In an effort to restore and maintain wildlife habitat, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission conducts prescribed burns across tens of thousands of acres of state game lands each year.

To find out whether smoke you’re seeing on state game lands is from a prescribed burn, check out the commission’s prescribed burns dashboard mapping system.

To help support wildlife on most of the 2 million acres of state game lands used by hunters, anglers and wildlife watchers throughout the state, the agency sets about 200 to 300 prescribed burns across 20,000 to 30,000 acres ever year.

“Most of the prescribed burning on game lands occurs between January and March because the cool, humid air with minimal wind provides conditions for low intensity fires,” Commission Forestry Program Leader Casey Phillips stated in a release. “However, we will still conduct burns well into spring and summer, because growing season fires provides for better control of young hardwoods in certain habitats.”

Prescribed fires are more cost efficient than mowing and spraying because they reduce the use of hazardous fuels, such as leaf litter and pine straw, and improve biodiversity at a significantly larger scale than chemical or mechanical methods alone, according to the agency.

Maintenance burns are typically conducted in multi-year cycles to open groundcover for quail, grassland birds, deer and turkeys. Prescribed fires are also crucial for many of the state’s habitat-sensitive or rare species, including red-cockaded woodpeckers and Venus flytraps, which are adapted to fire or found only in fire-dependent habitat.

“Fire is a natural occurrence that native wildlife has adapted to,” Phillips stated. “We also use burning techniques intended to give animals time and room to escape. After an area is burned, we typically see new vegetation within a few weeks, which means the animals won’t be far behind.”

For additional information, view No Cause for Alarm and visit Prescribed Fire: What NC Citizens Need to Know.

Updated at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 29, to include link for public comment.

The Trump administration’s move to repeal a federal rule that prohibits logging within large swaths of U.S. national forests would strip protections for tens of thousands of acres of public lands in North Carolina.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced earlier this summer the department’s intentions to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, one the administration calls outdated, saying it restricts the Forest Service from being able to properly manage for fire risk, and that it suppresses the country’s economic development in the forestry sector.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that it will publish the notice in the Federal Register on Friday, beginning a public comment period on the potential environmental effects that ends Sept. 19.

“For nearly 25 years, the Roadless Rule has frustrated land managers and served as a barrier to action – prohibiting road construction, which has limited wildfire suppression and active forest management,” Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said in a release. “The forests we know today are not the same as the forests of 2001. They are dangerously overstocked and increasingly threatened by drought, mortality, insect-borne disease, and wildfire. It’s time to return land management decisions where they belong – with local Forest Service experts who best understand their forests and communities.”

Lifting the rule, commonly referred to as the “Roadless Rule,” would align with President Trump’s initiatives to expand U.S. timber production and boost energy production on federal lands.

In North Carolina alone, more than 170,000 acres of the National Forest System are designated “roadless areas” under the rule.

Logging, mining, energy development, and road construction are, with a few exceptions, largely prohibited in these areas because they have been identified as possessing at least some of a number of natural features the forest service classifies as “roadless area characteristics.”

Those include attributes such as high-quality or undisturbed soil and water, diverse plant and animal communities, habitat for threatened and endangered species and species dependent on large, undisturbed areas of land, recreation, and traditional cultural properties and sacred sites.

In all, there are more than 58 million acres of inventoried roadless areas in the national forest system, one that includes 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering more than 190 million acres in 43 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

More than 1.2 million acres of national forestland fall within North Carolina’s borders.

The two largest national forests, Nantahala and Pisgah, make up an overwhelming majority of those lands in the state’s mountain region. Uwharrie National Forest, the smallest in the state, sits in the south-central part of the state.

And then there’s the Croatan National Forest, one the Forest Service refers to as the “only true coastal forest in the East.”

The 160,000-acre forest is bordered on three sides by tidal rivers and Bogue Sound. The land there is peppered with pine forests, saltwater estuaries, bogs, swamps and pocosin.

Within those swamps lies all of the more than 20,000 roadless acres designated in the Croatan, which means those areas are not conducive to road construction, according to Adam Rondeau, public affairs officer for the National Forest Service in North Carolina. 

“Whether it’s next month, or 10 years from now, the moment something of value is worth extracting from that forest, roads will be built, pocosin or no,” Erin Carey, state conservation policy director of the North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club, said in an email response to Coastal Review. “The only way to ensure the Croatan is protected for future generations is to keep the Roadless Rule in place.”

Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center Advocate Emily Mason in a statement Wednesday urged that national forests be naturally maintained.

“It is more important to protect these areas than to get a little more wood or to build one more mine or one more road,” she said. “Let’s keep our wild forests wild.”

During a telephone interview last week, Carey said the Croatan is a place of escape for residents who live in the region around it.

“The folks in that region have a very close connection to that forest, at least the ones I’ve worked with, and I think the idea of their forest being cut in two will motivate folks in the area to try and stand up and protect it,” she said.

The Sierra Club has launched a campaign of sorts to inform the public of the administration’s aim and what’s at stake if the rule is rescinded – the fragmentation of natural habitat, the prospect of fewer open, wild areas for people to enjoy, and the harvest of land that is increasingly crucial in combating the effects of global warming.

“Americans love their national forests,” Carey said. “They love their parks. They love these open spaces and they’re very protective of them. That is what’s at risk is the ability for not only us, but for future generations to be able to wander out into the wild and really experience wilderness and experience wildness.”

She also argues that national forests offer a line of defense against floods.

“In the coastal plain, we’re experiencing a lot of flooding and we’ve developed so much land that the water can’t sink in, and the water does sink in (in) forests,” Carey said. “Trees hold water. Trees hold carbon. So, the idea that we can go into these forests and cut roads and cut down trees is just, it’s horrifying for me on a personal level, but also it just doesn’t make any sense from a public safety standpoint, from an economic standpoint, from a habitat-preservation standpoint.”

In her June announcement, Rollins argued that revoking the rule will open “a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation’s forests.”

Nearly 30 million acres of inventoried roadless areas in the forest service system are in areas at high or very high risk of wildlife, according to the USDA.

