The Pisgah Conservancy has been awarded a 4.5-year, nearly $8 million grant from the National Forest Foundation on behalf of the USDA Forest Service.

This grant will support the repair and maintenance of trails, trail bridges and other trail infrastructure, as well as ecosystem recovery through invasive plant management, streambank stabilization, erosion control and watershed stewardship and education. 

Lake Junaluska and Wilderness Trail, a long-time adventure and backpacking ministry, have joined forces to launch a new satellite program at Lake Junaluska June 6–11.

Based in Troutdale, Virginia, with an office at First United Methodist Church of Waynesville, Wilderness Trail has a 39-year history of leading backpacking trips for middle school and high school students in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in Virginia.

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission have entered into a $290 million Good Neighbor Agreement to support Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in Western North Carolina. The agreement — the largest of its kind for the Forest Service — will speed up recovery efforts, create new jobs, reduce overall costs and strengthen communities impacted by the hurricane. 

The Center for Biological Diversity and MountainTrue are suing the federal government, seeking to ensure laws are followed where they claim the U.S. Forest Service is skirting regulations in allowing the logging of a 135-acre parcel in the Nolichucky Gorge near the small Poplar community on the border between Yancey and Mitchell counties. 

The National Forest Service, housed under the United States Department of Agriculture, plans to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule instated by President Bill Clinton to protect national forests’ roadless acres. 

Drawing opposition from 99% of public commenters, this recission is part of a series of opaque federal actions and policies instituted in the face of significant public outcry. 

The Pisgah and Cherokee National Forests are inviting outfitter and guide companies to apply for permits to operate on the Nolichucky River. The Forest Service has released a prospectus for new permits covering rafting, kayaking and other whitewater activities along the section of river shared by North Carolina and Tennessee, open from mid-May to late October. 

As the federal government shutdown continues, North Carolina residents may be left with a patchwork of closures, service limitations and uncertainty across the region’s parks, forests and federal agencies. While some federal programs will continue without interruption, others have scaled back operations, leaving communities in the state’s westernmost counties to rely on a mix of official websites and local offices for updates.

The ideal habitat of the Eastern hellbender that Tracy Davids described was pretty much what she saw on Tuesday morning as she stood ankle-deep in the Davidson River. 

“Relatively shallow, fast-moving, highly oxygenated water because (hellbenders) breathe through their skin,” said Davids, senior southeast representative for the Defenders of Wildlife environmental organization.

The signs are still there lining the fragile bank separating Interstate 40 from the Pigeon River — chunks of jagged asphalt, wayward pipes, rusty cables bent into submission by nature. 

Just 11 months ago, as Hurricane Helene mercilessly swamped the whole region, the river, now low and calm, was force-fed by its tributaries and swelled to the point it carried away 10 sections of I-40’s eastbound lanes over about a five-mile stretch near the Tennessee border.

The USDA Forest Service announced that several trails and recreation sites damaged by Hurricane Helene have reopened across the Appalachian Ranger District on the Pisgah National Forest. With the support of partners and volunteers, the Forest Service has successfully cleared 227 miles of trails on the Appalachian Ranger District since the storm struck last year, accounting for 70 percent of the district’s trails.