The Great Outdoors Before and After Covid

“In the beginning, no one had any real answers as to what was going on,” said Chris Ham, deputy director of recreation, lands, minerals, and volunteers for the Rocky Mountain region of the Forest Service. “And many of us were thinking, how do we keep each other safe and keep our sanity?”

Around the country in 2020, many of us were told to keep our distance to help stop the spread of Covid-19. So, we did the logical thing; put on our hiking pants, laced up our boots, filled up our sticker-laden water bottles, put down our ‘it’s 5 o’clock- somewhere’ drink, and headed into the great outdoors.

Getting lost in the woods (not in a Thoreau way)

You likely don’t need stats to reiterate that people flocked outside during 2020 and 2021. All you needed to do was look outside and see a line of cars around the block waiting to get into a state park. Or try to get to your usual campsite only to find it’s been booked for the foreseeable future.

But let’s look at some numbers anyway. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, in 2020, 160.7 million Americans aged six and up participated in hiking, fishing, camping, biking, and other outdoor activities, up 7.1 million people when compared to 2019. According to Colorado Public Radio, state parks saw 19.5 million visitors, up 31% since 2019. To bring those numbers a bit closer to home Chatfield State Park, in Douglas and Jefferson Counties, saw annual visitor rates shoot up from 1.72 million in 2019 to 2.38 million in 2020.

“We just weren’t ready for the rush that came about with Covid,” said Chris Walters, park manager at Chatfield State Park. Walters has worked in state parks for over 20 years and started his role at Chatfield in February of 2020 just before the great rush. “It was difficult to deal with so many visitors without the increase of staff.”

Especially since many visitors were new to outdoor recreation.

“They weren’t familiar with things like why it’s so important to drive on roads or parking lots, not in fields or trails. It definitely had an impact on the land,” said Walters.

Naturally, not all state and national parks saw such a wild uptick in numbers. But the ones closer to urban areas often did. And this put park staff in a difficult position.

“We were one of the groups who never had the chance to work remotely,” said Walters. “And that was difficult. There were a lot of unknowns in 2020, which put our workers and their families in a weird position.”

But even outdoor areas well off the beaten path saw a major uptick in traffic, explained Ham. During Covid, Ham was in Arkansas working for the Forest Service. He explained that throughout the country, the Forest Service shut down many high-traffic visitor centers, campgrounds, and picnic areas in the early days of the pandemic.

“This means people gravitated towards places that didn’t have development,” said Ham. “Which posed issues because all of a sudden you had an onslaught of visitors in an area that doesn’t necessarily have facilities to handle them. Especially if they come in mass, and then you end up with trash issues, human waste issues, and everything else.” This became particularly difficult with visitors spread over hundreds and in some cases millions of acres.

“In some cases, we only had two or three recreation staff per ranger district, so it definitely posed a challenge for us,” said Ham.

But the environment and those tasked with running parks and public lands weren’t the only ones stretched thin. Search and rescue teams saw record numbers of calls in 2020 and early 2021.

According to one PBS story, Colorado receives over 3,000 search and rescue calls annually. And that number is only going up. That same report also spoke about New Hampshire, which started charging those being rescued if they were deemed negligent in the hopes that it would make people think twice before heading into the backcountry unprepared. Stateline noted that southwest Utah jumped from an average of 50–60 search-and-rescue calls annually to 130 in 2020 alone.

As for Colorado, “the number of incidents went way up in 2020,” said Anna DeBattiste, program manager of Colorado Search and Rescue Association. “There were a couple teams that saw 200 – 300% increase in calls in 2020, as compared to the previous year.”

According to The Colorado Sun, the Centennial State has about 50 Backcountry search-and-rescue-teams made up of about 2,500 volunteers. The high demand only exacerbated the confusion on an already over-taxed system. How it works in Colorado, DeBattiste explained, is that sheriffs have the statutory responsibility to coordinate rescue missions in their county. And they most often rely on different search-and-rescue teams that are made up entirely of volunteers. In other words, no one is getting paid.

CSAR is what DeBattiste called “a team of teams.” It’s a volunteer organization made up of search-and-rescue volunteers from teams all over the state. CSAR doesn’t conduct any rescue missions themselves. Instead, they help connect teams to different resources they might need, like search dogs, helicopters, or cell phone forensics experts. They also provide training and educational courses to search-and-rescue teams around the state and outdoor education for the public.

“There are two big myths surrounding search-and-rescue,” said DeBattiste. “One is that we are sitting in a firehouse ready to slide down a pole when we get your call. When in reality, we are at home or our day jobs. The second is that we charge for services. This can result in people delaying calling, which can only make things worse as it gets darker, the injury worsens, or the weather changes drastically. ”

To add to the stress, rules and regulations surrounding Covid were changing on what sometimes felt like an hourly basis. “We were designated as an essential service,” says DeBattiste, “So we had to make contingency plans for what to do if an entire team went down with Covid. Thankfully that never happened.” However, back before everyone fully understood how the virus spread, it put a lot of volunteers in difficult situations. After all, you can’t socially distance yourself when you’re helping carry someone on a litter down the side of a mountain.