“Rescinding this rule will allow this land to be managed at the local forest level, with more flexibility to take swift action to reduce wildfire risk and help protect surrounding communities and infrastructure,” according to an agency release.

But some question how the Forest Service, which already faces a lengthy backlog in maintaining existing roads within the forest system, will be able to adequately manage additional roads.

Limited resources, aging infrastructure and increased public use have delayed the Forest Service in regularly maintaining its roads, bridges, buildings and dams. The agency faces an estimated $8.6 billion in deferred maintenance costs.

Critics of the plan to erase the rule also point out that more roads could lead to more fires.

Nearly 85% of wildland fires in the U.S. are caused by humans, according to the Forest Service.

“Easier access to these places is not going to prevent fires,” Carey said. “It’s probably going to make it worse. In fact, fires are 90% more likely to be started within a half-mile of a road, so we probably should not be punching roads into places where we don’t want fire.”

Sooner than two months after announcing plans to rescind the Roadless Rule, Rollins issued a memorandum directing the Forest Service to prioritize energy projects on national forestlands based on output per acre.

“America has the resources and ingenuity to power our future without depending on foreign adversaries,” Rollins said in an Aug. 21 statement. “Under this memorandum, we are putting America First, ensuring that every acre of federally managed land is used wisely, balancing the needs for energy security with our responsibility to safeguard natural resources. We will no longer allow foreign-made solar panels or inefficient energy projects to undermine our national security.”

Environmental groups argue that paving the way for oil and gas production on national forestlands would unnecessarily put rich, biologically diverse forest areas at risk and create the potential for pollution and oil spills.

The U.S. Forest Service estimates that the cone crop for longleaf pines in the Southeast will be “poor for 2025,” according to the “Longleaf Pine Cone Prospects for 2025” report released in June.

Because of the anticipated seed shortage that comes with a low estimate of seed-producing cones for the third year in a row, The Longleaf Alliance is scouting for potential locations to harvest in the fall.

Based on observations collected earlier this year from low-density stands of mature longleaf pines in 10 study sites, researchers estimate the average for seed-producing cones is 12.4 per tree this fall.

The study, which looked at state-managed parks in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, defines a good crop as 50 to 99 green cones per tree, a fair crop as 25 to 49, poor as 10 to 24, and a failed crop as less than 10 seed-bearing cones per tree.

Once plentiful, the longleaf pine could be found on an estimated 90 million acres in the coastal plains between southeast Virginia to eastern Texas. During the Colonial era, the trees were felled for timber and naval stores. Demand grew exponentially when the turpentine industry took off at the turn of the 20^th century, nearly stripping the ecosystem of the native pine. Today, its estimated that there’s around 5 million acres remaining.  

The alliance is a nonprofit organization that was established in 1995 and is devoted entirely to longleaf pine ecosystems.

“With a fraction of longleaf pine acres remaining in the Southeast, much of this work is focused on reestablishing longleaf pine. We are planting trees that can outlast us, and it is essential that landowners are up for success from the beginning,” The Longleaf Alliance Vice President for Operations Ad Platt explained to Coastal Review.

The Longleaf Alliance is a founding member and leader within America’s Longleaf, a landscape collaborative effort of public and private partners that supports range-wide efforts to restore and conserve longleaf pine ecosystems.

The study site for North Carolina, Bladen Lakes State Forest, is expected to have an average of 27 cones per tree this fall. The more than 33,000-acre state-owned land is in Bladen County, roughly between Wilmington and Fayetteville near Elizabethtown.

Platt said that with Bladen Lakes State Forest being one of only three locations in the report predicted to have a fair cone crop this fall, it is optimistic news for the longleaf cone in North Carolina. The other fair cone crop areas are in Georgia and Florida.

The South Carolina site is estimated to have a poor crop this year, and the remaining six sites are expected to have less than 10 cones per tree, and are in the failed category.

By estimating the number of green, or productive, cones per tree, the seed volume can be approximated. The minimum cone crop needed for successful natural regeneration is 750 green cones per acre, or around 30 cones per tree with 25 seed-bearing trees per acre, the study states.

The 60-year regional cone production average for longleaf pine is about 27 green cones per tree, but the year-to-year average varies widely. For example, 1996 had the single best cone crop at an average of 115 cones per tree, but 1995 had a 41-cone average, and 1997 had a 17-cone average.

This year’s numbers are better than 2024, which “failed” with an estimate of almost seven cones per tree, and for 2023, the estimate was 10.3, according to the report.

Platt explained that the longleaf pine is a masting species, which means that instead of producing seeds consistently each year, there are some years with an exceptionally large number of pine cones and seeds, followed by years with relatively few. So, this pattern of low cone production is somewhat expected.

“For that reason, longleaf pine growers collect as much seed as they can when cone crops are good. The problem is that the seed supplies needed for longleaf pine seedling production are now limited after subsequent years of poor cone production,” he explained, adding that the last good crops documented in the annual Longleaf Pine Cone Prospects Report occurred in 2022.

“Complicating this issue are recent patterns of large, strong storms when pine cones are maturing in the summer and fall. While future cone production is strongly correlated with hurricanes, with positive trends two years after a storm event, strong winds damage that year’s cone crops and mature longleaf forests, as was observed in 2024 with Hurricane Helene in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina,” he said.

Platt continued that the natural variation of longleaf pine cone production means that even when crops are forecast to be low, there is likely a good longleaf cone crop somewhere.

“The challenge is finding it,” he continued. “If you are lucky enough to have mature longleaf, please assess what kind of cone production you may have this summer.”

Platt said that’s best done on a clear morning with the sun at your back and using binoculars to count the large, developing green cones. Fair or better cone crops include 25 or more cones per tree, with 25 trees per acre.

Landowners with fair or better cone crops may have a potential income opportunity if their longleaf stands are large enough and easily operable, meaning they’re low density with machine access for collection. Pine cone harvesting crews need a decent cone crop on a large enough acreage in the area to maximize their efforts during the short four-week collection window.

