Cypress Trees at Jordan Lake

Over the years I have planted a lot of trees.  Catalpa trees grown from cuttings. Chestnuts, oaks, Osage Orange, Persimmon, and Honey Locust all grown from seeds. I also  have planted a lot of Cypress trees, probably in the neighborhood of several thousand in Jordan lake and some on the haw river on two tracts of family land.

Did I mention that I like to plant trees?....I started planting Cypress trees at Jordan  lake in the early 90's. I first started buying seedlings(100 to a bag) from a nursery and did this for several years and then I found out about 2 local area groups(The haw River Assembly, and the Sierra Club) that were buying  seedlings and planting them here also. I contacted them and helped them 1 year plant 4000 seedlings. A young forester named Brian and myself planted about 1000 of these. I have always planted these 2'-3' seedlings with their tips just sticking out of the water. These seedlings have done fine being planted this way except for 1 thing. Beavers!!!!

I plant them at a depth of 2-3 feet so one day they will have fish using them for cover. I have planted a few 6' trees at a depth of 3- 4 ft. Cypress trees can survive in water 6 ft deep if their tops are out of the water. Did I mention that I don't like beavers anymore?...Well probably 3900 plus most of the ones I purchased myself have been eaten. Fortunately some stands have done well. One stand that I planted myself is doing quite well. Beavers have eaten a few, but these have all sprouted back except for a couple of them. Hopefully one day I can witness an eagle or osprey nest in one of these.

Here are some of these cypress in the mid 90's

Click on the Pictures to enlarge them 

Here is the same stand looking the opposite way. This is late summer, early fall so the trees don't look bright green like they normally do. This picture was taken around 2004 or so.

Here is a picture this year(2009). Note... the water is down about 5'. Normally these trees would have water all around them. 

Here is another picture from farther away.

Here is one of the trees up close. Notice all the cones that this tree is producing. Also notice the root system. This stand has aprox 40 -50 trees and a couple of these are doing this. Great fish habitat as in the spring and early summer there are lots of minnows in these roots. I caught a 4lb bass under this tree early this year.

Hopefully next spring I can post a few pictures of these trees and also me with a few bass caught wading around these........Mack

NEW UPDATED PICTURE .....

This shot below was taken in May of 2010. Some of the trees in this stand are approaching 20 years old.

Updated May 2015

Here is a Google Earth "screen shot of the pond where these Cypress trees have done the best.
I can count over 60 trees. Look along the upper part of the pond and you can see the trees in the water!

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Updated January 2023

Some of these trees are now approaching ~30 years old and most are doing extremely well.  I have also every few years added several so there are some young ones there as well. 

Here is a recent Google earth shot.

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jordan lake cypress trees