The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission manages some of Washington’s most valued water bodies, diverse landscapes and historical properties. The ability of State Parks to preserve Washington’s diverse landscapes and continue to serve as a conduit of outdoor recreation and education is vital to the agency’s mission. Preparation for the impacts of climate change has become critical as the agency strives to create and sustain a healthy parks system.

Changes in precipitation, streamflow, snowpack, ecosystem health, vegetation disturbance, as well as sea level rise and related impacts are all expected to affect State Parks. State Parks has already experienced many climate related issues which will be exacerbated by climate change. Winter flooding has resulted in campsite closures, low snowpacks have led to less winter recreation and wildfires have caused temporary park closures and have damaged park infrastructure.

Concerns about the effects of climate change impacts led the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission to pass a resolution in 2015 directing the agency to develop a climate change preparedness plan. This vulnerability assessment is the first step in taking meaningful action to safeguard State Parks’ programs and property in the coming decades. Next steps include creating an Adaptation Plan and an Implementation Plan, and fulfilling their directives.

This vulnerability assessment combines published literature and data with the expert knowledge of Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission staff and the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group. To begin the assessment, the Climate Impacts Group prepared summaries of projected climate change impacts relevant to State Parks from existing literature and data sets.

The Climate Impacts Group then convened four workshops with State Parks staff to assess the implications of climate change impacts on each of the Parks’ three regions and on statewide programs. Workshop participants were asked to rate their ability to adjust to projected climate impacts and to rate the expected consequences of the impacts to their mission and responsibilities. The results from these workshops indicate that the State Parks system is expected to be affected by climate change through a variety of pathways.

The workshops with agency staff also revealed five cross-cutting programmatic issues and concerns that are common across climate change impacts, regions and statewide programs. These issues are: the design and location of park infrastructure, park access, water features, park visits and revenue and historic structures and archaeological sites.

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.

The Climate Impacts Group would like to thank Ashly Spevacek for her research assistance early in the project.

Washington State Parks Adaptation Plan (2019)