Updates to Wildfire Risk to Communities reveal 115 million people living with high wildfire risk
Courtesy of Headwaters Economics
The latest climate data and methodology updates to wildfirerisk.org, a free tool for understanding wildfire risks across the United States, reveal that over 115 million people—more than one-third of the U.S. population—live in counties with high wildfire risk.
Wildfire Risks to Communities is a U.S. Forest Service website operated in partnership with Headwaters Economics and Pyrologix. Since 2020 it has provided community leaders, researchers, and policymakers with data and solutions about wildfire threats to cities, towns, tribal areas, counties, and states.
The significant updates now available at wildfirerisk.org include new weather data, the latest vegetation and fuel information, improved data about buildings and housing units, and the latest advances in wildfire simulation modeling. These improvements bring together the best available science to provide more precise insights into wildfire risks for the entire United States.
For more information:
https://wildfirerisk.org/
Operation Resiliency Response
Courtesy of ActivEnviro
In the United States public Parks & Recreation (P&R) agencies play a vital role in the physical, economic, social, and emotional health of communities. These agencies may oversee, own, and manage parks, recreation and community facilities, open spaces, trails, conservation areas, and sometimes other community amenities such as libraries, arts centers, median and monuments, fairgrounds, and sometimes even airports or other public assets. Climate crises and other types of natural disaster events are only becoming more common, and P&R agencies are often enacted as front-line responders, creating shelters, managing damage and stormwater, and helping community residents recover mentally and physically.
Read more:
https://www.activenviro.org/orr
Extreme Heat Risks for Children
Courtesy of Climate Central
Extreme heat is the deadliest weather-related hazard in the U.S. Children — especially babies, younger kids, and athletes — are among those most vulnerable to heat-related illness.
Babies and younger children have difficulty regulating their core body temperature and can be more vulnerable to hot weather. Young children sweat less and acclimate to heat more slowly than adults. During outdoor sports or play, kids may ignore or miss symptoms of heat stress.
Heat illness symptoms can include headaches, nausea, cramps, or lethargy and may require urgent medical attention. Severe cases of heat stroke can cause organ damage or death.
Read more:
https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/extreme-heat-risks-for-children
City Parks as Cooling Centers
Courtesy of Planetizen
By Diana Ionescu
Researchers at Princeton University are looking for ways to cool urban parks, reports Patrick Sisson, so they can serve as neighborhood cooling centers during extreme heat waves. According to professor Elie Bou-Zeid, “It’ll certainly be more pleasant to be in a park than in some indoor stadium where nobody wants to go.”
The strategies being tested include:
- Kirigami: a paper cutting and folding technique that can be used in architecture to control air flow and make structures cooler.
- Misters: common in places like Palm Springs, misters can significantly cool the air.
- Cold tubes: panels with cold water pipes “draw in heat from the bodies of people standing outside the structure, making them feel cooler without actually cooling the surrounding air.”
Read more:
https://www.planetizen.com/news/2024/06/129613-city-parks-cooling-centers
Call for Presentations: 2024 NOHVCC Conference
October 18-19 - Minneapolis MN
The 2024 National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council (NOHVCC) Conference will be unlike any other NOHVCC conference you have attended. Not only have we been provided special access to Polaris facilities thanks to our outstanding partners at that organization, but we will also be continuing to improve our conference format to maximize participant interaction and engagement.
We want to provide the best content to our attendees and partners so we are reaching out to the trail community to find presenters and stakeholders who would like to present at the conference. Are you part of a project that has reshaped OHV recreation in your local community? Have you developed partnerships that have revolutionized how trails are maintained and managed? Do you have insights on technology and tools that will help trail managers and stakeholders be more successful? If so, we want to hear from you.
Please provide us with a brief summary of your proposed presentation by July 26, 2024 by sending it to [email protected].
For more information:
https://nohvcc.org/engagement/attend-a-nohvcc-event/
