Since 1995, bear sightings in western North Carolina have surged, especially in Buncombe and Henderson counties, with an estimated 8,000–9,000 black bears in the region. Increasing human-bear encounters are linked to bears accessing human food, causing them to lose natural wariness. Wildlife officials report many incidents involve dogs or bears attracted by unsecured food. A local family in Reynolds shared a close encounter with a mother bear and her cubs denning under their porch, including two orphaned cubs temporarily placed with the mother. Officials urge residents to follow BearWise practices and support bear-resistant trash carts to reduce conflicts and keep bears wild and safe.
For about the first 10 years or so after my wife and I moved to this area in 1995, we never saw a bear — unless you count the ones on exhibit at the WNC Nature Center.
Didn’t see one while hiking on weekends. Not on the 40-acre apple farm in Edneyville we lived on for two-plus years. And certainly not milling around our suburban neighborhood nestled between I-26 and Hendersonville Road, where we’ve lived for 27 years.
The first bear we saw “in the wild,” so to speak, was a mama and her two cubs who had shinnied up a big pine tree behind the Omni Grove Park Inn, where we’d taken our two boys to see the gingerbread houses before Christmas. Hey, it was outdoors and uncaged, so we counted it as a wild sighting.
Nowadays, we western North Carolina residents, particularly those of us in Buncombe and Henderson counties, see bears everywhere — strolling through the neighborhood, hanging out on people’s porches, knocking over trash cans on garbage day, ordering honey ham at the Ingles deli.
Perhaps I exaggerate on the last one, but not by much.
Further down in this column, I’m going to tell you about a local family that had an experience with a mama bear and five cubs that included two of the cubs literally climbing up the humans’ bodies in search of food or comfort. That’s not an exaggeration.
On July 4, my wife and I were walking our two dogs in our neighborhood when Grace spotted a decent-sized bear nonchalantly strolling up the street toward us. As a group of adults and children were gathered in front of the house we were near, we joined them in their yard.
The bruin approached, veered off toward a backyard, then opted to just cross the street and walk around all of us. What struck me was how casual we all were — the bear, the kids who actually moved closer to it, the parents who kept an eye on their kids but didn’t freak out.
Judging by my friends on Facebook, this is happening all over our area. Lots of bear encounters, every day, in the cities and towns, and in the country. Just in the last week I’ve seen videos or pictures of bears pulling garbage out of rolling bins and Dumpsters, bears with multiple cubs sauntering through back yards, bears checking out the porch furniture. My wife saw a video of a mama bear with six cubs in Maggie Valley.
Six.
They usually give birth to two or three, but as the N.C. State/N.C. Wildlife Resources Urban/Suburban Black Bear Study in Asheville has shown, our bears are getting more calories from human-based food, and that gives their bodies the green light to make more babies.
Lots of bears in WNC, lots of bear encounters
We have a lot of bears around here.
“We estimate that there are 8,000 to 9,000 black bears in western North Carolina, which includes the Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” Colleen Olfenbuttel, a wildlife biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC), told me via email.
By comparison, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado has an estimated 20 to 35 bears in the entire park, according to the National Park Service. So you have way more chances of a bear encounter here than there.
Olfenbuttel added that “a very conservative estimate of bears in Asheville and the Asheville watershed would be about 500-600 bears, but likely there are more bears. Some feel there are at least 1,000 bears.”
Not surprisingly, we account for a lot of the state’s human-bear encounters in North Carolina, according to Ashley Hobbs, a special projects biologist with WRC.
“Reported human-bear interactions to our agency are consistently high in Buncombe County,” Hobbs said via email. “We usually account for around one-third of the state’s total bear reports annually.”
Statewide, the WRC recorded 2,740 bear-related calls in 2024, with the most coming from Buncombe County — 1,110. Henderson County had 115 calls.
No fatal bear attacks have been recorded in WNC, not counting federal jurisdictions such as the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Hobbs said.
“Since 2009, there have been several confirmed injuries from interactions with black bears in Buncombe County,” Hobbs said. “It is still rare, but it’s becoming more common in recent years.”
The overwhelming majority of these incidents involve off-leash dogs and were found to be defensive in nature, resulting in relatively minor injuries.”
That trend holds true statewide.
Olfenbuttel said the NCWRC started recording incidents in which a bear was reported to have made contact with a person in 2007, when she became the bear biologist. Since then, they’ve recorded 32 reports of a bear contacting a person, with seven of those being hunting-related.