“Longleaf pine seedlings grown in tree nurseries support 100 to 150,000 acres planted in longleaf pine each year. To reach the range-wide acreage restoration goal of America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative, longleaf pine seedling production must meet the growing demand from landowners interested in supporting this imperiled landscape,” Platt said.

Observations of mature longleaf pine trees can be submitted to The Longleaf Alliance through an online survey.

The North Carolina Forest Service has begun accepting orders for its annual tree seedling sale.

Conifer and hardwood seedlings are available for purchase in a range of quantities. Genetically improved stock is available for Fraser fir, loblolly, longleaf, shortleaf, eastern white pine and Virginia pine. These seedlings offer better volume growth, tree form, disease resistance, straightness, and other characteristics needed to produce beautiful Christmas trees, healthy woodlands and quality forest products.

“Our nursery program continues to serve as a stable provider of native forest tree seedlings while ensuring access to a reliable supply of more than 40 tree species for planting throughout North Carolina,” Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a release. “These affordable tree seedlings help keep our forestlands growing, thriving and beautiful. Traditionally, seedling inventory goes quickly, so I encourage folks not to hesitate.”

The seedling catalog is on the Forest Service website and printed copies are available in Forest Service offices. The catalogs contain information about the types of tree species, quantities and cost to order. Each species description includes information about ideal planting locations and whether a species is typically used to benefit wildlife, restore forest habitats or as marketable timber.

Tree seedlings can be ordered through www.buynctrees.com, by calling 1-888-628-7337 or 919-731-7988, or by filling out an order form and mailing it to Seedling Coordinator, 762 Claridge Nursery Road, Goldsboro, NC 27530.

Seedling orders can be shipped to one of 13 distribution centers statewide for a small fee or via UPS for a charge. Seedling orders are also available for pickup from the NCFS Claridge Nursery in Goldsboro or the Linville River Nursery near Crossnore.

Accepted methods of payment are check, money order, Mastercard and Visa.

The nursery program produces around 10 million seedlings a year, enough native and genetically improved tree seedlings to plant roughly 18,700 acres.

Contact information for county offices and nursery locations is at www.ncforestservice.gov/contacts.

The North Carolina Forest Service has confirmed that laurel wilt, a tree-killing disease, has been detected in two more counties.

Forest officials announced this week that the disease that devastates plants in the laurel family was found on private property in Beaufort and Greene counties, and confirmed by N.C. State University’s Plant Disease and Insect Clinic pathologists.

The total number of counties where the tree-killing disease has been detected is now 21. In addition to Beaufort and Greene counties, laurel wilt has been found in Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Johnston, Jones, Lenoir, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Pitt, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland and Wayne.

“This winter, we surveyed more than 1,700 miles across 11 counties, spanning more than 43,000 acres, looking for signs of laurel wilt,” Forest Health Specialist Jim Moeller said in a release. “We detected the destructive disease in western Greene County, coming out of Wayne County, and in Beaufort County along the Bay City Highway near the Pamlico County line. So, we’ll be keeping an eye on its progression.”

The invasive redbay ambrosia beetle infects the trees with the fungus that causes laurel wilt disease. The beetle was first detected in the U.S. in 2004 near Savannah, Georgia, and has since spread to 12 states, from Texas to Virginia. Redbay ambrosia beetles are known to cover short distances flying tree to tree but humans aid in spreading the pest over long distances when transported in firewood.

Plants in the laurel family, including sassafras, redbay, swampbay, pondberry, pondspice and spicebush, can be affected by this disease.

Symptoms include drooping reddish-purple foliage. Evidence of a redbay ambrosia beetle attack may be found in the main stem. Often threads of chewed wood, called frass toothpicks, can be seen sticking out of entry holes. Removal of tree bark reveals black streaking in the outer wood. The tree typically dies within weeks or months of infection.

The forest service said that right now, there is not a reliable method of treating laurel wilt and insecticides have been ineffective at stopping beetle attacks. Fungicides can be used to prevent infection by the fungus, but the best defense continues to be slowing the spread by using local or treated firewood and by notifying the local Forest Service county ranger if laurel wilt is suspected.

Homeowners with dead redbay trees are encouraged to keep cut trees on their property. Dead trees should not be moved to a landfill or off-site. Proper disposal of redbay trees includes leaving wood on-site, cutting or chipping wood on-site, or burning wood on-site in compliance with local and state ordinances. Obtain a burn permit at any authorized permitting agent or online.

The service’s Forest Health Branch monitors the spread of invasive pests. People who suspect there is an infected tree in an area near them should contact their county ranger. Contact information can be found online.

Eastern and coastal North Carolina are home to some truly enormous trees. Towering bald cypresses with buttressed trunks, ancient live oaks with branches spreading out almost endlessly. The kinds of trees that leave people stunned. And though the person beholding the tree might not know it, the magnificent thing in front of them could be, or one day become, a champion.

Designated giants

The “Champion Tree” designation is a simple concept with a big purpose. The idea is to find the largest individual specimen of any given tree species, which is then named the champion of that species. The purpose goes far beyond measurements and rankings, however.

As first envisioned by the American Forestry Association in 1940, the Champion Tree Program, previously called the National Register of Big Trees, was intended to identify and conserve the nation’s largest remaining trees, which were at risk during an era of economic expansion and aggressive timber harvesting. It was also hoped that the program would increase the public’s appreciation for trees and encourage community science in forestry.

Today, anyone can nominate a tree for the National Register of Champion Trees, the annual publication of the Champion Tree Program. Nominated trees are reviewed and measured by an expert under the supervision of the University of Tennessee’s School of Natural Resources, which assumed official responsibility for the Champion Tree Program in 2024, and the champions are thereby sorted out for each species.

As of last year, when the most recent national register was published, North Carolina boasted 10 national champion trees, two of which are in the coastal plains: a pond pine in Bladen County, and a silky camellia in Gates County.

In order to find champions within their borders, state forestry services eventually established their own champion tree lists, such as North Carolina’s, which took shape under the auspices of the North Carolina Forest Service in the 1970s.

This means that North Carolina has a state champion tree for each species native to the state, and any state champion tree that is not bested in size by one of the same species in another state can be named the national champion.

