Risk Assessment for Remote Field Sites/Wildlands

[Salamander]

This is a spin-off from one of the field pistol threads; we were talking about bears and other wildlife there, but here I'd like to expand that to include a wider range of potential risks. The intent is to provide general guidance on how to assess risk prior to venturing out into the woods/fields/swamps etc, whether that's for a weekend hike in the backcountry or extended on the job field work. There are lots of folks on P-F who are very good at assessing urban risks, I'm guessing that knowledge is less widespread for the backcountry. There are certainly folks here who know much of this at a common sense level, for some I'm just trying to help organize that info.

My perspective is as a senior project manager for a global consulting firm, in that context we run a risk assessment prior to sending staff into the field for almost anything, these days. For me that can be biologists, geologists, engineers, construction managers, and more. We get into some pretty remote sites, NEPA baseline studies for mines deep in the desert as one example. What follows is based on 35+ years of experience all over the US and to a lesser extent internationally. At least some government agencies have a similar and sometimes more complicated process. I'm pretty certain that the more specialized .mil types have their own unique risk assessments, although I'm curious if/how the current iterations factor in environmental and wildlife risks when there are obviously greater conflict-related dangers present.

The next post summarizes a generic up-front risk assessment, we do a variation of this for almost anything out of the office. Even being familiar with the concepts can help one to avoid surprises, it's certainly not necessary to fill out a form for every walk in the local park. After that I'm thinking of running through wildlife risks by taxa; large mammal predators get most of the attention in recent threads on P-F, but smaller critters can be risks as well. At some point I'll offer examples of resources to look up info. And I'll probably run through region by region examples for at least the US, since the risks are dramatically different in the western mountains vs the midwest vs the southeast, for example. A regional approach also offers a chance to get into non-wildlife risks, since there are far more injuries or near misses from things like slips/trips/falls or weather than from all wildlife combined.

One goal is to help individuals ask the right questions when deciding which pistol/ammo or other gear to take in the field that day. Sometimes realizing that oh yeah, xyz is a potential risk on this particular day and location, can result in loading up with some different things.

This may evolve depending on feedback. Also if I assume you understand something and you don't, or if I get too deep into jargon, please don't hesitate to ask questions.

[Salamander]

Many private sector firms which have staff working in the field require preparation of a health and safety plan, job safety assessment, or similar prior to any substantial field effort. As a senior project manager for a large global consulting firm I’ve either prepared or reviewed and signed off on lots of these, I actually prefer to have the field lead write it since they will be the ones present every day and responsible for safety. I’d best not share the exact form because it’s proprietary, however the high points are summarized below and are a composite of what we’ve used at my last two firms. The actual form is a Microsoft Word template so boxes can be checked and text boxes filled in efficiently. Most consulting firms use something similar, note that this is the basic level, if someone is working on a hazardous materials or other high risk site there are more detailed and complicated versions required and at higher risk levels legal may be required to review.

The point of this is to make one think things through in advance, and then to be that much more prepared if something actually happens. Way better than trying to figure out what to do under stress. Example, once I did a favor for a UC prof friend of mine and guided two of her grad students to a good field site for their research. Right before finishing, one of them cut her hand badly on a broken bottle in the river substrate. I was able to get them right to the hospital for the few required stitches, and all ended well. They were not prepared, and if I hadn’t been there they would have wasted time figuring out where the hospital was.

Author, project manager, field staff, and project name are identified. Everyone listed here is required to read the finished project and initial or sign, this is just a simple way to be sure that no one blows off safety prep.

A brief description of the field work follows, along with a map or air photo of the site. We use a GIS map with site boundary, but even a Google Earth printout or copy of a paper map can be helpful to have. If it’s basic personal backcountry hiking I’d identify the specific trail(s) here.

Task descriptions follow, this breaks out the major elements of the work. This can be as simple as drive to site, and hike on site; or it can be really detailed for a large complex project. Identify subcontractors if applicable.

Identify the site type, curiously every template I’ve used has boxes for various urban/industrial types but remote field sites fall into “other.”

Check boxes for “main project hazards,” this is enlightening because the standard boxes that follow pretty much identify where most of the injuries/incidents have occurred in several decades of corporate documentation: 1) heat/cold; 2) biological hazards; 3) noise; 4) slips/trips; 5) extreme weather; 6) heavy equipment in use; 7) significant vehicle travel; 8) international travel; 9) inexperienced employees; 10) other. Add more detailed descriptive text for known or potential site-specific risks.

