The Forest Service is just beginning to assess the damage the remnants of Hurricane Helene brought to North Carolina’s national forests — but a yearslong recovery appears to be in the making.
The Pisgah National Forest near Asheville remains closed, and the Nantahala National Forest to the southwest is only partially open, the Forest Service said.
A spokesperson for the agency, Scott Owen, said the 512,000-acre Pisgah forest in particular was heavily impacted. Forest managers and emergency response teams are still in a “life and safety” mode before moving on to recovery and damage assessments.
Landslides have reshaped the geography in parts of the Pisgah, said Will Harlan, Southeast director and senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity, who lives nearby and was trapped at home with his family due to a landslide triggered by a tornado.