Looking for the big ones

For 25-year-old Luke Ferreira, a big-tree hunter originally from New Bern, the sense of appreciation and the scientific mindset that spurred the original Champion Tree Program are always close at hand when he goes looking for giants.

“In some of the pretty remote places we go, I wonder, has anybody ever even seen this tree before?” Ferreira said in a telephone interview. “That’s what makes it worth it to me. Sometimes you come across something that takes your breath away.”

Ferreira, who now lives in Clayton, frequently ventures back to eastern North Carolina to look for and measure large trees.

“I’d say we definitely have more champions or potential champions east of I-95 than west of it,” he said.

When Ferreira finds a large tree, he calculates its size according to the method prescribed by the national Champion Tree Program. Each inch of a tree trunk’s circumference, as measured 4.5 feet above the ground, counts as one point, as does each foot of the tree’s height. The average spread in feet of the tree’s crown is divided by four, and this score is added to the point score for trunk circumference and height, yielding the overall score by which tree sizes can be compared.

Using these methods, Ferreira determined that a water hickory he and a friend discovered in a Craven County swamp was championship material. They nominated it to the state champion list, which prompted the N.C. Forest Service, following its protocols, to send out a county ranger to verify the tree’s dimensions. The ruling? With a 210-inch circumference, a height of 124 feet, and a 71-foot crown spread, it was the new state champion water hickory.

It should be noted, however, that those measurements yield 352 points according to the official Champion Tree Program method. The current national champion water hickory is listed at only 330 points, so Ferreira says he will be nominating the tree to the national list soon.

It might sound straightforward, but in reality, measuring tree sizes is a tricky business. The National Register of Champion Trees publishes a Measuring Guidelines Handbook that is 86 pages and includes two appendices and countless diagrams, so it may deter some beginners.

Luckily for Ferreira, trees aren’t just his hobby, they’re also his profession. Ferreira is a safety coordinator with Bartlett Tree Experts, so he has plenty of experience identifying, measuring and even climbing trees.

“I use a reel tape to measure the crown spread and the circumference, and then we use clinometers for height,” Ferreira said, referring to a device that calculates the height of distant objects with the help of a little trigonometry. “But if the tree isn’t too remote, I will sometimes tape drop it, where I climb up and drop the tape all the way down.”

Dying down, growing back

North Carolina’s big-tree database was taken offline in recent months before being made accessible again in early May. Andrew Pleninger, urban and community forestry program head at the N.C. Forest Service, oversees the state’s champion tree list. Pleninger said that the access issues stemmed from coinciding technical difficulties and the regular, laborious review such a program requires.

On the technical side, Pleninger said the web application hosting the database with the champion tree list was malfunctioning, prompting him to take it offline. Meanwhile, he and his staff have been working to reinspect all the existing state champions, to make sure everything on the list is accurate and up to date — a task delayed by staff shortages.

“It’s a good, popular program, and I’d like to continue to support it,” Pleninger said by telephone. “Tuning it up is one of our tasks right now.”

Maintaining champion tree registers with any kind of regularity is surely a large undertaking. Hundreds of trees, some of them in isolated mountain hollers or remote and unnavigable swamps, have to be checked to make sure none have fallen to storm, disease or axe.  

As Ferreira put it, “Once something becomes big enough to be a champion, it’s already close to the end of its life anyway.”

Even the loss of a limb can cost a tree its champion status. In a cemetery in Clinton, there stands a flowering dogwood that as recently as 2021 was the undisputed national champion.

“I was amazed at how big it was,” Pleninger said of the graveyard sentinel, which was once 33 feet tall and boasted a 40-foot crown spread. “I saw pictures of it before I went, and I thought, this is not a dogwood.”

However, the old tree has since lost one of its two main limbs, reducing its size significantly. It is no longer the national champion, and is likely not even the largest flowering dogwood in North Carolina anymore. However, a recent visit to the cemetery off of N.C. Highway 24 in Sampson County proved that the tree is still alive and still impressive. Time and decay may have robbed it of its title as champion, but it’s not yet too old to bloom in spring.

Caring for champions

The graceful leviathan at the heart of Wilmington’s Airlie Gardens isn’t just North Carolina’s state champion live oak, it’s probably one of the state’s best-known trees. It has served as a backdrop for hundreds of weddings and many thousands of photos, and it is frequently the object of concerned check-ins from the public.  

“The number one question we get after every storm is, ‘how’s the Airlie Oak?’” said Janine Powell, Airlie’s director of donor relations. “After Hurricane Florence, the first thing we did was put a picture of her up, and you could see Spanish moss and branches all over the lawn, but she’s still there.”

In an interview conducted in the shade of the sprawling oak, which is thought to have sprouted sometime around the 1540s, Powell spoke affectionately of the tree, as if it were a grande dame. That sense of care is reflected in the way Airlie Gardens looks after their champion.

When a large branch sagged to the ground in 2019, arborists from Bartlett Tree Experts were hired to thoroughly evaluate the Airlie Oak’s health and recommend measures to protect it for future generations. A customized brace to stabilize the sagging limb, support cables for the other limbs, a grounded copper wire to protect the tree from lightning strikes, removal of Spanish moss to let in more light, aeration and fertilization of the soil. The list of treatments the tree has received reads like a testament to the love of its caretakers.

“It’s amazing how much it revitalized her,” Powell said. “She just looks better. If I look at photographs from 2014 to now, oh my gosh.”

When asked what it means for Airlie Gardens to contain a state champion tree, Powell didn’t hesitate. “For the Gardens, it means the world to us,” she said. “Just knowing that it’s been around for so long.”

To raise funds for the care of their champion and the rest of their grounds, Airlie Gardens has partnered with Penderlea Farms to sell saplings grown from the acorns of the Airlie Oak.

These “historic live oaks,” according to Powell, are intended to help educate the public on the natural shape that live oaks require to be resilient (and beautiful) in their natural coastal environment.

Through the recognition of a specific remarkable tree, they are encouraging people to think about all trees a bit more deeply. Appreciation, protection, education — they’re all there, the original hallmarks of the Champion Tree Program.

