In Western North Carolina, the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests make up more than 1 million acres of trails, wilderness and trees that shape the culture and economy of the region. N.C. National Forest Supervisor James Melonas has his work cut out for him after Hurricane Helene damaged about 20% of the forests, including 117,000 acres of vegetation loss.
According to a report from the Forest Service, in addition to the ecological damage to both National Forests, nearly 900 miles of Forest Service-managed roads and about 800 miles of trails were damaged, with several completely washed away.
More than six months after the storm, the Forest Service is focused on community safety near the forests, rebuilding critical infrastructure, and dealing with wildfire risks, Melonas said in an interview with BPR.
“We've been approaching our recovery efforts on the Nantahala and Pisgah really focused on the importance of the Nantahala-Pisgah for the overall recovery for Western North Carolina from the hurricane,” he said.
The Pisgah National Forest took the brunt of the damage particularly in Yancey, Mitchell, McDowell, and Avery counties, according to reports. A report on where Helene damage would increase wildfire risks has been a big part of the recovery work along with assessments from the Southern Research Station and the N.C. Forest Service, Melonas said.
He said priority is to reduce fire risk in sensitive areas near communities and infrastructure with a lot of blowdown and debris.
The recent wildfires were not caused by just Helene debris, Melonas explained, but that the confluence of factors such as the weather and accessibility issues because of debris and landslides made fighting the fires harder. He said he expects this debris to increase risks in the future.
“It's still going to take a while for a lot of those big heavy fuels to dry out. So it's not only an issue right now, it's going to continue to be a bigger issue this fall [and] next year,” Melonas said.
Melonas said that additional resources were in place before the recent fires such as the incident management teams.
“A lot of those resources we had brought in [were] prepositioned and it wasn't, a day or two later that they were sent out to respond to those fires,” Melonas said.
Rain over the weekend helped contain the majority of fires in Western North Carolina.
National Forest management of downed timber
An October report from the Forest Service estimated 822,000 acres of timberland received some level of damage during the storm. Based on timber prices, that would result in an estimated $214,000,000 of timber damage on all North Carolina forest lands, according to the report. Most of this damage, 78% according to the report, took place on private lands with 21% on public land and about 1 % on reserved lands like parks.
Part of the Forest Service’s role in land management is to sell forest products including timber. Goals for timber sales are identified in the strategic plans for each forest as well as national goals set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service.
The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit last week alleging that the logging goals in the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan, the 2023 strategic planning document for the forests, violates federal law.
In March, the U.S. Forest Service offered salvage timber contracts to remove “downed but still commercially usable trees left in the wake of Hurricane Helene” in about 2,300 acres of the Pisgah National Forest.
“It's really about reducing that immediate fire risk. We're not, you know, we're not really focused at this point on the kind of longer-term forest restoration, which will come,” Melonas said. “Some of these areas like just every tree has been blown over and there's just simply no safe way to access a lot of these areas without doing some of that mechanical work.”
Melonas said this timber salvage is important to clean up forests.
“We're reducing that fire risk to communities and infrastructure, and then giving our firefighters and our forest managers the ability…to have a little bit of breathing room for the next phase of restoration work,” he said.
Timber salvage usually has to go through an extensive National Environmental Policy Act guidelines. Melonas said this salvage is part of an emergency authorization.
“Because of that significant risk to public safety, there's some emergency authorities to expedite that type of recovery work,” Melonas said. He explained that the Forest Service did still consult with the N.C. Fish and Wildlife Service and on cultural sources with the State of Historic Preservation Office.
“Those types of emergency authorities aren't necessarily unique to the Forest Service given the unprecedented impacts from the storm. Those types of emergency authorities have been used because of the state of emergency in Western North Carolina,” he said.
But critics said this relaxing of standards is unacceptable.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins sent out a memo calling for an increase in timber outputs, simplification of permitting and more to improve wildfire safety.
“Healthy forests require work, and right now, we’re facing a national forest emergency. We have an abundance of timber at high risk of wildfires in our National Forests,” Rollins said in a press release.
Long term recovery
Much of the work for the Forest Service is still focused on recovery.
“We're working on longer term solutions so that folks are able to get to the forest and also get to their homes and businesses and things which is the continuing work that we've been doing since the storm,” Melonas said.
Looking toward long-term recovery, Melonas said the Forest Service is already thinking about the impacts of the storm on watershed restoration, restoring forest conditions for native species and important ecological areas.
“For instance, Roan Mountain is a really important biodiversity hotspot where we have remnant spruce fir forest that were impacted greatly,” Melonas said.
The Forest Service is also working with local partners to open more trails in time for spring.
“We know how important these forests are for kind the fabric of what makes in Western North Carolina special so that continues to be our focus and working with our communities towards that long-term recovery,” Melonas said.
