“Happy August to you all from the rain-strewn and greensloped heights of Pisgah. With continued trail bridge construction, invasive plant management, and the close of the Pisgah River Rangers season, it has been a packed month with lots of good work on the ground.” –Jeff Maitz, Chief Operating Officer and Program Director / Trail Specialist
Trail Crew updates
With the new trail bridge on North Slope trail now complete, the TPC Trail Crew has moved to Buckhorn Gap trail where they have begun work on a series of three trail bridge construction projects in the section between Avery Creek trail and Twin Falls.
The three bridges the crew is currently replacing were washed out by Tropical Storm Fred in August 2021. The three crossings were manageable for foot crossing until Helene arrived, and the crew’s work to replace the bridges this month will provide visitors with a better trail experience while helping to reduce sedimentation into the stream.
Each bridge will be single-stringer footlogs spanning Henry Branch as the trail winds back and forth up the drainage. The crew recently completed the first bridge and has begun working on the second, constructing abutments and prepping materials for the footlog and handrail.
Pisgah runs on partnership
In addition to ongoing crew work, this past month has also been one of partner collaborations. TPC staff worked with volunteers from Carolina Mountain Club (CMC) to prepare materials and tasks for their big quarterly workday last Saturday.
It was a success, with a few weeks of preparation work helping to deliver significant improvements on the workday, which resulted in two trail bridge replacements, brushing, and drainage improvements on Cat Gap Loop trail.
TPC’s Trails and Recreation Technician also joined forces with the Carolina Climbers Coalition this past weekend on their Trail Daze of Summer workday at the North Face trail up to Looking Glass Rock. They worked together to improve drainage structures, remove fallen trees, and repair damaged sections of trail.
Later this week, TPC is teaming up with the Friends of the North Fork of the French Broad and MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper program to do a trash cleanup project in the North Fork gorge area off of Highway 215.
Invasive Plant Management Crew updates
The Invasive Plant Management Crew has also been hard at work this month addressing a variety of infestations across the Pisgah. With peak summer heat comes peak plant maturity for many species, making this a critical window to treat non-native invasive species (NNIS) before seeds mature and spread.
This month, the crew completed re-treatment of kudzu populations along Highway 276 and Davidson River Road, using a high-volume sprayer to improve roadside safety and efficiency on large monoculture stands.
Additional treatments are underway at Foster Creek, Wash Creek Horse Camp, and several Hurricane Helene project sites located across the District. As summer winds down, we’ll make a final push to close out foliar treatment of multiple infestations and shift focus toward fall and winter projects.
Those upcoming cooler months will see us shift to more predominantly cut-stump work as we begin treating NNIS at Davidson River Campground and at a series of wildlife fields on the Pisgah.
Closing out the Pisgah River Rangers season
Shifting to watersheds, this year’s Pisgah River Rangers crew just wrapped up their 2025 program season. With regularly scheduled educational programming and a constant weekend presence, they serve a vital function connecting the community to its watersheds during peak visitation season.
This year’s season also saw some exciting new developments, including:
- A significant expansion of the river snorkeling program
- A well-attended screening of the film Hidden Rivers of Southern Appalachia in Hendersonville
- An extremely popular Moth Party event that welcomed and engaged around 200 participants on a beautiful evening in late July during National Moth Week
Please join us in congratulating Hailey (Lead River Ranger) and interns Sadie, Laura, Summer, and Maddy on an impactful summer filled with community education, snorkeling, field surveys, and stewardship on behalf of Pisgah’s waterways.
The end of the program season is always bittersweet. We are sad to see them move on, but we are so proud of their hard work and the difference they’ve made.
Thank you all for your continued support of TPC and Pisgah National Forest!