Additionally, wearing a mask while hoofing it up a trail to find someone is not for the faint of heart. “It makes it more challenging from a physical standpoint,” said DeBattiste. Yet despite everyone heading into nature not all outdoor industries thrived. Especially community-based ones like Colorado Mountain Club. Started in 1912, CMC offers classes in things like avalanche safety, backpacking, hiking, and more along with guided trips for adults and school age students.

“CMC saw its membership and renewals decrease during Covid,” said Madeline Bachner Lane, CEO of CMC. “And that’s because community is at the core of everything CMC does.” Many weren’t comfortable carpooling to events, which had been the norm before. Additionally “We had to cancel a lot of our programming since the rules surrounding meeting outside were constantly changing. We also work with schools, so naturally, those classes were canceled as well.”

Another solo activity that really took off during the pandemic? Birding. After all, people could just step into their own backyard or nearby green space and bypass crowds. If that was you, you’re also in good company. According to a study put out by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, 96 million people across the U.S. have come to enjoy the hobby.

“We saw people getting into birding everywhere,” said Zach Hutchinson, community science coordinator at Audubon Rockies. “People had more time and they could go out into just about any green space and look at birds.” He goes on to explain that Audubon added various online classes to keep up with the demand.

Getting outside in a post-Covid world

Since the Covid madness came to an end, you’ve likely noticed park entry lines aren’t quite as long, the trailheads aren’t as packed, and your favorite camping spot might be a tad more free. But don’t anticipate pre-Covid numbers just yet, or ever really.

According to The Colorado Sun, 14.5 million more Americans have taken up outdoor recreational activities since 2020. Not to mention Colorado’s population has been steadily climbing. According to Neilsberg, a whopping 1,511,649 people moved to the Centennial state between 2000-2022. With more people arriving annually. And we think it’s safe to assume many are doing so for the purpose of getting closer to nature.

“We encourage people to get out into the beautiful outdoors,” said DeBattiste. “That’s what Colorado is all about. And we encourage experienced folks to try to mentor beginners rather than be gatekeepers.”

In response, outdoor organizations have started to make changes. Not directly because of Covid. But rather because the pandemic exasperated a system that’s already under a lot of strain and demand. One of those was the lack of communication. “You don’t want to think about the worst case scenario,” said Lane. “But in order to manage risk, you have to. And we have to continue to improve upon the ways that we communicate, which is something the pandemic showed us.”

When it comes to communicating how to recreate more responsibly, the Forest Service has already started that conversation. “We have started to work more closely with different organizations throughout Colorado who can better communicate ideas like “leave no trace” to their communities,” said Ham. “We need help with spreading awareness and education.”

So far, the Forest Service has worked alongside Envision Chaffee County, National Forest Foundation, and other groups. Along with helping enforce leave no trace principles, these organizations have also helped gather data on visitors to certain areas, helped write grant proposals, and more.

Change of scenery

Outdoor goers might also notice some changes when it comes to how various parks and trails are set up.

For instance, Chatfield set up an extra entry lane to help prevent traffic from flowing over into town. They’ve also added additional signage and barriers such as boulders to prevent people from driving their cars to places they aren’t supposed to be — like fields.

Similarly, Ham noted the Forest Service has started implementing various changes updating camping facilities. However, due to lack of funds and staffing in some cases, these projects will take time. Similarly, there’s the National Parks Service, which reported at the end of the 2023 fiscal year that they have an estimated $23 billion in repair and maintenance projects that need to be completed.

Making it easier for search-and-rescue teams

Search-and-rescue missions have more or less returned to pre-pandemic numbers. But much like the infrastructure at many of our beloved parks, the search in rescue system is under a considerable amount of strain. After all, volunteers need to pay for their own gear plus gas to get to rescue missions, which typically costs them well over $1,000 annually. Not to mention, the high cost of living (especially in many mountain towns) plus the time and stress.

“How do we help ensure the sustainability of a system that’s going to have to handle increasing numbers for probably forever?” asked DeBattiste.

One method? Legislation. And CSAR has been behind several bills attempting to make things better for search and rescue volunteers. For instance, they helped pass Senate Bill 168 in June of 2022 which provides higher education benefits to dependents of search-and-rescue volunteers should they be killed or disabled while completing a mission. They also helped draft and advocate for SB21-249, which created the “Keep Colorado Wild Pass.” People can purchase a $29 pass when they register their cars. It will grant them state parks access and some of the money will go directly to counties on behalf of their search-and-rescue teams. And now, DeBattiste hopes CSAR can get back to advocating for bills to continue to aid search-and-rescue volunteers.

Finding your place outdoors

It’s safe to say many of us feel better about recreating in groups again. “Over the last couple of years we’ve pivoted back to getting kids here to our facility or meeting them in the field for a hike,” said Lane. “Our school and youth education programs rebounded quite well.” As for memberships, she explained it’s still up and down. Some people really found their groove outside on their own. But more people are coming back to take classes to help them level up their abilities.

This seems to be true in the birding world as well. Virtual classes haven’t quite reached pandemic numbers. But Hutchinson explained they continue to host in-person classes on Zoom so people can attend from all over the country.

No, the numbers of outdoor enthusiasts aren’t likely going down anytime soon. But isn’t that a good thing? Or as Ham put it “If you are not getting into nature, it’s harder to love outdoor spaces because they are just an abstract idea.  But once you’re in it it’s no longer just an idea and you can experience all those benefits that come with being outdoors.”