Due to the nutrient-rich soils present in swamps, many of these fertile woodlands have been drained and cleared for agriculture and other development. Over 70 percent of the Nation's floodplain forested swamps have been lost. Historically, swamps have been portrayed as frightening no-man's-lands. This perception led to the vast devastation of immense tracts of swampland over the past 200 years, such as the destruction of more than half of the legendary Great Dismal Swamp of southeastern Virginia.