These stats are telling:
Of the 25 non-hunting reports, 64 percent involved dogs (I’d like to pause here and thank my two doofus pups for not going crazy when we saw the July 4th bear. I think they were just stunned by the size of what they probably thought was a dog).
In 56 percent of reports that didn’t involve dogs, the WRC confirmed that human-related foods (bird feeders, unsecured trash, feeding of wildlife, feeding of outdoor cats) played a role.
All 25 non-hunting reports occurred in western North Carolina — 64 percent in Buncombe County and 8 percent in Henderson.
56 percent of these reports occurred in the last 5 years.
‘They are losing their wildness’
I asked Olfenbuttel and Hobbs what their “worst-case scenario” is with all these bear-human interactions, and a bear population that just seems to keep growing.
The availability of all the human-related food, called “anthropogenic foods” — whether it’s trash, bird feeders or direct feeding of wildlife in Buncombe County — “has led to black bears being unnaturally disconnected from changes in natural food abundance, such as acorns and berries,” Olfenbuttel said.
The abundance of natural foods can influence if a female has cubs in a given year, the number of cubs a female bear will have, and age of first reproduction, which in turn, all helps with management of bear population levels, she added.
“In addition, the amount of available anthropogenic foods is changing bear behavior as well; they are losing their natural wariness of people — they are losing their wildness,” Olfenbuttel said. “That is why being BearWise is so important; living responsibly with bears by implementing the BearWise Basics keeps people safe and bears wild.”
We’ve talked about this before, but let’s review the basics of the “BearWise” program:
Never feed or approach bears.
Remove bird feeders when bears are active.
Never leave pet food outdoors.
Clean and store grills.
Alert neighbors to bear activity.
Hobbs was pretty blunt in her worst-case scenario assessment, and she’d like to see some action taken.
“The worst case-scenario for Buncombe county/Asheville is that someone is eventually seriously injured by a bear,” Hobbs said. “With our increasingly high densities of bears and people and our increasing levels of development, I encourage our community to take swift and thorough action to better coexist with bears.”
She’d like to see us follow the lead of communities such as Boulder, Colorado, and Highlands, North Carolina, “both of which have implemented ordinances requiring bear-resistant garbage receptacles.
The City of Asheville has a waiting list for bear-resistant trash carts, which add $10 a month to the resident’s waste collection fees. The carts have a locking feature that allows the lid to open only when it is lifted and turned over by the motion made by the arm of the sanitation truck. // Photo from City of Asheville
“Recent studies have shown that implementing bear-resistant garbage receptacles on a large scale can reduce reported human-bear interactions by over 50 percent and significantly improve the confidence of residents to enjoy recreating outdoors in their community,” Hobbs said. “Asheville and Buncombe both have a high demand among residents for bear-resistant garbage carts, but availability of these carts is often low.”
[To get on the waiting list for a bear-resistant trash cart, the City asks residents to please fill out this form.]
Hobbs said she realizes that increasing funding for these carts may be tough in the wake of Helene, “but I hope it remains a priority to residents and local officials alike.”
Mama bear denning under their back porch
Now, about that family with the body-climbing bears.
Mercedes and Chris Irving, who live in the Reynolds/Cane Creek area south of Asheville, have had a much closer encounter with bears than most folks around here. That’s because most people haven’t had desperately hungry baby bears literally climb up their bodies in a panic.
Some background is in order. Last December, the Irvings discovered a bear had opted to den under their rarely used back porch.
In February, they discovered the bear was female and had birthed three cubs. That made mama bear a little testy.
The Irvings have a two level house, with half of the downstairs being subterranean. Mercedes Irving had taken visiting friends to the deck to show them where Helene’s floodwaters had reached.
“There’s a small deck down there, and the dogs were out,” Chris Iving said. “There’s a run that’s fenced in, and one of them (the dogs) poked their head under the deck there, and the deck like, growled. And it shook — it just shook the deck.”
That would be the mama bear growl.
The Irvings are used to bears at their house, in which they’ve lived since 2021. Chris Irving estimates 8 to 10 different bears mosey through their yard several times a year, and they half-joke about their yard being a “bear highway.”
Chris and Mercedes Irving say bear sightings are common at the home in the Reynolds area. They consider their lives there a “cohabitation” situation with the bears, as their yard is something of “a bear highway,” they say. // Provided photo.
