State officials warn storm damage across 822,000 forested acres could raise wildfire danger for years while recovery planners search for funding, timber markets and mitigation strategies.
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By Annie Dance | Lake Lure News | Cops & Congress | News & Commentary
RUTHERFORDTON, N.C. — Western North Carolina is facing a growing wildfire threat in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, with state forestry officials warning that hundreds of thousands of acres of damaged timber could create dangerous fuel conditions for the next decade or longer.
During a May 21 meeting of the Resilience Subcommittee for the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC), forestry experts described a region struggling with unprecedented storm debris, aging timber infrastructure and mounting pressure on emergency response systems.
Michael Cheek, Regional Forester for more than 30 counties under Region 3 of the North Carolina Forest Service, said aerial surveys conducted after Helene estimated roughly 822,000 acres of damaged woodland across 25 counties in western North Carolina. About 75% of the damaged land is privately or state-owned.
Cheek said the danger is amplified because North Carolina leads the nation in what officials call the “wildland urban interface,” where homes and development are mixed within forests. GIS analysis presented during the meeting showed approximately 616,000 structures sit within Helene-damaged forest areas.
“We have homes, we have structures, we have where people live,” Cheek told committee members while discussing wildfire risk after Helene.
Officials described the debris left behind by Helene as a long-term hazard. Downed hardwood trees stacked across mountainsides dry slowly and burn hotter, increasing the intensity of future fires and making firefighting operations more dangerous.
Jonathan McCall, Southern Mountains Forest Manager at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said debris piles are blocking old access roads and former fire lines, complicating emergency response planning.
“It greatly increases the time that it takes for us to build those lines,” McCall said.
The storm also washed out roads traditionally used for fire suppression, forcing agencies to rethink wildfire containment strategies across mountain terrain.
State and federal agencies are now focused on fuel reduction efforts that include prescribed burns, mechanical debris removal and the construction of new fire breaks. Officials said more than 500 miles of access areas have already been cleared and approximately 2,000 acres have undergone fuel reduction work, with another 4,000-acre project planned near homes and critical infrastructure later this year.
But forestry officials acknowledged the scale of the problem far exceeds available resources.
“We can’t touch every single one of those homeowners or those landowners,” Cheek said while emphasizing the need for community engagement and private property mitigation efforts.
Officials also warned that western North Carolina’s struggling timber industry is complicating cleanup efforts.
McCall said the region has lost multiple timber mills in recent years, including the closure of the Canton paper mill, which once served as a major buyer for pulpwood and wood byproducts.
The collapse in timber markets has made salvage operations far less profitable even as mountainsides remain covered in fallen trees.
“A lot of that timber that is on the ground is decaying,” McCall said. “Even if we’re giving away salvage we’re not able to get the sales the way we’d like to see.”
Cheek added that the Canton closure created ripple effects throughout the region’s forest products economy because nearby mills historically depended on the facility to process pulpwood and sawmill residue.
Subcommittee members discussed potential economic opportunities tied to wood waste, including biochar production and wood pellet manufacturing, though officials cautioned that no single project can absorb the enormous volume of storm debris now spread across western counties.
Meanwhile, local governments and fire districts are updating Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP) aimed at identifying vulnerable neighborhoods, evacuation bottlenecks and mitigation priorities.
The plans include mapping water sources, fire access points, one-way-in and one-way-out communities and areas requiring vegetation management.
Melissa Patton, co-chair of the resilience subcommittee, said some counties hardest hit by Helene still lack funding to update all wildfire protection districts.
“Buncombe County, which was hit hard, only qualified for two fire districts to be updated,” Patton said.
Patton also serves as the Executive Director of Carolina Land & Lakes.
Officials repeatedly stressed that wildfire risks tied to Helene will likely persist for years.
Cheek said lessons from Hurricane Hugo in 1989 showed elevated wildfire conditions lasting 10 to 15 years in some areas of eastern NC. Western NC has heavier hardwood forests, and he said that some debris may take even longer to decay.
The meeting ended with officials discussing resiliency mapping, future funding requests, and continued coordination between local, state and federal agencies as the region enters another wildfire season still burdened by Helene’s aftermath.
Editor’s note: Read the transcript in the player above and/or on my DocumentCloud.
The meeting was cut off due to a loss of power at my home office during a storm. Yes, it was a bit eerie to cover a meeting about the resilience of major storms when that happened.
This story has been updated.
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