North Carolina
Families across the state buy Christmas trees from western North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — When Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, many Christmas tree farms, a major source of income in that part of the state, suffered major damage.
Some farms lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in trees. Still, Fraser Firs from western North Carolina made it out across the state and the country as many families came out Thanksgiving weekend looking for their perfect tree.
“It has to be full,” said Heather Hartman, visiting a tree lot with her family on Black Friday. “It has to be straight. My older girls just told me about the Christmas flair. It’s got to be a little bigger at the bottom.”
For Hartman, this is an annual tradition, but this year, the Booger Mountain tree lot her family picked their tree from is even more important. The trees come from Ashe County, part of western North Carolina hit hard by Hurricane Helene.
“I grew up in western North Carolina,” Hartman said. “I’m happy that this is helping them. I love coming here because I know they come from the mountains.”
Bentley Powell, who manages the Booger Mountain lot off Falls of Neuse Road, said many of customers are asking about western North Carolina and making sure their purchase is supporting farmers in the region. He said it is encouraging to see people wanting to help.
“The money will go right back to the mountains and go to help the people that need it,” Powell said. “Depending on where the damage was, a lot of the workers were displaced. There’s some of them still living in tents and campers in the cold weather.”
Booger Mountain’s farms out west did not lose many Christmas trees, but did see many other trees knocked down, blocking roads on the farm. The biggest issue Booger Mountain and many other growers faced was washed out roads in and out of the farm, creating issues for trucks that needed to get in to load the trees.
Damage to main roads like I-40 is also an issue for growers transporting their trees to the eastern part of North Carolina and beyond.
“They’ve been thrown extra obstacles as far as having to quickly get roads fixed,” said Jennifer Greene, the executive director of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association.
Farmers have worked with each other and NCDOT to get those roads fixed enough to get a tree to every family who wants one, including the Hartmans, in time to get it properly decorated.
“You can’t just put 100 lights around it and call it lit,” Hartman said. “It’s got to be 1,000.”
Christmas tree growers said they are seeing more people interested in buying a real tree, which is a positive sign, but they say those numbers need to keep growing over the next few years to help rebuild.
There is some sad news from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s popular Barn Owl Live Cam.
Wildlife officials say a Great Horned Owl entered the barn Wednesday around midnight and killed one of the barn owl owlets. Biologists have not been able to determine which owlet was lost.
They have confirmed it was one of the three youngest birds in the nest. The Wildlife Commission says the incident is heartbreaking but also a natural part of life in the wild.
Great Horned Owls are one of the main predators of Barn Owls, and encounters between the two species do happen. The attack was captured on the live camera.
Officials say the video also shows an extremely rare moment when the adult female Barn Owl fought the Great Horned Owl on top of the nest box. Despite the loss, the surviving owlets are expected to continue growing over the coming weeks.
They will lose their fluffy down feathers, begin exploring outside the barn, and continue developing hunting skills.
The Wildlife Commission says some of the young owls could leave the nest as early as July.
After leaving the nest, they usually travel alone and may eventually move hundreds of miles from where they hatched. The Barn Owl Live Cam remains available for the public to watch.
(WLOS) — In a tragic update, one of the baby barn owls being monitored by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has died after a great horned owl entered the barn and killed the owlet. The barn owlets had attracted worldwide attention through the wildlife commission’s ongoing observation efforts.
Officials with N.C. Wildlife said it is not yet clear which owlet was killed, but confirmed it was one of the three youngest.
The wildlife commission said it captured a photo of the great horned owl and the adult female barn owl fighting on top of the box, calling it an “extremely rare encounter to capture on camera.”
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The wildlife commission said that while this loss is tragic, it is a common encounter because great horned owls are a top predator of barn owls. Officials also said this will likely not be the last encounter.
Over the next few weeks, the commission said viewers will likely see the remaining owlets start exploring, leaving the barn and learning to hunt. The fledglings may leave the barn as early as July to start hunting on their own, according to the commission.
You’ve got to feel terrible for former North Carolina standout Henri Veesaar right now. When he announced that he was leaving Chapel Hill to take his game to the NBA, plenty of eyebrows were raised. However, he was getting first-round grades, which made the decision a bit easy for him. That call has come back to backfire on him.
The first round of the NBA Draft has wrapped up, and the star big man never heard his name called. You’ve got to be kidding. There was always a bit of a worry that Veesaar would fall to the second round, but the recent buzz calmed worries there. Now, though, this setback has surely proverbially slapped him in the face a bit:
UNC’s Henri Veesaar does not get selected in the first round of the 2026 NBA Draft. He slips into the second round.
Turned down between $3-4 million to return to UNC? Maybe more?
— Ross Martin (@RossMartinNC) June 24, 2026
Henri Veesaar falling to the second round of the NBA Draft is a bit of a stunner
It’s no secret that Michael Malone and his new UNC staff were quite aggressive in their pursuits of bringing him back to Chapel Hill, as he would have easily had the Tar Heels in the Top 15-20 conversation. At first, with mock drafts popping up with him as a second-rounder, it felt like a return to the ACC was going to be in the works. The narrative changed there not long after, though.
He indeed bolted for the NBA Draft, with the assumption that he was going to be a first-rounder. Veesaar took a bit of a chance there, and things just did not go to plan for him. Let’s make one thing clear here too: we’re not happy in any way. With Veesaar leaving, Carolina fans were wishing him the best, the same way they were for Caleb Wilson.
Wilson ended up getting his life-changing news early during draft night, with the Chicago Bulls taking him off the board at No. 4 overall. Things were only made better for Wilson and North Carolina as a whole with Hubert Davis on hand for the former 5-star freshman’s big moment. It was a surprise not many of us were ready for.
On the flip side of things, Veesaar was left waiting for his special moment, but it never arrived. Is it possible that he’s having some serious regrets over things? We don’t want to speak for Veesaar or make any assumptions, but this just sucks as a whole for him. After averaging 17 points and eight rebounds per game, while taking home all-conference honors, it’s a bit of a stunner that his draft slide has taken place like this.
Had Veesaar returned to school, North Carolina’s 2026-27 outlook would have been looking much stronger. Instead, Malone went overseas to bring in Sayon Keita and Alexandros Samodurov to help carry the load near the glass. That helps, but replacing Veesaar was always going to be a difficult task, as he’s a dominant force. We can play the ‘what if’ game all we want had he stayed in Chapel Hill for one more season, but that’s pointless. Still, it’s now feeling like Veesaar got some bad advice, and that playing for Malone would have been the best thing for him next campaign.
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