They haven’t had any ugly encounters with them, though, unless you want to count an ornery, older bear that was missing some fur and gave “a couple of gruff warnings” to get the dogs in check.
“I think that’s the principal thing that we kind of deal with up here — that we can’t let the dogs run free, because the bears are up here too,” Chris Irving said. “That’s just a situation where things (could) get volatile.”
“They’ve never shown any aggression towards us whatsoever,” Mercedes Irving said.
Chris Irving said about a half-dozen times they’ve walked out to find a bear sitting next to the car, situations that resolved themselves without incident. He describes their lives there as “a cohabitation situation” with the bears.
But the mama bear under the deck, with her three cubs, had pulled out a vent cover leading to a crawl space under the house, and some of the insulation encapsulation was compromised.
“The bear had opened up the crawl space,” Chris Irving said, noting he was worried the cubs might get stuck in there or damage it.
The Irvings had called Wildlife Resources last fall to ask what to do with the bear, and called again after they realized she’d had cubs. They were told to just leave mama and cubs alone until April, when they would most likely venture off on their own.
The bear family did emerge in the spring, initially sticking to a small fenced-run area.
“She would just even plop down and nurse them in front of us, literally feet from our window,” Mercedes Irving said. “It was amazing.”
The humans and bears seemed to have a healthy respect for each others’ space, Mercedes Irving said.
“She seemed to feel safe, and we felt safe, and we got to experience a National Geographic sort of thing outside our window for a few weeks,” Mercedes Irving said. “It was a really cool experience. It’s kind of scary, but cool. And she never showed any aggression to us at all.”
Orphaned cubs
But things got a little more complicated when Wildlife Resources asked if they could place two orphaned cubs with the mom so she could raise them in the wild. The orphans had come from a situation where they were being bottle fed and had been inside a person’s house.
On April 9, WRC workers brought the two orphaned cubs to place with the mama bear. The Irvings said the biologist explained that the mother bear would decide pretty quickly whether to accept the cubs or not.
“And three hours later, we had two screaming cubs in the driveway and starving,” Mercedes Irving said. “They plopped them right in there, and she took them in.”
All went well until April 16, when their teenaged daughter called them and said the two orphan cubs were in the driveway, climbing on her car.
Chris Irving said he called in a couple of friends, and they rounded up some dog crates. They found the two orphan bears in the backyard, screaming bloody murder.
“We got them contained in these dog crates,” Chris Irving said.
These two panicked cubs showed back up at the Irving household on April 16, crying out and apparently hungry. // Provided photo.
They called the biologists, but it was about 7:30 at night, and it took about 30 minutes to get a call back. Ultimately, they were told it was paramount to get the cubs back into the woods where mama could find them.
“So we tried to put them in the woods and scare them off, but they were very persistent in chasing us down,” Chris Irving said. “You’ve never seen three 50-year-old men run from these tiny things — they are about the size of a small handbag.”
One of the friends drawn in to help with the job, David Sandridge, described the scenario as “a very nerve-wracking situation.”
“It was very unsettling, with that kind of proximity, because we weren’t sure if the mother bear was anywhere close and if she would charge,” Sandridge told me. “There’s a lot of things that I know to do — and some things I know not to do — and one of the things I know not to do is to handle a baby bear cub.”
That is 100 percent correct.
Cubs climb human’s pantleg
I think we all remember the unfortunate incident in April 2024 at an apartment complex in the Reynolds area where residents pulled baby cubs from a tree and posed for pictures. The bears had to be removed from that situation but were able to be rehabilitated and released back into the wild.
Sandridge and Irving said they had no intent to handle the cubs. They just wanted to shoo them back into the woods.
“What was surprising to me is just how quickly the bear was able to (climb),” Sandridge said. “It was on my ankle, and then within like a split second, it was on my knee. And then it kind of leapt from my knee to my body. Those things, they’re strong, and their nails are shockingly long.”
“What was surprising to me is just how quickly the bear was able to (climb),” David Sandridge said. “It was on my ankle, and then within like a split second, it was on my knee. And then it kind of leapt from my knee to my body.” A companion had to pull the cub off Sandridge. // Provided photo
Chris Irving said he realized how bad the situation would’ve looked to an outsider, but he assured me they know not to handle bear cubs.
“The truth of the matter is that animal is at his foot, and then you blink your eye and it’s at his face,” Chris Irving said. “It’s a situation that you’re trying to handle as safely and responsibly as you can. And, you know, sometimes it’s a little messy.”
