County, North Carolina Protected areas established in 1963 Museums in Moore County, North Carolina Natural history museums in North Carolina Forestry museums in the United States Nature centers in North Carolina 1963 establishments in North Carolina