Charlotte had 419 calls for downed trees after Helene, here’s how the city can replace them

CHARLOTTE — When a storm like Hurricane Helene blows through, the damage is hard to miss.

Charlotte’s City Arborist, Laurie Reed, said the Queen City had 419 distinct calls for trees fallen into roads and other public rights of way when the storm hit in late September.

“At some point, we had over 100 roads that were completely blocked,” she said.

It’s not a comprehensive total for the number of trees lost in the storm, but Reid said it gives her department a good sense of the extent of the damage. She said it was slightly more than Charlotte loses in a typical storm, but far less than a major catastrophe like Hurricane Hugo, which took out thousands of trees.

During Helene, she said one of the biggest issues was soil moisture. You may have noticed fewer trees snapping and more “root balls” being pulled out of the ground before toppling. Reid said that’s due to the soil getting so saturated, the roots slip.

“Lots of big trees was one of the things that we saw,” she said. “Then it rained the next day and then we got heavy wind. That’s kind of a recipe for trees that could potentially fall, unfortunately.”

Despite the damage, Reid expects the storm won’t make a permanent dent in the city’s tree canopy, as long as the trees are replaced as soon as possible.

The right time to plant is now.

According to Allison Rhodes, the executive director of Trees Charlotte, fall through early spring is the best time to put new trees in the ground. Trees are dormant and the weather is cooler. That’s why the nonprofit has a series of volunteer planting efforts through October and November.

“It’s just the better time to get them into the ground and let the roots take place and give the tree the best chance for success,” she said.

It’s not enough to simply plant any trees, however. Trees Charlotte advocates for anyone looking to plant a tree on their property to contact an arborist first so you’re planting a tree that’s both good for the local environment and the space, and will provide what you need it to provide.

The city forestry department says it can replace about half of the trees it removed after Hurricane Helene. The other half fell from private property, and it’s on those owners to choose if and how they’ll replace them.

“A tree in a backyard, is full of sun, a lot of people fertilize their grass, lots of moisture so that kind of tree is growing in a different situation so keeping up with the maintenance of that tree is really important,” she said.

Reid said city arborists can inspect trees in public rights of way to potentially prevent a fall before it happens, but she said that needs to happen long before a storm is in the forecast.

“It’s not just two weeks, a month before hurricane season,” she said. “It really is year-round looking at those trees.”

Charlotte’s goal is to achieve 50 percent canopy coverage by 2050. The last comprehensive report from the city shows as of 2022, the city is around 47 percent, though the canopy is declining. Tim Porter, the city’s urban forester, said the city plans to draft a long-term plan next year to prevent canopy decline and meet that 2050 goal.

In the near term, he said the focus will be looking at where the city is planting trees, focusing on the corridors of opportunity and places with high concentrations of impervious surfaces.

“Only nine percent of our canopy covers impervious surfaces which is problematic if we’re trying to really be successful if we’re trying to prevent urban heat islands,” he said.

In the end, Rhodes believes that’s one of the most important things to acknowledge, saying the tree canopy isn’t just something that makes our city beautiful, but it’s an important part of our community’s public health.

“They clean the air that you’re breathing, they mitigate stormwater runoff and they’ve been shown to reduce physical and mental stress,” she said. “Trees provide a lot.”

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