Identify any personal protective equipment or supplies required/recommended.

Societal/social concerns. I’ll let you fill in the blanks here, but don’t brush it off. I’ve personally had to intervene in more than one incident when staff not straight middle aged white males were being hassled in certain parts of the US, and it becomes a concern for any of us in certain parts of the world.

Accessibility concerns, physical/technological/cultural.

Communications plan. List phone numbers for project manager, any other key staff. For remote sites, we like to include an end of day or departing site check-in by text, or by satellite phone if no reliable signal… although these days I can usually find a signal at least from ridgetops.

Emergency contacts. Where is the nearest hospital? Include directions. Local law enforcement? On longer term projects I check in advance, and have sometimes been provided with direct lines to get a faster response. Fire… this is especially important in the west where wildfire risk can be high. Client contact if applicable. Corporate safety director contact.

[Joe S]

Please continue in as much detail as you like.

[JPedersen]

Thank you for your hard work. This is tremendously helpful. Keep it coming !


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[Salamander]

Things may slow down a little for a while because we're now into the sections where I need to verify or update a few facts as I go.

I'll treat bear risks separately later, because I need to look up a few things that I haven't checked in a while. This post will start on other potential mammal threats.

Mountain lions get a lot of attention. In practice sightings are pretty unusual, because mountain lions have huge home ranges and low densities (Average adult mountain lion density in the central Sierras one per 33 square km. Home range averaged 265 square km for females, 350 square km for adult males. Source: https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/30726 ). They also tend to be nocturnal or crepuscular (dawn/dusk) and that's when all of my very few sightings have happened. I can count my observations on the fingers of one hand, and the few people I know who have seen very many are either working in the field mostly at night, or are doing research on the species to include radio tracking etc. The range, defined as permanent populations, includes most of the western US and part of Florida. Scattered sightings are known elsewhere, see https://sites.tufts.edu/gis/files/20...1_Fall2019.pdf for a map.

Attacks on humans are rare: There have been 22 attacks documented in California since 1986, see https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation...n-Lion/Attacks . Curiously a lot of those were in SoCal, only three were up here in the emerald triangle counties. I remember reading about the one in 2007, it was an emaciated juvenile which attacked an elderly man, and his elderly wife literally beat it off with a stick. Many of the victims have anecdotally been children or physically small adults. At least a couple of SoCal attacks were on physically small women jogging alone at dusk on trails.

I don't really spend a lot of time worrying about big cats when I'm out hiking in the west. In the unexpected event that defense becomes necessary, they are thin skinned and anything that would work for human self-defense should be more than enough for a mountain lion. The few times I've encountered them in the wild I've been more fascinated than worried, and all of mine gave a disdainful tail flick and walked away.

Feral pigs, some of you know a lot more about these critters than I do simply because they're rare here and pretty much shot on sight. If anyone has extensive experience hunting pigs with handguns, please do share what works. I've seen one dropped immediately by 45 acp at close range but have few other data points, they just haven't been common on any of my sites that I've spent much time on. I do know that where only a few are present, we see them only on game cameras at night or by fresh digging/rooting, which can look like a small mortar barrage happened.

Smaller carnivores and omnivores are rarely a threat. Coyote, fox, bobcat can be fairly common although not often seen; we get astounding numbers of these on game cameras and see lots of tracks and scat at some locations but almost entirely at night. An exception is the occasional encounter with one of these critters with distemper. My most memorable encounter was in an upscale neighborhood in Lake County Illinois, where a raccoon was dragging paralyzed hind legs and drooling all over the middle of the intersection. Only one lady had stopped so far, a soccer mom who wanted to put it in a box and take it to the vet (extremely bad idea), LE was already on the scene (ISP) and he asked me to distract the lady while he put the animal down... which was exactly the right call on his part. See anything like this, either avoid it, or if safe/legal/appropriate put the animal down quickly while keeping a little distance.

Similar with bats. Most are unlikely to encounter them in the wild, if one is flopping around in the open in daytime it may be rabid. We sample bats with acoustic detectors and sonograms (six species in my backyard) and rarely bother to catch or handle them anymore. The few researchers who do handle them have up to date rabies vaccinations... I have access to a whole team of bat specialists and we're bidding on a southeast US bat HCP project right now.