Mercedes Irving quickly added, ‘It looks all cuddly and cozy, but these guys were petrified.”
Eventually, they got the cubs in the woods, and they believe the mother bear reclaimed them. They are not sure how things ultimately worked out for the orphan bears, but they’re hopeful they’re still bonded with their adopted mom. (I asked Wildlife Resources about the orphans’ placement with the surrogate mother, and their fate, but didn’t hear back by deadline).
The Irvings are not the kind of people who anthropomorphize bears (give them human characteristics), and they noted that Wildlife Resources strongly encouraged them to close off the denning area by their house, which they’ve done. But they also know just how many bears we have around here, and that they’re not going anywhere.
“You can get comfortable in your interactions with these things,” Chris Irving said. “And ultimately, they’re giant wild animals, and it’s best if you just educate yourself on that and respect them as having ownership over that space.”
Sandridge, who grew up in western North Carolina, has a house in Biltmore Forest, where he and his family also have had plenty of bear interactions. He’s respectful of the animals, but with so many roaming around in the city and the county, he does worry about interactions turning unfortunate, or even violent.
“I think it’s just a matter of time. There is a comfort level there,” Sandridge said, noting that they’re beautiful animals, and we admire them from the time we’re kids clutching our teddy bears to go to sleep. “I think there is a little bit of a desensitization to it.”
“A fed bear is a dead bear”
Keep in mind that bears that get too comfortable around us and start coming into homes in search of food may have to be euthanized. “A fed bear is a dead bear,” the saying goes.
Last fall, four bears in Swannanoa were euthanized, including two cubs, after the animals broke into two homes in Swannanoa, ransacking one and causing extensive damage. Hobbs said peopleliving nearby had been intentionally feeding bears birdseed.
Olfenbuttel said euthanization of bears is rare, “especially when compared to other states, but is increasing, largely due to the availability of anthropogenic foods.” Bears eating our food lose their natural wariness of people and identify neighborhoods and homes as sources for food, she noted.
If the Wildlife Resources Commission decides to euthanize a black bear, “it is because we have determined that the bear is dangerous to people,” Olfenbuttel said, citing bears that repeatedly force entry into an occupied home.
“Our biological staff decides to capture and euthanize a bear after much investigation, thought, and discussion, and it is a decision we don’t take lightly,” Olfenbuttel said, noting that biologists get into the field to conserve and help wildlife, not euthanize animals.
Please, do not feed the bears, folks.
The key here, to me, is our behavior. We, as people, are becoming too comfortable around the bears.
Bears are just being bears, and we need to stay away — and not feed them — as best we can. So let’s all review those BearWise tips one more time, and hope our cities and counties start looking at making bear-proof trash cans the norm.
If you have a bear problem, contact the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Help Line at 866-318-2401 or HWI@ncwildlife.org
Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments about this story, which has been republished on our Facebook page. Please submit your comments there.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This content is primarily an informative, community-focused article discussing the increasing presence of black bears in western North Carolina and how local residents coexist with this wildlife. It emphasizes public safety, wildlife conservation, and responsible human behavior without promoting a particular political ideology. The article includes expert opinions, calls for practical measures such as bear-resistant trash receptacles, and discourages feeding wildlife, reflecting a balanced approach aimed at consensus rather than partisan viewpoints.
SUMMARY: A bipartisan effort is underway in Congress to release unclassified records about Jeffrey Epstein, with protections to redact victim names and prevent release of child pornography. President Trump has distanced himself from Epstein-related controversies, calling them hoaxes. Despite this, he acknowledged he has the power to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s convicted trafficking accomplice, but called discussing a pardon “inappropriate” and said he’s not actively considering it. Maxwell recently met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in Florida, where she received limited immunity. The Justice Department reportedly devoted about 1,000 staff to reviewing Epstein files. Republicans face political pressure to vote on releasing these records before the midterms.
When asked if he would pardon Ghislaine Maxwell — the convicted associate of Jeffrey Epstein — President Trump said he is “allowed to give her a pardon” but “nobody’s approached me with it.”
www.thecentersquare.com – By Prisha Mosley | Independent Women ambassador – (The Center Square – ) 2025-07-28 09:45:00
Prisha Mosley, a detransitioner and Independent Women ambassador, criticizes North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein for vetoing House Bill 805, which defines “male” and “female” by biological sex and restricts state funding for gender-affirming treatments in minors. Mosley shares her experience of transitioning at a young age, undergoing testosterone therapy and surgery, only to later detransition and suffer permanent health effects. She argues the bill would protect vulnerable youth from the harms of gender ideology, contrasting Stein’s veto with similar legislation passed in 17 states. Mosley urges lawmakers to override the veto to safeguard children’s physical and mental health.
