If you have been in camp leadership for any length of time, you know that a large part of the job is anticipating problems before they happen. Where will the creek rise fastest in a heavy storm? Which buildings sit closest to the tree line? How many high-heat days should you be planning for now compared to 10 years ago?

These are not hypothetical questions, and many camp professionals have been sitting with them more urgently since the flooding in Texas in the summer of 2025. Camps tend to operate in the places where conditions are changing fastest, from flooding to wildfire to extreme heat, and thinking carefully about site-specific exposure has become a routine part of good stewardship.

Why Property-Level Detail Matters

General regional information, like knowing your state or county is prone to wildfire or flooding, only gets you so far. Two camps 10 miles apart can face very different exposure depending on elevation, proximity to water, fuel load, and local drainage. The most useful information is specific to your property — not just your region.

Property-level hazard models look at flooding, wildfire, extreme wind, heat, drought, and more, both under today's conditions and looking ahead to how those conditions may shift. That forward-looking piece matters for camps in particular, because decisions about buildings, roads, and site layout usually carry a horizon of 10 to 20 years, and often much longer.

Putting Risk Information to Work

Once you know your camp's specific exposure, there are several practical ways to apply it.

On the emergency preparedness side, knowing which hazards are most likely to affect your property grounds drills and response plans in real risk rather than guesswork. A camp with high flood exposure along a creek needs a different evacuation plan than one whose main concern is a single-access road that could be cut off. Andy Shlensky, owner and director of North Star Camp in Hayward, Wisconsin, ran a property-level assessment and described the value simply: "This confirmed a lot of what we already expected, but it's nice to know and not be guessing."

The same information can shape longer-term site and infrastructure planning: where to site a new cabin, whether to reinforce a low-lying road, how to plan drainage. Those decisions are stronger when they account for how conditions may change over the life of the investment.

Even day-to-day operational calls benefit — such as adjusting activity schedules on high-heat days or watching forecasts more closely during storm season — because you know which risks are most relevant to your site rather than to your region.

Questions to Ask About Your Own Camp

A few questions can help focus the conversation with your leadership team or board:

• What hazards (flood, wildfire, wind, heat, drought) are most likely to affect our property specifically, not just our general region?
• Which buildings, roads, or waterfront areas are most exposed, and does our emergency plan reflect that?
• Which deferred infrastructure decisions would better exposure data help us prioritize, and how might conditions on our property look different in 10 to 20 years?
• Who owns this information at our camp, and when did we last revisit it?

A Resource to Help Get Started

To support camps working through these questions, the American Camp Association (ACA) has partnered with First Street, a public benefit company that builds peer-reviewed, physics-based hazard models, to offer camps free access to property-level risk assessments.

“Camps are responsible for making thoughtful decisions every day to protect campers and staff,” said Henry DeHart, ACA's CEO. “By collaborating with First Street, we are helping camps access powerful tools and data that support informed decision-making and stronger preparedness strategies. This data may unveil hidden risks, and the results are not always bad news. One camp owner shared ‘I was also relieved to find that some risks we had imagined were not as likely as we had feared.’”

This partnership builds on ACA's broader commitment to evidence-informed resources for the camp community. To request an assessment for your camp, visit camp.firststreet.org.

Matthew Eby is the founder and CEO of First Street

Photo courtesy of The Kellogg PEAK Initiative / Lake Valley Camp in Milwaukee, Wisconsin