2025 / Climate, Public land

Adapting Visitor Use Management Under a Changing Climate Across the U.S. National Park System Author Links Open Overlay Panel

Citation

Wilkins, E. J., Keener, S. R., Carr, W., Winder, S. G., Reas, J., Daniele, D. B., & Wood, S. A. (2025). Adapting visitor use management under a changing climate across the US National Park System. Journal of Environmental Management, 391, 126424. doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126424

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Abstract

Research shows that climate change is already affecting both resources and visitors in U.S. National Parks. We sought to better understand if and how park staff across the National Park Service are adapting to climatic changes that affect visitor use, as well as barriers and challenges to adaptation and information needs. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 63 staff from 31 representative national park units across the United States. We qualitatively coded interviews for themes using deductive and inductive coding approaches. Results indicate that park staff are already taking action to adapt to changes that are affecting visitor use, including efforts to increase resiliency of infrastructure and to support the health and safety of visitors (e.g., increased communication, preventative search and rescue, changes to programming). Common barriers and challenges include institutional factors (such as funding, staffing capacity, and shifting priorities), uncertainty about future conditions, and difficulties with prioritizing climate adaptation. Park staff relayed varied needs for data, tools, and information, but commonly indicated a need for social science data and tools to help synthesize, standardize, and translate climate information. These results provide insights into current actions park staff are taking to adapt to climate change and what resources may be helpful in the future to lower the challenges and barriers to adaptation.

Highlights

  • Climate change is affecting visitor use in U.S. National Park Service (NPS) units.
  • NPS staff are taking actions to respond and adapt to the effects on visitor use.
  • Actions are related to visitor infrastructure, safety, and services, among others.
  • Challenges to visitor use adaptation include funding, staffing & future uncertainty.
  • Staff report needing social science data and tools to translate data to action.