Earth Day volunteers clear Helene debris from French Broad River

More than 25 volunteers in 13 canoes pulled tires, trash and other Helene debris from the French Broad River, a sign the storm’s cleanup was still far from finished. The Earth Day effort covered the stretch between Hominy Creek River Park and the Craven Street Bridge in Asheville, where MountainTrue and Buncombe County Parks and Recreation spent part of the morning removing material that remained in the channel months after the hurricane.

The work was practical as much as symbolic. Crews spent hours hauling out smaller debris, while larger storm wreckage had already been taken out in earlier cleanups. That shift matters: it shows how the recovery has moved from the most visible piles of destruction to the less obvious material that still affects the river corridor, water quality and access for paddlers, tubers and anglers.

Buncombe County’s own recovery numbers show the scale of what Helene left behind. In briefing materials dated May 5, county officials said 1,294,895 cubic yards of waterway debris had already been removed and projected that waterway debris removal would end by June 1, 2025. The same briefing listed 1,540,409 cubic yards of right-of-way debris removed and 6,074 private and commercial property debris applications. By August 2025, the county said more than 2.46 million cubic yards of debris had been removed from private properties, public rights of way and waterways, including 4,774 private parcels.

The cleanup on the French Broad also points to who is now carrying the long-term burden. In July 2025, MountainTrue and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality launched a $10 million River Debris Cleanup Program to fund paid crews for 18 months across more than 150 miles of river. MountainTrue said the program was needed because federal recovery efforts had focused mainly on large rivers and debris posing immediate public health or safety risks, leaving smaller waterways and tributaries still clogged.

That matters in Buncombe County, where the French Broad is not just a scenic stretch of water but a major economic asset. A 2022 economic impact study estimated the French Broad River watershed generated $3.8 billion a year across eight counties. Western North Carolina outdoor recreation has since been estimated at $4.9 billion annually, which helps explain why officials and conservation groups treat river cleanup as part of recovery, not a side project.

MountainTrue said in March 2026 that its Madison County cleanup crew and French Broad Riverkeeper staff had removed 203,728 pounds of flood debris from a roughly 10-mile whitewater stretch over 16 months. The Asheville cleanup fits into that broader effort: a river still carrying the physical evidence of Helene, and still waiting for the last phase of recovery to catch up.