State Parks is already experiencing climate related impacts, which will be exacerbated by climate change. River flooding in winter has closed campsites, wildfires in the eastern region have damaged park facilities and extreme high tides regularly flood coastal beaches. Recognizing the challenges that climate change poses to the agency, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission passed a resolution in 2015 directing the agency to develop a climate change preparedness plan.

The first step that State Parks took towards developing the preparedness plan was to perform a Vulnerability Assessment, which was completed in 2017. This Adaptation Plan builds on the Vulnerability Assessment by identifying current on-going, short-term and long-term actions to help reduce vulnerabilities. The next step in building a climate resilient State Park agency and system is to develop an implementation plan and enhance the agency capacity required to support actions identified in the plan.

State Parks staff completed a survey to identify which of the climate vulnerabilities identified in the 2017 Vulnerability Assessment were most important to address in the Adaptation Plan. Then, during two day-long workshops, 38 State Parks staff evaluated, customized and prioritized more than 200 potential adaptation actions that were compiled by the Climate Impacts Group from the scientific literature and existing adaptation plans. Staff refined the list to the higher-priority adaptation actions included in this plan.

The workshop and refinement process resulted in 107 potential high-priority adaptation actions to increase the climate resilience of State Parks’ properties, facilities, operations and state-wide programs. In the plan, actions are grouped according to the timeframe anticipated for progress: 36 on-going actions are already in progress, 20 near-term actions will be prioritized over the next six years and 51 long-term actions will take more than six years to make significant progress. Potential actions identified in the plan include changes to practices and behavior, policies, outreach, partnerships, data collection and monitoring, evaluation and assessments and staff capability building.

The Washington State Park’s Adaptation Plan includes 107 potential high-priority adaptation actions to increase the climate resilience of State Parks’ properties, facilities, operations, and state-wide programs. Actions are grouped into ongoing, near-term and long-term actions.

A diversity of actions will be needed to prepare the agency for climate change. Changes to practices and behavior are the most common action for all cross-cutting programmatic concerns. Other potential actions identified in the plan include policies, outreach, partnerships, data collection and monitoring, evaluation and assessments, and staff capability building.

The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to the members of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission staff who participated in project workshops and document review.

Washington State Parks Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment 2017)