More than 5,000 individual plants will be available for area residents during the 27th TreeFest in Wilmington.

Scheduled for Friday, Jan. 17, and Saturday, Jan. 18, at Independence Mall inside the JC Penney corridor, hours for both days are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and only while supplies last.

Editor’s emphasis: “only while supplies last.” That means you snooze, you lose. Coastal Review assumes no responsibility for ornery latecomers, nor will we respond to complainers’ vile nastygrams.

Grown by the North Carolina Forest Service Nursery in Goldsboro, tree species for this event include longleaf pine, Atlantic white cedar, eastern red cedar, red maple, river birch, American persimmon, flowering dogwood, eastern redbud, live oak, and white oak. Silky dogwood and Indian grass will also be available.

Households can select up to five trees or grasses from the available selection for free on a first-come, first-serve basis. Organizers said a $5 donation per household is suggested and greatly appreciated.

TreeFest is coordinated by the volunteer-based TreeFest Committee and sponsors, including Wilmington, Friends of Wilmington Skateparks, Independence Mall, North Carolina Cooperative Extension, North Carolina Forest Service, New Hanover County Soil and Water Conservation District, and University of North Carolina Wilmington’s departments of environmental sciences, and biology and marine biology.

“Trees offer many benefits to our community, from flood protection and improving water and air quality, to creating shade and oxygen, to providing food and nesting sites for birds and wildlife,” TreeFest Committee Member Amy Mead said in a release. “By making sure we have a robust tree canopy, we can help our community be more resilient to the impacts of weather.”

Experts will be on hand during TreeFest to help with plant selection and care. Organizers suggest that residents consider the size of the site, whether utility lines exist above and below ground, the proximity to buildings, and site conditions like soil type, drainage and sun exposure.

The TreeFest committee asks visitors to bring their own nonleaking bag or bucket to take home their bare-root seedlings in an effort to reduce single-use plastic waste.

Trees are bare root and should be planted as soon as possible.

TreeFest began in 1997 after hurricanes Bertha and Fran decimated tree populations in the Wilmington area. Since then, more than 150,000 tree seedlings and grasses have been given to residents.

Second part in a series.

While wildfires are almost always the result of human activity, climate change is altering wildfires and how they’re managed.

North Carolina Forest Service Public Information Officer Philip Jackson said that while nearly all wildfires in the state correlate with human activity, climate change is affecting the nature of wildfires different ways.

First, the way precipitation falls is changing and becoming more extreme, Assistant State Climatologist Corey Davis said in an interview. “Instead of rain evenly spread out throughout a season or year, heavier rainfall is happening on fewer days with longer dry spells in between.”

Warming temperatures are an important part, too, and are making dry spells more severe and prone to wildfire activity. This has been especially apparent within the past few years. Last fall and again in June of this year, the state slipped into drought after just a few weeks of hot, dry weather.

“At both times, parts of the state went more than 20 days in a row without a drop of rainfall all while we were dealing with unseasonably warm temperatures — above 100 degrees in some areas earlier this summer,” Davis said. “Just like in your backyard garden, forests and other fire-prone ecosystems dry out in a hurry during times like that, and that brings the threat of wildfires.”

The State Climate Office, based in Raleigh, uses a handful of tools to monitor climate change and its effects, including measuring and archiving weather observations from more than 350 weather stations across the state, almost half of which have at least 30 years of historical observations.

Davis said this helps with understanding not only what current conditions are like, but also how conditions are changing, “and we’re consistently seeing more extremes in all directions.”

Most recently, that has been record rainfall totals in from Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. Earlier this summer, conditions were extreme heat and dry weather. Davis’ office can use that kind of historical data to add context to those events. He cited Greenville as an example: The Pitt County city saw its longest streak of dry weather — 23 consecutive days without rainfall — since the fall of 2000.

The office is involved with research and partnerships that are helping explore climate change and its impacts, as well.

“Heat-mapping campaigns have shown us how much hotter certain parts of cities can get depending on their land use and land cover. There are applications there for forests, too, since we’ve found at a very micro scale on NC State’s campus, for instance, how bare ground and a lack of tree cover can affect surface temperatures,” he said.

That data, research and those partnerships all came together in the North Carolina Climate Science Report that the state climate office helped compile in 2020.

The report includes some key findings and projections related to wildfires, including a projected 300% or more increase in the number of weeks with the risk of very large fires, or burning more than 5,000 hectares – nearly 12,400 acres – by the middle of this century, compared to the end of the last century.

“And it notes that increases in temperatures and associated drying rates are very likely, with future droughts very likely to be warmer with a higher chance of wildfires,” Davis said.

Temperatures across the state are trending warmer in all four seasons, but it’s especially remarkable how much winters have been warming. According to the Climate Trends Plotter tool, the winter average temperatures in eastern North Carolina have been increasing by 0.5 to 0.75°F per decade over the past 50 years, and by more than 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit per decade in most areas since the year 2000.

“That’s having the effect of shrinking our winter seasons, and on the shoulders especially in February, we’re seeing more spring-like weather. That’s threatening to begin our spring fire seasons even earlier, and have them last even longer,” Davis said.

“We also see those changes reflected in future projections,” he continued, siting one study that projects a 74% increase in the area burned by lightning-caused wildfires in North Carolina between 2011 and 2060. “That’s a product of both longer fire seasons and warmer temperatures throughout the spring that make fuels more susceptible to burn.”

Other research shows more than a 200% increase in the number of days with suitable conditions for very large wildfires, which burn more than 12,000 acres, along the state’s coastline.

“Historically, these events have been very rare since they require all of those weather ingredients — extreme dryness in place with warm temperatures, low humidity, and high winds — for fires to grow that large in our region. But they’re expected to happen more often in the future,” Davis said.

Prescribed burns and climate change

Jackson explained that prescribed burns benefit forests and wildlife while reducing the risk and impacts of future catastrophic wildfires. The goal for these hazard reduction burns is to reduce the understory shrubs, vines, woody debris, needles and leaves that may be available to burn during unplanned wildfires.

