A Western North Carolina forest with some of the oldest trees in the nation suffered a 3,000-plus-acre wildfire earlier this month, but its stand of tulip poplars – and the memorial forest, steeped in history – were spared.
The Haoe Lead Fire in Graham County started in the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest and threatened the area’s 400-year-old trees, said Cheoah and Tusquittee District Ranger Brian Browning of the U.S. Forest Service.
“This is the trailhead for the Jenkins Meadow trail. The lightning strike was actually right along this trail where the fire started,” Browning told BPR when a reporter visited the area shortly after fires were largely contained.
The fire was in the over 17,000-acre Joyce Kilmer-Slick Rock Wilderness area, which spans North Carolina and Tennessee.
Protected as a wilderness area since 1975, no motorized or mechanical vehicles or equipment are allowed in the area – and this typically includes firefighters, Browning explained.
Firefighters in other areas are able to use bulldozers, chainsaws and other tools. In wilderness areas, firefighters need special permission to use any mechanized tools, even a leaf blower.
During the recent wildfire, Browning said they got permission to use chainsaws in parts of the forest because of the dry conditions. There were also many other fires in the area and potential loss of private property. The firefighters also got permission to pump water from the nearby creek to fight the fire, along with their normal water trucks and air drops.
The wilderness area designation means that the natural state of the forest is protected. Trails are maintained with "primitive standards” and there are few signs. Necessary trail maintenance is done with hand tools.
“This is a place here in the Southern Appalachians [that], for all intents and purposes, has not been touched,” Browning said.
While there has been logging in parts of the forest, the forest includes one of the oldest stands of virgin trees in the country.
Over 400-year-old trees safe in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest
The old-growth grove is partially on the Memorial Loop Trail in the forest. The stand of mostly tulip poplars includes trees that are more than 20 feet in circumference and tower 100 feet over the trail.
The fire was just two miles from the Memorial Loop Trail, so the fire crews had to act fast to protect the trees.
“Our plans early on involved planning what we would do if we needed to protect the grove and it went very well, very smoothly and the firefighters did a tremendous job working in that area to ensure fire didn't get over into the grove,” Browning said.
That grove, which is one of the oldest in the country, is what drew Dick Evans to Graham County over 50 years ago. He remembers first visiting the area in the early 1970s before buying a cabin in the 1980s to eventually retire to the area.
“It's a very special place for most everybody and that produces a lot of passion about the area,” Evans said, recalling camping trips with his wife and son.
“It's really amazing that you see people of my age or anything younger going out there and hugging trees,” Evans said.
Volunteers maintain Joyce Kilmer legacy and trails
Evans, now 77, is the president of the Joyce Kilmer Partners, a volunteer organization that manages some of the area trails. He goes out to the Memorial Loop about twice a week and is thankful that the old-growth forest was unharmed.
“Old-growth forests are important because they were a tremendous carbon sump. They collect a lot of carbon from the air, which is a very important thing,” Evans said.
The partners started in 2002 and he has been president for about a decade. Evans says there are about 300 members. The group works on trail maintenance, public education and advocacy for the forest.
“There's a visceral feeling that most everybody gets when you go into a large forest with lots of old trees,” he said.
The partners also share the history of the forest with schools and visitors as part of their mission.
The forest is named for Joyce Kilmer, a journalist and poet who was killed in action during World War I. He wrote a well-known poem, “Trees” for his mother-in-law. He was honored after his death by the federal government through a request by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
“Just coming out of the recession or the depression, whichever you'd like to call it, I think the country was looking for heroes. Kilmer certainly was one,” Evans said.
He says the forest was dedicated by the Secretary of Agriculture in 1936.
“At the time, it was believed to be the largest old-growth section of forest in the east. Since then, there are stories that there are a couple of smaller ones in Maine or something like that, but it certainly is the major one that's east of the Mississippi,” he said.
Evans was also in the military, as was his son, who recently retired after 30 years in the Army. He says this furthers his connection to the forest.
He hopes that the forest will reopen soon and says he’s ready to get back out on the trail in time for trillium season.