Earlier this month, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein vetoed House Bill 805, a bill that would codify sex-based definitions of “male” and “female” into state law. With his veto, Stein turns his back on vulnerable young people like me and jeopardizes the safety of those who have been led to believe they can change their sex characteristics.
By the young age of just 16 years old, I had started socially transitioning to appear as a boy. At 17, I started testosterone injections. A plastic surgeon in North Carolina cut off my healthy breasts when I was 18. My doctors said this was the only way to treat my mental illness.
Following in the footsteps of President Donald Trump’s “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” executive order, HB805 clearly defines sex-based terms like “female” and “girl” based on biological sex and prevents state funds from going toward the mutilation of minors under the guise of so-called “gender-affirming care.”
I’ve seen the harms of “gender-affirming” procedures and gender ideology firsthand. After I read about transgenderism online and saw a “gender specialist,” I was fast-tracked for medicalization. When the various procedures I was subjected to didn’t help me, I detransitioned and was left to navigate the aftermath alone. Now, I’ll never have the ability to breastfeed my son, my voice is permanently lowered, and my health is a constant battle.
Gov. Stein could have been the first Democratic governor to sign legislation aimed at protecting young adults like me. Instead, he refused to break ranks with his party and the other Democratic governors who have vetoed similar legislation in other states, setting the bill – and vulnerable children – back.
Now, the issue returns to the North Carolina Legislature, where lawmakers have the opportunity to override Stein’s dangerous veto and send a message to struggling youth that their voices have been heard and that their physical and mental well-being will not be sacrificed for the sake of ideology.
If North Carolina lawmakers choose to take this stand – overriding the governor’s veto of HB805 – they will join 17 other states that have adopted laws inspired by Independent Women’s Voice’s sex-definition model, making it clear that states will not sacrifice the truth, or children, for ideology.
Gender ideology has harmed far too many young adults. From detransitioners like me to female athletes forced to compete against trans-identifying males, our youth deserve to be protected.
For the sake of the millions of children who live in North Carolina, I hope the Legislature overrides Gov. Stein’s veto. My story should never have happened. And if this bill passes, North Carolinians are a step closer to ensuring it never happens again.
Prisha Mosley is an Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner. Independent Women Features, the storytelling platform of Independent Women, featured Prisha’s story as part of its “Identity Crisis” docu-series, which highlights the irreversible harms of gender ideology. Prisha’s story, including her pregnancy journey, was documented in two parts, which can be found here and here.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Right-Leaning
This article clearly presents an ideological perspective aligned with conservative and right-leaning viewpoints. It frames gender-affirming care and transgender rights legislation as harmful and misguided, emphasizing detransitioning and medical risks. The language is emotive and critical of Democratic leaders, portraying them as neglecting vulnerable youth by opposing the bill. The piece advocates for legally codifying biological sex and restricting gender-affirming treatments for minors, consistent with right-wing social policy positions. While it includes personal testimony, the framing and call to action reveal a clear political stance rather than neutral reporting on the issue.
Shaun Adams was laid off from Stanley Furniture in 2014, marking the loss of Graham County’s largest employer and last major manufacturer. After the plant closed, unemployment in the county rose to the highest in North Carolina, and the facility remained nearly vacant for over a decade. Adams ran for mayor in 2021, determined to revive manufacturing jobs. Recently, Chinese company EcoKing announced an $80 million investment to reopen the plant, promising 515 jobs with an average wage nearly double the county’s median income. Renovations costing $21 million are underway, and hiring will occur in phases with local college partnerships for workforce development. This investment offers new economic hope for Graham County.
by Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press July 28, 2025
When Shaun Adams was laid off by Stanley Furniture in 2014, he was beyond frustrated. Not only was he losing his job at the furniture manufacturing plant, but Graham County was losing its largest employer and last major manufacturer.
In the year after Stanley left, the unemployment rate in Graham County rose to the highest across North Carolina. Adams’ frustration grew as he saw the Robbinsville facility lay almost entirely vacant for more than a decade. Why weren’t town and county officials courting another company to use the factory space and create more jobs?