“We will burn it in a planned manner that is of lower intensity, eliminating those fuel sources, helping prevent future wildfires or minimizing impacts from future wildfires. Low intensity prescribed fire also helps manage forestlands where many species require frequent burns to establish and thrive,” Jackson said.

The Forest Service also uses prescribed fire for site preparation purposes, also known as site-prep burns.

“These prescribed burns occur after harvesting to assist with reforestation activities. It allows for planting natural regeneration of tree seedlings, it’s less invasive and damaging than mechanical site preparation and is sometimes conducted as a pre-treatment to tree planting,” Jackson said.

Davis said that there’s been a lot of success with prescribed burns in North Carolina, and even though there’s still wildfires, those events are typically more manageable and less severe because of proactive prescribed burning practices, “But it’s already getting tougher to find windows to do this burning, and that problem is expected to become even worse in the future,” for a few reasons.

One, North Carolina is a fast-growing, fast-developing state, and we’ve got more acreage classified as wildland-urban interface than any state in the country, Davis explained.

“That means when we want to do burns in these natural areas, it’s more likely that people will notice it, so land and fire managers have to be very careful about burning when the wind direction is just right and making sure burns don’t linger overnight, when smoke can get trapped near the ground,” Davis said. “But climate change is also affecting our ability to burn. We’re getting fewer of those Goldilocks days when it’s not too wet or not too dry to have a successful burn, and the rapid changes from wet to dry patterns are making it tough to anticipate those periods.”

Historically, the most common times for burning in the spring and summer are becoming less suitable for burning as conditions then are hotter and drier, Davis said.

He explained that a study of the Southeastern United States looked at the suitability of prescribed burning based on projected weather conditions, and it found a sharp decrease in the number of suitable days in the transition seasons, or spring and fall, with the summer expected to become almost entirely unsuitable for burning by the end of the century.

“That’s largely driven by the warming temperatures, which makes the atmosphere less stable, the vertical transmission of heat and dispersion of smoke less predictable, and fuels drier so that they burn hotter and flames spread more quickly,” Davis said. “That’s all adding up to a big concern that we’ll see more frequent and more severe wildfires, with fewer opportunities to manage our forests in North Carolina to help avoid those events.”

Jackson said that the Forest Service predetermines weather and fuel parameters needed in order to safely execute a prescribed burn operation.

“If the weather doesn’t produce the ideal conditions that we need to safely carry out a burn, we simply won’t do it,” Jackson said, explaining that he has driven two hours to Stokes County, geared up in full personal protective equipment along with a dozen other personnel to conduct a prescribed burn, “only to cancel it before ever lighting a torch and putting fire on the ground. The weather either gives us what we need to carry out a burn safely, or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, we simply live to fight another day.”

First of two parts

As the fall wildfire season begins in North Carolina, the lead agency that responds to these uncontrolled fires in natural areas encourages residents be vigilant while burning outside.

“I’d like to remind folks about the importance of exercising caution with all outdoor fires, especially yard debris burns,” North Carolina Forest Service Division Public Information Officer Philip Jackson told Coastal Review.

Human activity causes 99% of North Carolina’s wildfires. Of that 99%, nearly half are caused by careless debris burning and escaped yard debris burns, which is the leading cause of wildfires across the state each year, Jackson said. The other 1% of uncontrolled fires are caused by natural ignition such as lightning.

“Fire activity has remained low over the last few weeks due to tropical storms and other rain events. However, as is the case most year’s during the month of October, we expect October to dry out some over the coming weeks, increasing fire activity,” Jackson said Wednesday.

Assistant State Climatologist Corey Davis told Coastal Review that there are three main components that each make for ideal wildfire conditions in eastern North Carolina: the time of year, the weather, and the ecosystem.

From late February through mid-April, grasses and other vegetation are coming out of their winter dormancy. Before the vegetation becomes fully green, they’re still pretty dry and flammable.

Deciduous trees are budding during this time, as well. But again, before the leaves have fully emerged, the leaves and trucks are fairly flammable. Without those leaves, they don’t offer as much shade for the vegetation beneath them, which helps it dry out even more, Davis explained.

These circumstances lead to the weather component.

“Warm and sunny days during the spring can cause environmental conditions to dry out more quickly, and as we receive more direct sunlight throughout the season, that can also cause fast-drying conditions in our forest fuels, which includes that not-yet-green vegetation and any dead woody material or litter covering the ground,” Davis said.

In addition to having those summer-like characteristics such as hot days with lots of sunshine, the spring is ultimately a transition season, and one feature of the winter climate that can carry over into the spring is lower relative humidity. “When we get one of those less humid air masses in place during the spring, especially after a warm period, then those dry fuels can be especially crispy and ready to burn,” Davis explained.

Last, there are a few different types of ecosystems in eastern North Carolina where we typically expect to see wildfires. Much of the southern and central coastal plain was once covered by native wiregrass pine savannas, where fires are a natural and common feature, happening every two to five years.

At low intensity, these fires are beneficial since they clear out competing vegetation and thin out the canopy so that native species like Carolina wiregrass and longleaf pines can thrive.

“Over the past century or so, the prevalence of these longleaf pine ecosystems has drastically declined across the region, Davis explained. This is because the trees were cut down initially for timber and naval stores such as tar, pitch, and turpentine, and more recently because of conversion to agricultural lands and other development.

“Where we do still have wiregrass ecosystems, the longleaf pines have been replaced by less fire-tolerant species such as loblolly, so fires may not be as effective. Historical fire suppression in these areas means that more fuels have built up within them, so when they burn now, it tends to be at higher intensity, which is both less beneficial and more likely to become difficult to control or contain,” Davis said.

The other major fire-prone ecosystems in eastern North Carolina are the pocosins near the coastline in places like the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington counties.

“These are fairly low-lying areas where the water table is usually very high, often submerging the soils and creating a peat swamp sort of environment. But during times of drought, the water table drops and that highly organic soil dries out, which makes it very easy to burn,” Davis said.

These types of wildfires are tough to contain because of how remote and inaccessible many of these locations are, and because the fire can burn into the ground and consume the soil itself.

