Hurricane Helene left her mark on so many places in the New River Watershed, especially in Ashe County, North Carolina. Homes destroyed, parks and trees gone, roadways and bridges washed away, and the riverbed forever changed. New River Conservancy (NRC), its partners and volunteers, have worked tirelessly since that day in September 2024. Little by little, mile by mile, the New returns to a healthy, clean, free-flowing state.
Clean ups continue to yield tons of debris – both woody and man-made – from the storm, nearly two years later. Horse troughs, wheelbarrows, and all manners of lumber have all made their way into our canoes, kayaks and rafts from these clean ups. NRC also helps fill in the gaps that other agencies either overlooked or deemed low-priority.
One such gap was “Bunk’s Bridge”, in Fleetwood, NC, so named for the grandfather of one of the landowners. The low-water bridge crossed the South Fork of the New River for almost a century, joining two families for generations, and causing paddlers to portage around its span. Debris from previous storms had surely been caught here before, but the New always found a way through and took the debris downstream. Not with Helene, though. Helene brought massive amounts of small and large tree trunks, lumber and the aforementioned horse trough, which created a dam blocking the river.
The river always finds a way – through, over, under or around. In the case of Bunk’s Bridge, the New carved out a path some 20’ around the bridge, completely eroding one bank and separating the bridge from land. This channel wasn’t safe, and definitely not navigable. As time passed, sedimentation, the number one threat to aquatic life like hellbenders, continued to dump into the river.
Last fall staff from NRC and Keep Ashe Beautiful (KAB) met with the landowners to facilitate the removal of the debris. In May of 2026, over the course of three weeks, staff and volunteers from NRC, KAB and the High Country Debris Team from Mountain True (MT) met each Friday to remove the debris.
Over 300 hours of painstaking work by 10 very determined people, the New River is once again free-flowing at this spot. Jonathan Biebesheimer, an indefatigable volunteer with NRC said “It was brutal, but I looked forward to it every week.” The work involved winches, impact wrenches, chain saws, log rollers, shovels and one Isuzu truck. MT members in wetsuits and volunteers on the bridge helped direct the process.
In the end, 10,000 pounds of debris, including 15-20 felled trees and 12 tires, were removed. Will Sowards, Clean up Coordinator for NRC said “The trees removed were hand-picked with thought and intention as we carefully removed each one from the pile.” Biebesheimer said “You could hear the river sigh.” The biggest tree and some of the woody debris was placed on the eroded bank, creating a nice fish habitat for the 15” smallmouth bass that were spotted. A safe route to portage around the bridge was also installed using planks and some of the cut up trees, reducing the need to scramble up the eroded bank and cause more damage.
The New River Conservancy is in the midst of a thorough sweep of the entire South Fork of the New River, which will continue through the summer and into the fall. Additionally NRC continues clean ups in the Virginia and West Virginia sections of the New. Andrew Downs, Executive Director for the NRC offered his thanks to the partnership that is making the New River better each day: “We’d like to extend a sincere thanks to our partners at Mountain True, Keep Ashe Beautiful, all our volunteers and our supporters who make this work happen, the New is a better place because of you.”
The staff and board of the New River Conservancy have spent every day for the last 50 years working to protect the New River watershed and is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible. The staff and board of the New River Conservancy have spent every day for the last 50 years working to protect the New River watershed and is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible. To make a donation, or volunteer check the website or Facebook pages.