the discovery of the marsh is credited to sir george somers and his crew from england on their voyage which was shipwrecked between two reefs just off the coast of bermuda in 1609. they were then the first to report on the dense primeval forest of cedar and palmetto found in the marsh lands of the island. another historical incident reported is of the destructive introduction of two scale insects, "lepidosaphes newsteadi" and "carulaspis minima", which caused extensive damage to cedar forest between 1946 and 1951. this reduced the extent of the cedar to just one percent of what had earlier existed. however, introduction of cedar resistant to them has enabled restoration to the extent of about ten percent now. further increase in growth has been inhibited on account of introduction of casuarina trees and other invasive plant species. yet the reserve is reported to be the "best surviving example of native cedar, palmetto, and mangrove forests."