I. Introduction State Parks, especially campground areas such as Poe Paddy, encounter a number of hazards each day that have the potential to generate harm to campers, hikers, picnics/parties, and even hunters. One particular hazard many campgrounds encounter are bears. Camping in bear country, especially with blacks bears in the area of Poe Paddy State Park, requires certain precautions. In areas of Pennsylvania where black bears are common, federal regulations require campers to follow certain rules, such as, suspending food from trees or using a bear proof food box. Hiking and camping restrictions in Poe Paddy State Park are occasionally in effect as a result of bear activity (Hiking, Camping, and Food Storage, 2016). Risk assessments …show more content…
that analyze the likelihood of risks that can lead to a bear-human interaction are becoming more frequent, and are focusing on the safety of the campers in the tenting area (Thomas, 2012). To add a new and different perspective, a new risk assessment will be completed to analyze this risk of bear-human interaction. Several qualitative indicators will be used for the Poe Paddy campsite to do a risk assessment of the potential for bear-human interaction. This includes an evaluation of seasonal habitat potential, the presence and relative abundance of bear foods, bear travel concerns, such as terrain features that might force a bear to travel through a campsite and visibility and other sensory concerns, that is, the ability of bears and people to detect each other (Thomas, 2012). For more information on bear growth, please refer to Appendix A. Included in this introduction are the purpose and scope of the risk assessment.
The structure of the risk assessment is based on the NIST 800-30 document. The purpose of the risk assessment will state the goal, from which the camper’s viewpoint will be completed, and the importance of completing a risk assessment. The scope will address what will and what will not be analyzed and which location will be the focal point of this risk …show more content…
assessment. After the scope, the risk assessment approach will be addressed, introducing the research assessment team by providing credentials, detailing the three parts to hazard identification and introducing the risk matrix used to evaluate each risk’s impact and likelihood severity score. In the system characterization section, the system undergoing evaluation will be described as an input-process-output (IPO) model. The diagram depicting the model will help to focus the threat/vulnerability pairs and asset identification. A) Purpose The focus of this risk assessment is Poe Paddy State Park, located in Haines Township, PA.
Hiking, fishing, and camping are the most common uses of the park’s available twenty-three acres. Additionally, Poe Paddy has a group tenting area, which holds up to twenty people and has picnic tables, water, and vault toilets (Poe Paddy State Park, 2016). For more information about Poe Paddy State Park, please refer to Appendix A. This risk assessment is important because campgrounds are often an unregulated risk, with little protection from potential threats stemming from nature. Unlike many large commercial businesses, a campground in Central Pennsylvania has a low likelihood of dormant and armed hazards. The protector point of view of this risk assessment is a camper staying in the group tenting area. The camper has three interests while staying at the campground: the safety of the individual, the safety of the group, and the safety of the individual’s belongings. B) Scope of the Risk Assessment The scope of this risk assessment are the risks associated with bears in the group tenting area. These risks can be broken down further into risks that harm or threaten the individuals in the area and risks that harm or threaten the individual’s belongings. This risk assessment will not cover input risk, tax risk, regulatory risk, legal risk, financial risk, or product market
risk. II. Risk Assessment Approach A) Student Bios This risk assessment is being conducted by Justin Meinnert and Jason Williams. Justin is in his junior year going for a degree in Security and Risk Analysis (SRA) at The Pennsylvania State University. He has prior experience with making risk assessments, where he worked on a team in the College of IST to complete a technical security assessment which included vulnerability assessments and penetration testing, as an installment to a risk assessment. Jason is also a junior going for a degree in Security and Risk Analysis (SRA) at The Pennsylvania State University with a specialization in information and cyber security. He has prior experience in Residential Computing where he provided technical assistance to students on campus and assessed their network vulnerabilities. B) Hazard Identification This risk assessment uses a three-part approach to hazard identification including an information sheet, structured analytic evidence, and a virtual site visit. The information sheet contains a summary of the relevant information of the campground that is being assessed. The detailed literature can be found in Appendix A. The structured analytic technique used in this risk assessment is structured brainstorming. The first step in brainstorming is divergence, which consists of freeform idea generation without any criticism or constraints. The goal of this step is to generate as many ideas as possible. The second step is convergence, in which ideas are placed into groups and ranked. The result of this exercise is prioritized idea groups (Glantz, 2016). For more information about the brainstorming technique used, please refer to Appendix B. The virtual site visit in this three-part approach includes the analysis of a site photo. By examining this photo, risks that were previously unforeseen can be sought. For example, the gravel ground surface, limited lighting, and trash not properly stored can all be observed in Figure 1 below. These examples could all pose a risk of campers tripping and hurting themselves if frightened by a bear and attract bear activity, which was not foreseen by the structured analytic technique described above.
Nature, it is everywhere, everyone uses it. Quite often, however, people abuse it, such as with humans’ impact on grizzly bears. Grizzly bears are important to the environment because they have many useful purposes for the environment: “they provide an “umbrella” for the environment because they require such large home ranges.” (savethegreatbear.org/CAD/Grizzly.htm) The Grizzly Bear is extremely vulnerable to changes in its habitat and food cycle. This allows humans to detect small changes in the environment, just by watching this amazing species. The Government of Canada needs to try harder to stop the poaching of grizzly bears in Canada.
"News From the FMO." Why We Do Tent Inspections. City of Manassas Fire and Rescue Department, 2012. Web. 6 June 2014.
