North Carolina — Two conservation organizations sued the U.S. Forest Service alleging the agency unlawfully entered into a contract with a logger to harvest timber near the Nolichucky River in the Pisgah National Forest, including within 20 acres of old-growth forest. The lawsuit claims the U.S. Forest Service sold timber through an unauthorized salvage logging operation on 135 acres of national forest land as part of post-Tropical Storm Helene debris removal within the Nolichucky River Gorge, which runs along North Carolina’s northwestern border with Tennessee. Helene caused “moderate to catastrophic” damage to more than 187,000 acres of national forest land, totaling around $44 million in lost vegetation and land damage in the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the suit Nov. 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and MountainTrue.