NC: Helene Storm Debris Removal Threatens Native Trout Habitat in Western North Carolina
Nine months after Hurricane Helene ripped through the Southern Appalachians, contractors hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continue to rip through critical aquatic habitats in the name of storm debris removal.
The most recent victim of this ongoing and unwarranted natural disaster, a .75-mile stretch of Little Rose Creek, located within the Pisgah Gamelands in Mitchell County. Originating up near the Blue Ridge Parkway, Little Rose is a known site for native Southern Appalachian brook trout and highly sought after by backcountry anglers perusing these gems of North Carolina.
The corrupted stream milage adds to the shameful total resulting from the still-ongoing contract USACOE has with AshBritt Inc., a self-described “turnkey rapid-response, emergency management and logistics, disaster recovery and special environmental services contractor,” from Florida. Unfortunately for aquatic life in the areas AshBritt has been operating since the hurricane, concerns for native fish, endangered freshwater mussels, Eastern hellbenders and natural, healthy waterflow have been largely ignored.
NC BHA will continue to shine a light on this abuse of your public trust waters and the critical habitat it provides for thousands of freshwater species, all in pursuit of profiting from federal contract money in the wake of a natural disaster. The chapter also urges members to speak out against Provision 3(1) a of HB 1012, the “Disaster Recovery Act of 2025,” currently sitting in committee in the NC Senate. The language would require county governments to abdicate their jurisdiction over future natural disaster recovery efforts to USACOE and its contractors. Sadly, their track record after Hurricane Helene can be readily classified as an unmitigated, UN-natural disaster.
Hurricane Helene cut a swath of destruction that ran from the Big Bend area of Florida through Southern Appalachia during the last week of September, 2024. Historic rainfall and flooding that resulted in 251 fatalities and caused an estimated $87 billion in damages.
North Carolina BHA
North Carolina is a unique state comprised of three main regions – the mountains in the west, the central Piedmont Plateau, and the coastal plains in the east and 2.2 million acres public land!
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North Carolina is a unique state comprised of three main regions – the mountains in the west, the central Piedmont Plateau, and the coastal plains in the east and 2.2 million acres public land!
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