“There’s no easy way to extinguish them except for flooding the soil with as much water as possible or waiting for help from the rain so the water table rises again. Until that happens, these fires can burn and smolder for weeks or months, all while releasing lots of smoke that can be carried by the winds to different corners of the state,” Davis said.

“For those reasons, these pocosin areas have historically seen our state’s largest wildfires, and continue to be an area of concern any time there’s a springtime dry spell,” such as the April 2023 fire in the Croatan National Forest.

“Putting all of that together, the perfect conditions for wildfires in eastern North Carolina would be in late March or early April following a month or so of unseasonably warm and dry weather.”

Davis continued that with vegetation either dormant, dead or not green just yet, the environment would be highly flammable.

“The spark for fires could come from human activity like debris burns, or on a larger scale from lightning strikes along a strong cold frontal passage. Behind that front, a dry and less humid air mass would move in, and gusty winds would spread any newly ignited fires quickly across the landscape,” he said.

By late September, “these same trends from the spring happen again, but in reverse. Our temperatures can remain relatively warm well into October, and once trees drop their leaves, they ramp up the fuel loading at the surface,” according to the climate office.

So far in 2024, the Forest Service has responded to more than 3,500 wildfires for roughly 13,000 acres, Jackson with the Forest Service said.

The 2023 fall wildfire season was extremely active with nearly 2,000 wildfires statewide, more than 1,200 of which burned in November 2023 alone, Jackson said. “That was during our traditional fall wildfire season where fire risk is elevated, but we had also experienced prolonged drought conditions for much of the fall last year.”

“This is consistent and on pace with what we typically see each year. We usually experience between 4,500 and 5,500 wildfires annually. Frequency and duration are heavily influenced by weather conditions and time of year,” Jackson said, adding that over the last two months, “we’ve seen 119 wildfires for less than 50 acres. That’s considered to be rather quiet in terms of new wildfire starts and minimal acreage, largely due to the amount of rain our state has received recently.”

Jackson said that there’s a common misconception that wildfires are only an issue in the Western United States.

“The American South experiences more wildfires each year than any other region in the U.S.,” Jackson said. “While wildfires in the Western U.S. tend to be more severe while consuming larger chunks of acreage, wildfires in the Southeast U.S. are becoming more common.”

North Carolina had the third most wildfires nationally in 2022, behind only Texas and California. That same year, Texas, California, North Carolina, Georgia and Oklahoma accounted for nearly half of the total wildfires in the U.S.

The wildland-urban interface a big reason why. The wildland-urban interface, or WUI, is where development meets forestland. Three of the top four states with the most homes in the wildland urban interface are states located in the South, with North Carolina in the lead.

“North Carolina remains the leading state in the U.S. relative to number of acres in the wildland urban interface. As North Carolina’s population continues to grow, we’ll likely see more people living and recreating in the wildland urban interface,” Jackson said. 

With almost all wildfires in the state correlating with human activity, as the population increases, more people living and recreating in the wildland urban interface, potentially resulting in an increase in the number of wildfires our state experiences.

Statewide, between 2010 and 2020, 41,551 wildfires burned 399,125 acres, and from 1990 to 2010, North Carolina saw an increase of 3,005,048 acres in the wildland-urban interface.

“North Carolina’s WUI Risk Index estimates 2.3 million acres are at risk for moderate to major impacts from wildfires to people and their homes,” Jackson said.

The North Carolina Forest Service will begin taking orders Monday, July 1, for conifer and hardwood seedlings.

The Forest Service Nursery Program produces 16 million seedlings, enough native and genetically improved tree seedlings to plant roughly 30,000 acres, equivalent to nearly 23,000 football fields, each year, officials said Monday.

“Having healthy trees and forests provides many benefits to our state, including helping to clean our air and water and sequestering carbon,” Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a statement. “I encourage residents to take advantage of the high quality trees produced through the North Carolina Forest Service nursery program. Seedlings go quick so you’ll want to purchase them early.”

Genetically improved stock is available for Fraser fir, loblolly, longleaf, shortleaf, eastern white pine and Virginia pine.

“These seedlings offer better volume growth, tree form, disease resistance, straightness, and other characteristics needed to produce beautiful Christmas trees, healthy woodlands and quality forest products,” according to the Forest Service.

Tree seedlings can be ordered from the online seedling store at www.buynctrees.com, by calling 888-NCTREES (1-888-628-7337) or 919-731-7988, or the order form in this year’s nursery seedling catalog that will be available next month in county Forest Service offices. A user-friendly online catalog will soon be available, as well.

The catalog offers information for landowners about the types of tree species, quantities and costs to order. Each species description includes information about ideal planting locations and whether a species is typically used to benefit wildlife, restore forest habitats or as marketable timber.

Most containerized seedlings are available October through March while most bare-root seedlings are available January through March. Seedling orders can be shipped to one of 13 distribution centers statewide for a small fee or through UPS for a charge. Seedling orders can also be picked up from the Forest Service’s Claridge Nursery in Goldsboro or the Linville River Nursery near Crossnore in Avery County.

Customers can pay by check, money order, Mastercard and Visa.

For information on planting trees, customers can contact their Forest Service county office and nursery locations.

A Carteret County commissioner has been cited for a debris burn that scorched more than 500 acres in the Down East community of Atlantic.

The North Carolina Forest Service on Tuesday cited Commissioner Christopher James Chadwick, 53, of Stacy, for violating North Carolina General Statute 14-140.1. The infraction carries a fine of not more than $50.

According to the statute, any person, firm, corporation or other legal entity who burns any brush, grass or other material that puts at risk any property without “keeping and maintaining a careful watchman in charge of the burning,” shall be guilty of an infraction.

“Fire escaping from the brush, grass, or other material while burning shall be prima facie evidence of violation of this provision,” according to the statute.

Chadwick told Coastal Review Friday that he had obtained a permit about three weeks ago for burning trees and debris from a tornado that struck Atlantic earlier this year. The debris was contained within Chadwick’s roughly 50 acres adjacent to Marine Corps Outlying Field Atlantic and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service land.

