The Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests have received $47 million from Congress to repair damage wrought during the back to back tropical storms last September.

More than two-thirds of the $47 million will be spent repairing roads, generating lucrative contracts for road builders, engineers and graders in the region. Less than one-third will be spent repairing trails, recreation areas, stream bank erosion and mudslides in the landscape.

Roads are at the top of the forest service’s list because forest users can’t get to the recreation areas and trails without the road. Swollen creeks washed out some roadbeds. Others were made impassable by deep gulleys, a result of clogged culverts that channeled water over rather than under the road. And ground saturation caused cut and fill slopes to collapse.

For example, three roads leading to popular recreation areas in the Macon County section of Nantahala National Forest are closed due to slides: Deep Gap Road, which leads to a major Appalachian Trail trailhead and the Southern Nantahala Wilderness area; Bald Creek Road, in the Coweta Laboratory area of the popular Standing Indian Recreation area; and the road leading to Cliffside Lake Recreation Area.

Road repairs also will facilitate timber sales, making the roads passable once more for logging trucks. And for private landowners in and around the national forest who rely forest service roads to get to their homes.

“We are very fortunate that congress did provide special funding. Usually on major storm event it takes years and years and years to go in and get the money for the needed repairs,” said Terry Snyder, spokesman for the Pisgah and Nantahala national forest service.

Rep. Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, was instrumental in the funding.

Forest Supervisor John Ramey said the contractors have been very helpful to the forest service. Ramey said money going to the road builders and graders is benefiting local communities in addition to the forest service.

And then there’s the trails

Meanwhile, dozens of volunteers with hiking clubs in the region have done a great deal of work on the trails already at no cost to the forest service by holding weekly trail workdays all winter focused on storm clean-up.

“We had 21 inches of rain out of those storms — if rain of that magnitude comes straight down a trail, it just washes it out,” said Erin Bronk, forest ranger in the Highlands District. “We have some wonderful volunteers and they have done a great job.”

Some of the heftier trail repairs — where several large trees fell across the trail in one spot or where the rootballs of fallen trees heaved up deep portions of the trail — will be contracted out. Some 50 trail bridges throughout the national forest were washed out or damaged beyond use. While some are simply footlogs, others are bridges over major creeks that will require engineer work and professional reconstruction.

Trail repairs in designated wilderness areas are also being contracted out. Mechanical equipment like chainsaws are banned in wilderness areas, so specialized trail crews skilled in the cross-cut saw are brought in to clear the trails, Bronk said.

“It’s a tremendous relief to us,” Bronk said of the $47 million for repairs. “Trying to deal with this kind of damage out of our regular budget would just take years and years and years.”