Wildfires can close trails and char campgrounds. But exactly how recreators respond in the years after burns hasn’t been well documented at scale, according to Kyle Manley, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Excavating clues from social media, citizen science apps, cell phone data and other sources, Manley and fellow researchers modeled how many people likely visited 239 sites that had burned in California and Colorado between 2020 and 2024.
The research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found noticeable trends at burn sites compared to pre-fire years and places that hadn’t recently burned. In Colorado, visits dropped an estimated 8% on average the first year after a fire. The decline was steeper – closer to 20% – after larger, higher-intensity fires swept across the landscape.
“Wildfires are causing these pretty significant declines in visitation that are persistent,” Manley said.
In some places, particularly forests with severe burns, visitation didn’t rebound even four years later. Land managers often issue trail and campground closures after fires because of safety risks from falling, scorched trees. Even in absence of closures, people may simply feel their favorite spots are unrecognizable or less appealing after a severe fire.
“A lot of people describe it as an alien landscape,” Manley said.
On the other hand, certain types of fires did not greatly deter outdoor recreators. After prescribed burns — fires set intentionally for landscape health — visits either stayed flat or in some cases increased. Manley hypothesized these low-intensity fires may have led to better wildlife spotting, for example, in absence of a dense understory.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