“I was watching it myself, and I had a helper watch too, and, you know, we haven’t done any burning for three weeks,” Chadwick said. “We had a couple of hot spots that would pop up here and there, and we’d take the excavator and put them out with sand on top of them, and then there was no smoke, nowhere for probably a week and a half, two weeks, until Sunday when the fire started.”

He said once the flames reached the neighboring wooded areas, “it just went like gasoline.”

Chadwick said the area had not seen a prescribed burn in about 15 years. “This reinforces the importance of managing the forest,” he said.

The commissioner praised the firefighters, Forest Service and Marine Corps for their role in responding to the fire. Chadwick said he was thankful nobody was hurt and that the fire wasn’t worse.

“I’m sorry the incident happened. We thought we were doing all the right things with the permit and the watchmen, and certainly it’s been so dry and blowing hard past two or three weeks, we haven’t done any burning,” Chadwick said.

A team of natural resource professionals and private landowners have been working over the last few years to empower women in forest conservation and stewardship in North Carolina.

The organization, ForestHer NC, was established in January 2019 to offer programming statewide for “marginalized genders including women-identifying individuals, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, and those who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women forest stewards,” according to the website.

Next for the organization are songbird identification workshops in each region.

The workshop on the coast is from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday, May 10, at Moores Creek National Battlefield in Currie, which is part of the North Carolina Birding Trail. Workshops are also planned for May 3 at Eno River State Park, and May 17 at Oak Hills Community Park in Morganton. Registration for all songbird programs is at foresthernc.org.

Dakota Wagner, past chair of ForestHer NC, told Coastal Review that the organization offers programming on forest stewardship in an inclusive and supportive environment.

The workshop in Pender County is an opportunity to “learn about songbirds of the coastal region and how to best manage your woods for them, while getting to know other landowners and professionals from the region. And hopefully, the weatherman will give us a beautiful day to be walking in the woods,” Wagner added.

Past workshops for ForestHer NC include one earlier this year at Lake Mattamuskeet on waterfowl, wood-pile burning in the Blue Ridge, and a “Learn and Burn” with the North Carolina Sandhills Prescribed Burn Association on a private farm in the area.

Wagner, whose full-time job is southeast program manager for the nonprofit Forest Stewards Guild, said the mission is “to support, educate, and empower a community of women landowners and natural resources professionals to engage in forest conservation and stewardship” in the state. “We do this primarily through hosting educational workshops and webinars and fostering community.”

The program is run by volunteers with an executive board and several committees such as the workshop planning committee and communications committee. “We always welcome new voices to our committees and executive board.”

Anyone can join, Wagner added, “all you need to do is sign up and show up, ready to learn.”

While this organization is geared toward women landowners in the state, the programming is offered to “all marginalized genders including women-identifying individuals, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, and those who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women forest stewards,” Wagner explained. “I particularly love it when families show up to workshops together – we’ve had several mother and daughter duos and it’s always inspiring to see.”

The workshop planning committee is responsible for a lot of the workshops and webinar planning, Wagner said. They take feedback from the end-of-year surveys and craft a plan for the following year based on responses.

“For example, in last year’s survey we heard that many of our ‘ForestHers’ are interested in wildlife management, which prompted the development of this year’s spring workshop series focused on songbird identification and forestry for birds,” Wagner said.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Extension Wildlife Biologist Falyn Owens and serves on the group’s workshop planning committee, said Moores Creek was chosen on the advice of Audubon NC, a co-host of the workshop, “as a good place to see a good variety of songbirds and their habitats in Coastal NC, while also being accessible for participants.” The site has facilities and a picnic area.

Owens said participants can get a look at the possible birds they’ll see during the walk at eBird.

ForestHer NC works with several conservation groups and agencies, including The Nature Conservancy, which is a partner for the May 10 workshop.

“Through those partnerships we receive funding to host workshops on specific topics. Last year, we hosted a controlled burn workshop with the Sandhills Prescribed Burn Association that was a huge success,” Wagner said.

The conservancy in North Carolina’s Southern Coastal Plain Program Director Deb Maurer said the nonprofit works on a variety of conservation initiatives in the state “through means of protection, habitat restoration, restoring wetlands and peatlands, working on waters and rivers to improve water quality and reduce flooding.”

To reach these goals, the conservancy works with partners like ForestHer NC.

“I think what we realized is that nobody can achieve landscape goals in isolation, right? There’s just too much work to be done and too many strategies that need to be implemented, to really achieve big, broad conservation goals,” Maurer said.

These partnerships bring together dozens and dozens of people from the federal and state level, universities, nonprofits and conservation groups “to the table to talk about what are conservation priorities in that region in that area? And how do we bring our strengths to the table to accomplish those things?”

Maurer said the conservancy offered support through two recent grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for the songbird identification workshop as a way to get more information out to a diverse landowner audience on better land management and ecological topics such as knowing the songbirds on your land.

Events like the Learn and Burn with the Sandhills Prescribed Burn Association helps the conservancy “expand our reach on better land management in the longleaf ecosystem here in southeast North Carolina,” Maurer said.

Through better land management by private landowners, Maurer said the conservancy is closer to reaching its “vision of a connected, healthy, resilient, longleaf landscape,” Maurer said. “Because we can’t protect it all right? We need to be able to work with private landowners and partners that work with private landowners” because the conservancy can’t always work directly with private landowners.

“By supporting ForestHer, we’re supporting better management on private lands,” Maurer said, adding that’s one way to achieve these ecological and longleaf ecosystem goals.

And, the conservancy is “strongly committed to making sure that we are reaching out to underserved communities,” and those who are traditionally excluded in outreach for education on prescribed burning, for example, and that includes women, people of color and individuals with diverse gender identity,” Maurer added.

Groups like ForestHer are really working not only on outreach and education, “but really trying to reach audiences that hadn’t been reached in the past. They’re a wonderful partner to have to help us achieve our goals,” Maurer said. “Working with conservation partnerships, we can use everybody’s strengths to achieve what we want to achieve. It’s pretty a wonderful way of working.”