CALIFORNIA—The stress of the pandemic propelled many people to get outdoors and spend time in nature. Some recreated in their national forests for the first time. Along with the benefits of this surge in visitation came the challenges of resource damage and escalating safety issues.

Forest Service social science analyst Dr. Alyssa Thomas, her colleagues, and partners from the University of Kansas and Michigan State University are researching how this record-breaking visitation is affecting people’s ability to access and enjoy their national forests in Southern California.

“It’s a perfect storm,” Thomas explained. “As visitors come in record numbers to national forests, the effects of climate change are fueling more extreme weather events. Devastating wildfires, massive flooding, high-heat advisories and other hazards are causing safety concerns and forest closures.”

Using cell phone data, census information and visitor surveys, Thomas and the team are getting a snapshot of who’s visiting the Angeles, San Bernardino, Cleveland and Los Padres national forests. Combined, these four forests cover over 3.7 million acres, and provide habitat for wildlife, drinking water for communities and unparalleled recreational opportunities for Southern California’s roughly 23 million residents.

Thomas and the team want to find out what motivates visitors to go to these forests. What barriers do people of color and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds face to visiting forests? How do people respond when their chosen site or activity is unavailable? And how are visitors getting information about forests, particularly important safety updates?
Thomas noted that a major component of this research is to understand if underserved communities have options to visit alternative sites when forest closures occur. “We don’t want visitors to become so discouraged by lack of access that they stop coming to their national forests.”

Based on input from Forest Service managers, Thomas and the team are focusing their research on a handful of populated day-use areas, sensitive sites and areas with high-fire severity risks. They’ve already observed marked differences in the way different groups of people use their forests. Hispanic families, for instance, generally prefer developed areas with picnic tables and restroom facilities. They are often more tolerant of crowds than are other visitors.

Gus Bahena, public affairs specialist for the San Bernardino National Forest, concurs with Thomas’s and the team’s observations about his culture. He remembers piling into the car as a young boy, with his extended family to visit the Angeles National Forest. “We’d bring food, eat and spend time in the waters of the San Gabriel River.”

Those experiences stayed with Bahena, who now shares his deep connection to national forests with others. During a busy Fourth of July weekend, he observed several visitors in Lytle Creek, located in the eastern portion of the San Gabriel Mountains. They were mostly large groups of Hispanic families, sitting in lawn chairs, eating and watching young children splash in the water.

When Bahena asked these families what drew them there, many remarked that visiting Lytle Creek was part of a long-standing family tradition that spanned generations. One man, who was there with his grandchildren, told Bahena that being in the forest is helping him recover from the grief of recently losing his wife. Speaking to these families and other visitors about why they come to the forest, Bahena believes, is important. He sees a lot of value in Thomas’s and the team’s research.

Dana Dierkes, public affairs officer for the Angeles National Forest, agrees. “This research will help us understand how visitors use our forests and people’s perceptions of them, so we can focus our outreach efforts and use this information for the management of our public lands.”

Dierkes and her staff are witnessing unprecedented visitation to popular recreational sites. In 2021, more than 4.5 million people visited Angeles National Forest, eclipsing the number of visitors to Grand Canyon National Park.

In one census tract near the Angeles National Forest, researchers found 35% of residents speak a language other than English at home. The team is evaluating how these residents receive information and the social media platforms they use. They then provide this visitation data to managers, like Dierkes, to help them reach diverse communities.

“We need more social science research like Thomas and the team are doing. That way we have the information we need to help visitors understand how to care for the places they love,” Dierkes emphasized.