This pamphlet wants to educate people as to the uses of Glen Canyon. The dangers and the fun that can be had on the lake that was made by the Glen Canyon Dam. “Some of the shoreline around Lake Powell is loose and can slip and fall”. (Glen canyon Dam) warning the public as to what to watch for. The pamphlet goes on to say; “Dangerous sections of Lake Powell’s shoreline are too numerous to mark and can appear quickly after a change in the water level or after rainy weather”. (Glen Canyon Dam) The author is saying that not every dangerous area can be marked. By writing this the author is ensuring safety against lawsuits.
Throughout the risk assessment process, ideas for action were identified and documented. The documentation of these ideas led to the development of potential action item worksheets which were then selected, prioritized, and refined. Detailed risk assessment information for each hazard is included and located through this document.
The grizzly bear trophy hunt is an issue regarding the citizens of Canada who immorally hunt and kill grizzly bears for pride, thrill, and trophy. Many people question whether this is morally acceptable as hunters kill without a conscience. Grizzly bears are vital to Canada’s environment, as they are essential to maintaining a healthy ecosystem. As keystone species, they regulate prey, disperse seeds of plants,and aerate soil to maintain forest health. Due to the vulnerability and over-hunting of grizzly bears, Pacific Wild and many other non-profit organizations, are working to protect wildlife in British Columbia, especially the grizzly bear habitat.
The key question in this incident is whether Blizzard Resorts Inc. is responsible of the liability of occupants for injury or loss suffered by trespassers to their premises.
When visiting, visitors will see evidences of the fires that took place in 1988. Besides vast scenes of nature, Teton Wilderness is home to some of the most exotic wildlife. In the summer, trumpeter swans, sand hill cranes, falcons, and song birds can be seen, and golden eagles, otters, mink, moose, and grey wolves are year-round inhabitants. On top of being one of the most beautiful wilderness areas that the United States has to offer, Teton Wilderness offers approximately 450 miles of hiking trails to the public. These trails are all natural because there are no roads allowed due to motor vehicles and bikes being prohibited. Even though these things are not permitted, people can still camp and fish here with the proper permit. Hunting is allowed in the proper season, but logging/mining is
Coyotes and bears are a common sight in the woods. These animals, along with others, are predators that help to control deer population but also decrease the amount of land allowed to the deer. In Western NC, deer rates have fallen and bag limits have been reduced. In Pennsylvania, biologists have conducted a lengthy study to determine fawn mortality and predation. Predators killed 46% of fawns, (Hart). A study about coyotes in Ohio found that even though they kill numerous fawns, the population of deer continues to grow, (Hart). It would be critical to maintain...
Research of coyotes occurred in a 194-km2 area of Elk Island National Park (EINP), of Alberta, Canada. 51 coyotes were captured between 15 November-1 April over a period of 9,379 trap nights and 7,421 trap days. Researchers took care in assembling the snares so that any traces of human scent were masked. The traps were then set up along game trails avoiding any exposed or hazardous sites. Every 12-24 hours they were checked to reduce capture time, further reducing stress and injury. Once captured, the coyote was restrained and the immobilizing anesthetic, Telazol, was administered to keep them stationary. The animal was kept warm during the cleaning and stitching of injuries, recording of weight, fitting of eartags and radiocollars, blood collection and injection of antibiotics and an antiparasitic agent.
The one way to keep bears and humans safe and living in the same environment is learning to understand them and being able to tolerate them. If people don’t do these things theses beautiful animals will begin to decrease in numbers. While there are a lot of black bears in Alaska, an estimated 100,000, hunters believe that you can just hunt and hunt and the population will decrease to average, but the plans of some hunters seems just over the top of making these bears go on to the endangered species list. But with the help of people and cooperation the Black Bears will continue to live in Alaska.
Stankey, G., & Manning, R. (1986). Carrying capacity of recreation settings. The President’s Commission On Americans Outdoors. Retrieved from http://leopold.wilderness.net/pubs/166.pdf
Infrastructure and specifically transportation projects are complex endeavors and risk assessment for them is a complicated process. Risks are often interrelated or correlated to each other and occurrence of some might cause other risks to occur. For example, technical risk usually carries cost and schedule consequences. Schedule risks typically impact cost escalation and project overhead. Consequently, likelihood of a risk’s occurrence and its impact on the scope of a specific context of the project, must be carefully considered.
Stryker, R. (2013). Revised ADA Requirements: What do they mean to you? Camping Magazine, 86(2), 10-12.
Leave No Trace is philosophy of seven concepts that help minimize human recreational impact on wild lands. As wilderness recreation has become more popular, and the National Wilderness Preservation System has increased its wilderness lands from 9.1 million acres in 54 wildernesses in 1964 to 104 million acres in 628 wildernesses in 19991, the need for guidelines to help reduce degradation of these lands has become increasingly important. In 1979 Jim Bradley wrote about the need for an educational approach for managing recreation impacts instead of regulations that antagonize the public rather than win their support2. Teaching good practices is more effective than imposing strict regulations because most harms done to the wilderness by recreational activities is due to lack of knowledge of a less impacting technique, and because it is very difficult to enforce regulations in large tracts of wild and remote lands.
Department of State, the perception of people on biosecurity threat has evolved as they “see the world in terms of a multipolar, multi-threat environment”. It further stated that “biorisk and matrices to measure the weighted value of each risk have become the norm, and biosecurity and biosafety have come to encompass the use of proper safety measures and facility specifications, as well as the proper training of employees to ensure not only their own safety but that of the public at large.”