Elk, moose, bison, etc, the general rule is anything bigger than you are gets the right of way. The greatest risk is probably a vehicle-animal encounter. A local biologist friend once got tipped by a rutting male Roosevelt elk, no injury just a face plant, they said they never saw it coming or heard it. Outside of rutting season risk is pretty low unless someone gets stupid close. I did see plenty of stupid in Yellowstone last summer around bison.

Small mammals, the main risk is disease (hantavirus etc), they can bite but only if handled. They can also carry ticks or parasites. Risk is low unless you're handling lots of them for some reason.

There are a few rarities along the southern border or a few other places, things that most people will never see so I won't go into any detail here.

[Duelist]

In the desert southwest near the border, bats are very common, and when the weather is what they like, I see them every evening. We have limestone caves all over the place. At my school, we sometimes have one start the morning roosting in the shade on the side of the building (textured like stone), and then they are stuck when the shade moves. Keeping the kids away from them is the biggest problem then. Having a plan for dealing with a bat that has roosted within reach of a curious/daring/stupid teenage boy is important.

Snakes are very common: we have a variety of poisonous rattlesnakes, and a wide variety of non-poisonous snakes. All of the people I know of who have been bitten by a rattlesnake were trying to pick it up, whether to move it or whatever. Usual bite sites are hands. Dogs get bit on the face/neck. If the swelling doesn’t suffocate them, the vets can usually save them. Occasionally, one will have nerve damage.

Most common non-human large animal to encounter is a range cow. Bears, lions, bobcats, badgers, etc., all seem to run away. Skunks don’t always run away.

Human and drug smugglers are more common encounters than large predators.

The key to any risk assessment is knowing what the hazards are for the place you are going.

[GJM]

Something my wife and I are very focused on, is communication capability. Ideally you want to take the "search" out of search and rescue. Have one or more methods that will work in your area -- sat phone, 406 PLB, handheld aviation radio, Garmin inreach, latest iPhone.

[PNWTO]

Just seconding what @GJM said, an InReach or SPOT is the baseline. I chose the InReach Mini because it afforded two communication with my wife and supervisor. I think the newest SPOT offerings have two-way comms but the Garmin ecosystem is just so easy to get into and the InReach is even more seamless if one has a Garmin watch.

When I was in the field a lot for a land management agency, I also made a point to have enough gear that I could spend the night. I just had a spare JetBoil, a Mountain House meal, and a HPG serape in my daypack. It wouldn't be the most comfortable night, but it would be better than shivering under a tree or in the truck.

It wasn't policy, but my personal requirement was for two gallons of water in the vehicle and two to three liters in the pack. A bit overkill for some climates, but water can be the quickest of the "big deals".

[Salamander]

In the desert southwest near the border, bats are very common, and when the weather is what they like, I see them every evening. We have limestone caves all over the place. At my school, we sometimes have one start the morning roosting in the shade on the side of the building (textured like stone), and then they are stuck when the shade moves. Keeping the kids away from them is the biggest problem then. Having a plan for dealing with a bat that has roosted within reach of a curious/daring/stupid teenage boy is important.

Snakes are very common: we have a variety of poisonous rattlesnakes, and a wide variety of non-poisonous snakes. All of the people I know of who have been bitten by a rattlesnake were trying to pick it up, whether to move it or whatever. Usual bite sites are hands. Dogs get bit on the face/neck. If the swelling doesn’t suffocate them, the vets can usually save them. Occasionally, one will have nerve damage.

Most common non-human large animal to encounter is a range cow. Bears, lions, bobcats, badgers, etc., all seem to run away. Skunks don’t always run away.

Human and drug smugglers are more common encounters than large predators.

The key to any risk assessment is knowing what the hazards are for the place you are going.

Completely agree that most snake incidents could have very easily been avoided. More on that soon.

Skunks are actually the greatest wildlife "risk" on a lot of sites, especially for those outside at night. OK, maybe annoyance, or at least non-lethal risk. Hard to believe how common they are until one spends time outdoors at night, and it's made worse because they often follow unpaved roads or trails which ups the human encounter frequency.

Know the hazards for the place... that really is the key.

[JHC]

Something my wife and I are very focused on, is communication capability. Ideally you want to take the "search" out of search and rescue. Have one or more methods that will work in your area -- sat phone, 406 PLB, handheld aviation radio, Garmin inreach, latest iPhone.

Drilled into us in the Army when I was in my formative years was the conceptual framework that all we do is Shoot, Move and Communicate (actually correlates to business/work as well sort of). With the tech today, its just too easy to manage this.