North Carolina has secured nearly $65 million over the next decade to tackle one of Hurricane Helene's most dangerous leftovers: mountains of downed timber that officials say could fuel wildfires for years to come. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and the North Carolina Forest Service signed the 10-year Good Neighbor Agreement to accelerate cleanup across the state's storm-battered national forests and the private land that borders them.
The agreement, reported by Smoky Mountain News, will let the N.C. Forest Service reduce hazardous fuels across storm-impacted wildland-urban interface areas and develop strategies for the non-native and invasive species that tend to spread after large-scale disturbances like Helene. North Carolina's agriculture commissioner, Steve Troxler, said in a statement released by the NC Department of Agriculture that the deal uniquely allows hazardous fuel reduction work on private property in disaster-affected counties, so long as projects meet shared management goals with federal land managers.
That cross-boundary reach matters because most of the damage from Helene never happened on public land in the first place. An N.C. Forest Service damage appraisal found the storm caused $214 million in timber losses across roughly 822,000 acres statewide, and 78 percent of that damaged timberland sat on private property, according to the same appraisal reported by 828 News NOW. The outlet's report on the forest service assessment also found McDowell County absorbed the heaviest losses at an estimated 130,805 acres, followed by Buncombe County at 89,440 acres and Avery County at 74,437 acres.
A Fire Risk That Could Linger for Decades
According to the Smoky Mountain News account, Helene downed tens of thousands of timber across the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests, and officials say that wood now sits as an unprecedented level of wildfire fuel threatening nearby homes and communities. N.C. Forest Service public information officer Philip Jackson warned in a report by NationGraph News that the cured woody debris left behind has created an elevated wildfire hazard across Western North Carolina that could persist for 10 to 20 years.
The same debris has also become a safety problem for the people meant to fight any fires that do break out. An N.C. Forest Service release reported by the state agriculture department noted that storm debris and landscape alterations in the national forests have created critical access barriers for emergency crews, putting firefighters at risk ahead of peak fire seasons.
Greg Hicks, named in the Smoky Mountain News report, said Good Neighbor Authority and agency and community partnerships are critical tools for forest and community restoration and wildfire preparedness. He said the agencies respond to disasters to protect the public and forest resources, and that years of recovery and mitigation work were expected to reduce the increased wildfire risk across Western North Carolina. Hicks also said recovery needs required substantial funding and manpower.
Part of a Bigger Federal Push
The newly signed agreement builds on a partnership between the USDA Forest Service and North Carolina Forest Service that the Smoky Mountain News report describes as spanning decades, with forest service leadership reaching out to the state's four national forests to coordinate a response after Helene. Officials expect the deal to increase the pace of forest restoration and bring new job opportunities to the region.
It also follows a separate 10-year, $290 million Good Neighbor Agreement the USDA Forest Service signed in February with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to repair infrastructure, restore wildlife habitats, and reduce wildfire risks in Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, according to Audubon. Combined, the two agreements push total federal investment in the state's post-Helene forest recovery past $350 million. Audubon traces the underlying legal tool, the Good Neighbor Authority, back to a 2001 Colorado pilot project that Congress later expanded nationwide through the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills, allowing state agencies, counties, and tribes to carry out restoration and timber work on federal land.
Private landowners have separate federal help available too. In April, the N.C. Department of Agriculture opened applications for the Timber Loss Relief Program, a piece of a $221 million USDA disaster block grant meant to partially compensate owners of at least 10 contiguous acres of storm-damaged woodland across 39 counties, as reported by the Carolina Journal.
Debris Hazards Already Playing Out on the Ground
The danger posed by Helene's leftover fuel isn't hypothetical. On March 21, 2025, increased wildfire activity and dry fuels led the N.C. Forest Service to issue a statewide open-burning ban across all 100 counties, suspending burn permits to keep fires from escaping, as Hoodline reported in a March 22, 2026 article. In March 2026, a wildfire tore through heavy downed timber in the Pisgah National Forest, and a Marion woman faced charges tied to the fire. The $65 million agreement is aimed at preventing more scenes like those from piling up across the region in the years ahead.
