This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Concern is spreading that the U.S. Forest Service is using emergency authority to fast-track new roads and logging across the region -- claiming it’s a safety necessity after Hurricane Helene.
In places like Big Ivy and Shope Creek, residents and advocates worry the agency is using the storm as a
"hall pass" to skip the usual rules of environmental review before road-building and logging projects.
This conflict is coming to a head at public meetings, where the Forest Service is facing forest-savvy communities and advocacy organizations that are raising questions and objections, including a federal lawsuit. In November, the Southern Environmental Law Center sued the agency on behalf of MountainTrue and the Center for Biological Diversity, alleging the Forest Service sold timber in the Nolichucky Gorge without public notice. The groups dropped the suit this week only after the agency canceled the contract and loggers removed their equipment.
While that work was halted, other plans are moving forward, drawing further pushback from local communities.
At meetings held this month, the Forest Service updated the public on plans for new roads and salvage logging in Helene-impacted parts of the Pisgah. However, some community members fear a proposed road in Big Ivy could impact old growth.
Cynthia Camilleri, a longtime Big Ivy resident who attended a meeting in Barnardsville, was involved in the Pisgah-Nantahala Forest Plan process several years ago. Now, she is concerned Helene is being used as a justification to log the forest
“Why can't we just use the road that's there, and why do we need new roads?” Camilleri said. “And I think some concern is that the roads are kind of a Trojan horse, you know, that once the roads are there, it opens up the possibility for more logging.”
Will Harlan, a Barnardsville resident and biologist with the Center For Biological Diversity, noted that the proposed route crosses wetlands and potentially old-growth forest, though he said, the Forest Service showed some interest at the meeting in considering other options. A spokesperson for the Forest Service told BPR in an email that the long-term solution for Big Ivy Road will undergo consultation prior to construction, so natural resource impacts are currently "speculation only.”
Regarding the Shope Creek salvage project, the spokesperson wrote: “We are removing these excess heavy fuels from the landscape via salvage in very select instances where they pose an existential threat to homes, communities and critical infrastructure.”
The Forest Service is meeting tonight at the Riceville Fire department at 6 p.m. to discuss Shope Creek, where the agency is hauling out logs downed by Helene to mitigate future fire risk.
A meeting at the Burnsville Town Center has been rescheduled for January 15, 2026.
