By Debra Murray reporting for Native Plant News Spring 2025
Grants available for community organizations to restore and replant after the hurricane!
The North Carolina Native Plant Society offers grants to support restoration efforts in the North Carolina mountains post-Hurricane Helene. Applications are being accepted now through September 1, 2025. Visit B.W. Wells Stewardship Fund to learn more about the grants, how to apply, and application guidelines.
Hurricane Helene brought devastation to many parts of the North Carolina mountains. While work progresses to repair infrastructure and buildings, the surrounding landscape has also fundamentally changed. The storm created not only a humanitarian crisis but an ecological one as well, leaving behind washes, flood damage, landslides, and significant tree loss. These changes pose future threats, including the rapid spread of invasive species in disturbed areas. However, this challenging moment also presents an opportunity to reclaim the land from invasive growth and exotic landscaping. Restoring sites with native plants will bring numerous ecological benefits and build functional, resilient habitats.
The grants offered by NCNPS support efforts of volunteer groups and community organizations to restore and replant damaged areas. These grants are made possible thanks to the generous contributions of our members to the B. W. Wells Stewardship Fund.
Grants up to $3000 are available for community organizations in disaster-declared counties. Funds can be used for installing new or repairing damaged native plant gardens in public parks and other spaces, replanting in parks or other flood-damaged areas, supporting large restoration efforts, and creating outreach or other educational tools to promote native plants. Please note that funds cannot be used for non-native plants.
Debra Murray is a research scientist at Duke University studying the genetics of fungal pathogens. Before coming to Duke, she studied the evolutionary biology of insects and spent several years in the tropics. She earned her PhD at Louisiana State University in Entomology and conducted postdoctoral work at Oregon State University and Florida State University. Throughout her scientific research, she has maintained her love of natural history, recently expanded to include NC native plants. She serves as chair of the Grants and Scholarship Committee for NCNPS.