Train Employees to be Aware of Climate-Exacerbated Risks to Public Safety

Employees of a recreation destination are the first line of defense when it comes to public health and safety. Staff that understand potential threats and appropriate responses can inform visitors of risks that may be encountered and initiate actions to address certain climate-exacerbated threats to public safety, such as noxious and invasive plants, hazard trees, flash floods, extreme heat, avalanches, high winds, and storm surges. For example, hazard trees are a risk that have always been present but stand to increase in number given an increased frequency of disturbance events and the prevalence of insect infestation and disease-induced mortality in forested stands prone to drought and excessive competition. Well-trained employees can take the lead in identifying hazard trees and initiating their removal. With an expanding shoulder season also comes the need for a more robust, in some places, year-round, schedule of identification and removal of hazard trees before trails, roads, and facilities start to fill with unwary visitors.

Although many forms of recreation can provide numerous health and cultural benefits, climate change can threaten the health and safety of visitors and staff and also lead to a loss of cultural identity. Conditions have become more favorable for several human health hazards, including the spread of vector-borne diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks, the proliferation of noxious plants, such as poison ivy, risks to campgrounds and other infrastructure, such as flooding, hazard trees, and wildfires, increased risks of avalanches given projected rain-on-snow occurrences, heat-induced illnesses, such as dehydration and heat stroke, a prolonged pollen season and associated respiratory illnesses such as asthma, and poor air quality from both natural and anthropogenic sources. This strategy aims to reduce the risks themselves but also to reduce the exposure of visitors and staff to those risks. This can be achieved through open communication, environmental education, and interpreting the changes that are occurring so that visitors’ expectations and preparedness align with actual conditions that they are likely to encounter while recreating. In addition to the physical risks, the risks to cultural identity when a recreation activity is no longer feasible are also very real and may need to be communicated in a way that is sensitive to a community’s sense of place.