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In a significant move to address the repercussions of Helene on wildlife and local outdoor industries, the Forest Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) have forged a substantial partnership. This collaboration marks the largest good-neighbor agreement between the two agencies, focusing on recovery and future preparedness.
The initiative will be funded by $290 million from the federal American Relief Act, enacted in December 2024. The agencies plan to utilize these funds by creating a temporary 90-person division over the next decade to oversee restoration activities.
Historically, the NCWRC and the Forest Service have worked together on various projects, such as controlled burns and brook trout restoration. However, the extensive damage caused by Helene has necessitated a more robust approach, as noted by James Melonas, National Forest supervisor for North Carolina.
Melonas highlighted the importance of restoring infrastructure critical to the region’s outdoor economy, stating, “We kind of had a double whammy with the time of year when the storm happened, which was right in the busiest part of outdoor recreation and visits to Western North Carolina.” The restoration efforts will focus on repairing trails, access points, and other facilities.
Doug Besler, chief of Helene restoration at NCWRC, emphasized the need for resilience in the face of future challenges. “Western North Carolina has got a tremendous number of people that live here and recreate in the forest, and that use continues, and we have impacts from climate change,” Besler explained. “All of those things make us really take stock in terms of thinking how do we build stuff better?”
The funding will also support the creation of wildlife corridors, improvement of trails, evaluation of trout populations, and reassessment of road and parking designs to enhance flood safety. Besler expressed particular concern for vulnerable species such as the Appalachian elktoe mussel and the cerulean warbler.
Reflecting on the challenges faced, Besler noted, “Even in 2025, it was a challenge to get access to a lot of locations, even where we knew populations were. So the first year or so, there’s going to be a lot of assessment going out there and trying to find where these populations are and try to determine and what the impacts to them were.”
