Before the arrival of white settlers, a vast swamp forest covered most of the Mississippi floodplain. The fertile soil supported the growth of huge trees, dominated by water-loving species such as burr oak, sycamore, silver maple and bald cypress. By the 1930s, timber production and drainage for agriculture had destroyed most of this rich forest and only scattered remnants persist today. Big Oak Tree State Park, in southeast Missouri, protects one of these, a 1007 acre stand of virgin swamp forest; the park is west of Missouri Route 102, 11.3 miles south of East Prairie.
Accessed by a boardwalk trail, the woodland harbors twelve State Champion Trees, two of which are National Champions. Permanent avian residents include pileated and red-headed woodpeckers, hooded mergansers, barred owls and wild turkey; during the warmer months, they are joined by hooded and prothonotary warblers, Mississippi kites, common yellowthroats, fish crows and Louisiana waterthrushes. The Park is one of the best places in Missouri to find Swainson's warblers, which nest in stands of giant cane that dot the understory. Mink, raccoons, white-tailed deer and river otters are among the floodplain mammals.
The loss of swamp forest and marshlands along the Mississippi has reduced the ecological diversity of the floodplain, eliminated the natural filtering that wetlands provide and increased the risk of flooding in other low-lying areas. Furthermore, the agricultural lands and industrial ports that have replaced them are a steady source of pollutants that make their way into the River and, eventually, into the Gulf of Mexico. Naturalizing the floodplain, to the extent possible, is an essential step toward restoring this vital ecosystem.
