Some of the oldest trees in the world are found right here in North Carolina. The enchanting swampland of the Black River is home to bald cypress trees that are thousands of years old. One tree, named BLK227, dates back beyond the year 600 B.C., making it the fifth oldest tree in the world.
The oldest known living bald cypress tree in the world clocks in at 2,629 years old. To put that in perspective, this tree is older than the Roman empire. Charles Robbins of Cape Fear River Adventures in Wilmington brings people to take in the wonder of this tree every week.
“So I started coming in and gotten myself familiar with the area at different water levels and I started bringing people in,” Robbins said. “First in canoes, and more canoes, and then kayaks, and it sort of grew from there.”
For Robbins, the Black River is a very special place.
“These old trees,” he said, “They have a presence.”
It’s not just BLK227. It’s not uncommon to find a bald cypress in the Three Sisters area over 1,000 years old. Robbins and other scientists have been coring these trees for years now, a process that allows them to count a tree’s rings without having to cut it down.
“The way you do that is walk around in here with a hammer and you beat on the tree above the buttress swell, the flare at the bottom,” Robbins said. “And then if you have a solid sound, you core.”
Some of the cypress trees along the Black River are hollow — something that happened about a millennium ago when a storm ripped off their canopies.
“I can’t imagine if they had not lost their canopy,” he said. “I mean it was huge canopies, monstrous canopies, and I can’t imagine what this place would have looked like.”
Because some of the trees are hollow, they can’t be cored. That means there’s no way to prove that they’re not as old — if not older — than BLK227.
“There are lots of trees in here, a lot older than that,” Robbins said. “But you can’t give a date because there’s no rings.”
That’s why BLK227 is the oldest known living bald cypress. Still, these trees are thought to be at least 1,000 years old. It’s that age that makes 74-year-old Robbins feel connected to these ancient trees.
“I feel like I’m part of that age,” he said. “And I don’t know if there’s a past life if that’s such a thing, but I just feel really good in here.”
It is a place that Robbins and others consider a wonder. However, it’s not a protected area, meaning these trees can be harvested.
Robbins is an active member in many research and conservation organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, which has helped preserve 17,000 acres of these cypress forests — but thousands of acres are still at risk of disappearing.
“There were 44 million acres of cypress up and down the East Coast in the beginning, and now there’s less than 10,000,” he said. “It was all cut down, and now they’re still cutting down cypress to make mulch in the yard.”
Robbins says a bald cypress is a symbol of perseverance.
“They’re living in fairly nothing, the nutrient value there is very low. We’re in dead sand, a real acidic environment,” he said. “They can handle being totally hollow and half of the body of the tree gone, and it still makes seeds. There’s not many trees that can live in an environment like this and not just die.”
Robbins hopes that with conservation and education efforts, everyone will be able to experience the beauty and majesty of these trees at some point in their life.
“This tree… this is different than the Sequoias, this is different than George Kilmer, this is different than the great white pines of Upstate New York,” Robbins said. “These things are so much older, and you see it, and you wonder, and that’s what you’re supposed to do, you’re supposed to wonder.”
Robbins will take you to see the fifth oldest tree in the world with his Cape Fear River Adventures Co. You can take a kayak or canoe tour with him to the Three Sisters and fest your eyes on this piece of living history.
Many organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, the Ancient Bald Cypress Consortium and the Cape Fear River Watch that can teach you more about these trees and how you can help with conservation efforts.
