This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
New funding from the state Department of Environmental Quality is set to help a small town slow down floodwaters naturally.
Clyde, North Carolina has seen devastating damage from extreme storms over the past twenty years — Helene, in 2024, was just the most recent. Repeated rains from named storms like Ivan and Francis in 2004 and Fred in 2021 caused severe flooding, scouring riverbanks and inundating homes and businesses.
Now, a little more than $210,000 from the DEQ will restore native plants along just over a half mile of the stream, stabilizing almost five acres next to the Pigeon River by planting native trees and shrubs. Stuart Brown, program manager for DEQ’s flood resiliency work, said river restoration has more than one public benefit.
“One of the reasons that we invest in nature-based solutions where it is appropriate is because it can be effective at reducing flooding downstream,” Brown said. “It can also benefit things like water quality and fishing, wildlife habitat and recreation.”
This funding is part of the Flood Resiliency Blueprint, a statewide effort to head off future flooding by working with the state’s most flood-vulnerable communities. The Blueprint includes funding for environmental restorations like the one in Clyde, as well as guidance for local governments, scenario planning and modeling for future disasters, and technical support for local governments. They’re working within six watersheds in the state, including the French Broad River, into which the Pigeon flows.
The support, along with supplementary funding, will help the environmental nonprofit Haywood Waterways plant several hundred trees throughout the new park. Preston Jacobsen, the organization’s executive director, told BPR past storms have caused the area successive damage.
As the climate warms and the air continues to hold more moisture, heavier rains and more extreme storms are likely to cause more floods in the southern Appalachian mountains. But Jacobsen hopes mitigation measures can keep people safer even in a future of increasing severe weather.
"You'll see a majority of that tree line along the bank be removed but replanted,” Jacobsen said, with native plants next to the water “that wouldn't snag as much debris, say, during a Fred or Helene even.” The project will stabilize eroded riverbanks and restore native riverside vegetation in hopes of both slowing floodwaters and reducing debris in the future.
This is the second phase of the River’s Edge Park project in Clyde, which employed similar flood mitigation strategies. The park was built as both a recreation area and a flood channel with support from FEMA after 2004 flooding destroyed the homes that previously stood there. It’s now planted with ancient, deep-rooted native species like river cane, which retain and filter water, and help keep soil from eroding. The new planting area is in a portion of the riverbank that saw buyouts after 2021’s Hurricane Fred.
Clyde has seen major revenue losses over the past few years, including the $2 million loss of the papermill in Canton, where many Clyde residents worked. Waves of buyouts resulting from storm damage over the years have reduced available living space, with 40 buyouts taking place in Haywood County after Fred. Clyde’s mayor, Jim Trantham, said the buyouts were worrying. However, he’s happy about the new direction for the Pigeon River waterfront. “That'll prevent people from getting so much damage, and in the end, be better for Clyde and its residents,” Trantham said.
The town is also building a new subdivision on higher ground and working with the Economic Development Administration to elevate its downtown buildings.
