The U.S. Forest Service is working to begin reopening parts of the Pisgah National Forest following significant damage from Tropical Storm Helene. 

While sections of the Pisgah Ranger District may reopen sooner, extensive recovery efforts continue across the region, particularly in the hardest-hit Appalachian and Grandfather ranger districts.

The Appalachian Ranger District includes forest land along the North Carolina and Tennessee border, stretching from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Roan Mountain in Avery County.

The Grandfather Ranger District includes forest land east of Asheville to Blowing Rock, bordered by the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Pisgah Ranger District station is located near Brevard, southwest of Asheville.

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Sections of the 531,000 acre Nantahala National Forest, located in counties in far southwestern North Carolina reopened on Friday.  

Throughout Western North Carolina other heavily visited public land units also remained closed including the entire 250-mile section of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina; DuPont State Forest in Transylvania County and Mountain Mitchell State Park. Some roads and areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are also closed. 

National Forests in North Carolina supervisor James Melonas told CPP on Sunday that portions of the Pisgah National Forest sustained heavy damage.“We’re still getting a sense of the impacts,” he said. “Right now we’ve been focused on the emergency response. We’ve seen large areas of blow downs of trees and landslides; major impacts to campgrounds, trails, bridges and other infrastructure that provide access to the forest.”

A Forest Service type-II incident management team, known as a “blue team”, is providing the overall emergency response coordination and logistical support. Incident management teams respond to large-scale disasters, including fires and hurricanes. 

“They are the best of the best,” Melonas said. “It’s been a really incredible effort.” 

Initially, the Forest Service prioritized access to critical infrastructure and to residents in and around the Pisgah National Forest. 

For example, following the storm, US Forest Service, NC Forest Service, and Haywood County emergency personnel were able to access a critical communication site on top of Mount Pisgah southwest of Asheville powered by a back-up generator.

“It was hours from losing fuel and is an incredible story of the types of things that our folks and partners were doing in the aftermath of the storm,” he said. All Forest Service personnel, he added, are safe and accounted for. There are 224 employees in the Nantahala, Pisgah or Asheville supervisor office.

Many Forest Service employees, he said, were also focused on supporting the communities in which they live.

“The same people who are helping their communities with our emergency response are also victims of this terrible storm,” Melonas said. 

“We’re providing resources and peer support to ensure that our employees are not only physically safe, but in terms of mental health, getting the support they need.”

The Forest Service also concentrated resources to open access to isolated communities in and around the National Forest.

Among them is Mortimer, a small rural community on Wilson Creek in the Grandfather Ranger District in western Caldwell County. The 23-mile-long federally designated Wild and Scenic River cuts through private land and land managed by the U.S. Forest Service, Caldwell County and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. 

Its headwaters form on the eastern flank of Grandfather Mountain in Avery County.

Once bustling with hundreds of residents, Mortimer was established in 1908 by the W.M Ritter Lumber Company. However, a massive flood in 1916, followed by another in 1940, marked the end of its prosperity.

Wes Waugh, who leads A Clean Wilson Creek, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the stewardship of the area, said this storm has once again devastated the sparsely populated area that has become a popular recreation destination for hikers, swimmers, paddlers and mountain bikers.

Several sections of Brown Mountain Beach Road, one of the area’s primary access corridors, and at least one bridge are washed out. Vegetation in the zone along the river was scraped away by the flooding. Remnants of the old lumber mill site, Waugh said, were also destroyed by the storm

“It looks like it’s been bombed out,” he said. “It’s just mayhem. The last great flood here was 84 years ago; I think it’s probably going to eclipse that one in scale significantly.”

In recent years, Wilson Creek experienced increased visitation, in particular, from Hispanic residents of nearby Piedmont cities, including Lenoir, Morganton, Gastonia and Charlotte.

Despite concerns about environmental impacts and overcrowding, Waugh’s organization in partnership with the Forest Service served as a model for collective cooperation, emphasizing the importance of protecting the resource while ensuring equitable access and responsible use.

In September, the Wilson Creek Action Plan was released by a collaborative group of public and private organizations to address visitation issues and support stewardship.

“It’s just kind of bizarre to think about us going up and down the river handing out garbage bags, picking up diapers and beer bottles when you now have refrigerators, propane tanks and houses all down miles of river,” he said.  

“It’s just devastatingly sad. The main thing right now is to focus on what’s right in front of your face, which is the humanitarian needs and trying to figure out how to get the communities functional to the degree possible before we even look at anything else.”

Among Waugh’s concerns is that people will return to recreate in the area before it’s safe to access and ahead of their capacity to once again steward the area. Waugh is working with local organizations to share the word that the area will likely be unsafe and inaccessible for the foreseeable future.

The Forest Service is also sharing information regarding openings and closures on their website. 

Among them is a delayed opening of bear-hunting season in the Pisgah National Forest as the Forest Service continues to clear roads to recreation areas and infrastructure.

Licensed bear-hunting began on Monday in North Carolina.

“Hunters are welcome on three of the four national forests in North Carolina, but trying to hunt on the Pisgah right now will only slow that work,” Melonas said. “We need everyone’s help to ensure we can reopen the Pisgah to all visitors quickly and safely.”

Melonas said US Forest Service partners, such as A Clean Wilson Creek, will play a critical role in the recovery of the National Forest. Reopening recreational resources and rebuilding infrastructure is a top priority, Melonas emphasized, since many businesses and livelihoods depend on access to the region’s national forests.

“We’re getting closer to the point where we’ve done what we can do in terms of that emergency response, and then move into a recovery phase,” he said. “That’s going to be much longer term.”

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Photo by Rifqi Ramadhan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photography-of-waterfalls-between-trees-788200/