Adams ran for mayor, determined to bring manufacturing jobs back to Robbinsville. He won the office in 2021.
Last week, he got his wish: the Chinese biodegradable paperware company EcoKing announced an $80 million investment to reopen the same shuttered facility, promising 515 jobs in one of North Carolina’s most economically distressed counties.
“We have lost so much population over the years because of factories closing and our low median income,” Adams told Carolina Public Press. “This means a lot of people will get to come home.”
EcoKing manufactures for fast food restaurants like Chipotle, Chick-Fil-A, and Panda Express. When the Robbinsville facility comes online in 2026, it will be the biggest employer in Graham County, providing an average wage of $46,700, nearly double the median individual income in the county.
Picking Graham County
But first, the abandoned Stanley plant needs major renovations — to the tune of $21 million.
“If you walked through the plant with me, you would say they ought to do a series ofThe Walking Deadhere, because it just looked abandoned and neglected,” Robin Sargent, owner of Old Town Brokers, a firm that helped orchestrate the sale of the plant.
“At one time, it was a vibrant place, but holy cow, someone just let it go to hell. Taking the pictures was like getting it ready for a dating site. It takes a special person to be able to have a vision for a space like that.”
The facility needs major HVAC, plumbing and electrical work. But EcoKing wasn’t scared off by the state of the plant.
Partially they were wowed by Graham County’s natural beauty. Partially they were swayed because of the cheap, abundant power supply in the area.
The deciding factor, however, was incentives: between the town, the county and the state, EcoKing was offered $12 million over five years to pick Graham County instead of a site in the other Southern states they were eyeing.
EcoKing’s customers — those big name fast food restaurants — wanted paperware products made domestically. With the tariffs coming down from Washington, the company had to act quickly.
“The tariff is high,” John Lin, EcoKing’s representative for this project, told CPP. “And 80% of our customers are here in the United States. So is most of our raw material. That taught us to make a decision: we’re going to land right here, and be Made in the USA.”
Economic lifeline
The EcoKing investment is a lifeline for this Western corner of the state. Graham County once had more than 1,100 manufacturing jobs across four factories and a sawmill. Now all of that is gone.
After Stanley Furniture was the last to leave, a company called Oak Valley Hardwood occupied a small corner of the same building starting in 2016, but left when COVID hit. Other than that blip, hardly any economic investment has come to the area.
“For decades we struggled with the closing of textile plants and furniture plants and the tobacco industry being more or less sunset,” Sargent said.
“This area has just been hammered in a way that is not well understood — 500 jobs is a big deal here. This is a really great story of how we were able to capture the interest of an Asian company to launch a big investment in their industry here.”
There’s a certain economic irony to EcoKing’s investment. Many of the manufacturing jobs that left Graham County — and Western North Carolina more broadly — went to China as companies chased cheaper labor. Now, a Chinese company is bringing manufacturing back to the exact same building where American workers once made furniture.
EcoKing will use the same pulp supplier that served the Pactiv paper plant in Canton, whose 2023 closure resulted in the loss of 1,200 jobs and a lawsuit from former attorney general and current governor Josh Stein.
Bringing back Graham County workforce
The one downside of US manufacturing is the cost of labor, Lin said. In China, the company can get away with much lower wages. EcoKing plans to use some automated manufacturing to offset this inflated cost.
But still, the plant will need 515 workers. In one of the state’s smallest counties, that won’t happen overnight — it will require coordinated workforce development.
Hiring is projected to happen in two phases. The first phase will take place over the next three to five years, and create about 300 jobs. The second, on a longer timeline, will bring on 215 more. The company is partnering with Tri-County Community College and Western Carolina University for workforce development.
“We’re going to take a slow-burn approach,” Josh Carpenter, director of economic development group Mountain West Partnership, told CPP. “That’s what we did with Harrah’s Cherokee Casino: built a workforce of 900 to 1,200 over the years.”
Construction crews are already at work on the $21 million restoration. And for the first time in over a decade, Graham County has concrete reason for economic optimism.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This content presents a factual and balanced report on the economic revitalization efforts in a local community without clear ideological slant. It focuses on job creation, economic development incentives, and workforce challenges, avoiding partisan rhetoric or polarizing viewpoints. The article highlights cooperation between government, private companies, and educational institutions, a neutral topic that appeals to a broad audience across the political spectrum.
