Camping & Wildfire Risk: How Climate Change Is Changing Our Campsites.

Wildfire smoke, sudden downpours, and surprise park closures are rewriting the camping playbook—and we’re mapping a better way forward. From downbursts that flatten tree canopies to late-season black flies and fire bans that change by municipality, we share how our own trips have shifted and what actually works when conditions get weird. This is a practical, no-drama guide to staying safe, staying flexible, and still finding joy around the campfire when the rules of the outdoors keep changing.

We dig into the realities campers now face: how to check fire bans across jurisdictions, read air quality indexes before you roll, and build a safer camp when torrential rain hits. We talk fire hygiene that prevents smouldering root fires, smarter site selection that avoids flood paths, and the gear that holds up—tight rainflies, solid guylines, repair tape, and a pre-filled water bucket. You’ll also hear tips for navigating drought and water scarcity with reliable filtration, plus how to spot and treat heat exhaustion fast. On the wildlife front, we cover rising tick and mosquito activity, daily tick checks, and why a small removal kit can save a trip.

Planning is where resilience starts. We walk through creating Plan A, B, and C routes to dodge local smoke and storms, using Parks Canada and Ontario Parks updates, cross-checking municipal advisories, and leaning on weather and AQI tools for real-time decisions. We round it out with low-impact choices—carpooling when possible, rechargeable or solar lighting, battery recycling, and Leave No Trace habits—that reduce harm without killing the fun. Camping is still magic. With a flexible mindset and a few new skills, it’s not only possible—it’s better, because you’re ready.

If this helped, follow the show, share it with a camping friend, and leave a quick review so more outdoor lovers can find it. Got a pro tip or a story from a smoky or stormy trip? Tell us—we’d love to feature it next time.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Mission
• 0:12 Climate Change Hits Campgrounds
• 0:28 Park Closures And Tree Loss
• 1:02 Wildfires And Air Quality
• 2:09 Extreme Weather On Trips
• 3:39 Fire Bans And How To Check
• 4:39 Water Scarcity And Safe Fires
• 6:19 Bugs, Biodiversity, And Seasons
• 7:14 Infrastructure Damage And Access
• 7:44 Plan B Mindset And Monitoring
• 9:00 Gear, Leave No Trace, And Emissions
• 10:18 Heat, Smoke, Flood, And Ticks
• 11:29 Keep Camping: Adapt And Learn
• 12:40 Thanks And How To Reach Us

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello and good day. Welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela.

SPEAKER_01: 0:04

I'm Tim.

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

And we are from SupergoodCamping.com. We're here because we're on a mission to inspire other people to get outside and enjoy camping adventures such as we have as a family. Today's episode we wanted to talk about camping in a changing climate, how wildfire risk and weather extremes are changing the way we go camping. So we had a couple of stories, just um a couple of parks that have been impacted by climate events. Uh there was a downburst at St. Mel de Champlain that resulted in the closure of that park for the whole 2025. Just because of devastation. Yeah, our friend Josie was just also devastated by the devastation. It's her favorite park. Yeah. And then there's way less trees than it used to. Well, and there's been culling of trees at other parks that we've been to, and some of that's been for invasive species and stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 0:52

Um and then but that's part of the well, I'm getting ahead ourselves, but that's part of the climate change as well.

SPEAKER_00: 0:58

Yeah, bugs that are thriving in the changing environment. And in 2025, there were 521 wildfires in the province of Ontario. And that is not necessarily in provincial parks, but we were talking earlier about how that dealt, despite it might not be in the park you're camping at, the weather quality in the park you're camping at is certainly impacted by it. I mean, here in Toronto, we're impacted by the weather quality from the wildfires.

SPEAKER_01: 1:25

Wildfire smoke for sure. Yep, the planets burning. Uh stop supporting fossil fuel companies. Just saying. Just saying. There's my apologies. Now we're gonna be in trouble. Yeah, well, and if you can hear the jackhammering in the background, my my apologies. We've got some clowns across the road that think that uh working on a Sunday is is fine and disturbing everybody else. And while we're recording a podcast, we're crying out loud.

SPEAKER_00: 1:57

Yeah, we've we've actually tried to work around the noise across there, but they've had saws going and now jackhammers going.

SPEAKER_01: 2:04

Yes, no way, no way.

SPEAKER_00: 2:06

And it every time we kind of sat down to record something. Uh yeah, so smokier skies, more firebands, unpredictable weather. Those are kind of the short version of what you might expect.

SPEAKER_01: 2:16

Yeah, and and you're you're gonna you're what we seem to be finding, and certainly I I want to say a little like for sure the last five, six, seven years, everything is just more intense weather-wise, right? Like, like we're hearing more and more about these these downbursts and micro bursts and stuff where you know it's uh it's it's not a tornado or anything like that, but but it it has that kind of very localized, limited sort of d devastation. I am don't come up. I mean, if you ever get the opportunity to take a look at some of the pictures that Josie uh actually took a bunch uh of Samuel Dischamplain, and just I mean it it's flat. I know that we get often get like it seem it's seemingly heavier rains. Um just torrential downpours that like a like in a blink of an eye, you know, and you're and you're poof, you've got you know fifty millimeters, seventy-five millimeters of rain in in a literally a handful of hours. And so flooding.

SPEAKER_00: 3:17

Flash floods, you we can get um I mean if you're in a tent when that's happening and water's all flooding through your campsite, you can expect you're gonna be wet.

SPEAKER_01: 3:27

You'll be yeah, you'll be looking for a dryer in the morning, or if you're in a campground, if you're you know in the backwoods. There's some wind to dry stuff up.

SPEAKER_00: 3:39

Um yeah, so longer, more severe fire seasons, more bands, more closures. And I think we've certainly seen that too with more fire bands. We weren't sure when we went to even to Georgian Bay whether we were gonna have a fire band.

SPEAKER_01: 3:51

Yes, and I've gotten uh way better at figuring out how to how to look up firebands. So you go to the Ontario Parks, if you're in Ontario, uh go to the Ontario Parks website for that specific um park, they will have whether there's a fire ban in an effect, but also local municipalities. So I ended up looking, I'm pretty sure it was Georgian Bay was actually the municipality that I I looked up to see what their take on it is, because municipalities in Ontario Parks might not have the same, you know, it's a slightly different location, uh, whatever, right? Fire regulations might vary. So might vary. Uh Ontario, uh the province of Ontario has different regulations than a lot of the municipalities do. So they have a different the scale's the same, but they don't necessarily apply it the same.

SPEAKER_00: 4:39

Well, in this past summer we had such a dry, dry summer. So the forest then is drier, there's less water to put out forest fires if there is a forest fire, um, less water access, less water for you to drink, so you have to be careful to make sure that you're filtering water if you're drinking from a lake or a stream.

SPEAKER_01: 5:00

Yeah. Um and and it so things that also happen are if you have a fire, right? And it doesn't, you know, you're not in a fireband location, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're safe to have that fire. And we've seen enough uh people not practicing good fire hygiene. You know, like uh we've got so I now have a collapsible bucket uh that I fill immediately fill with and put beside before I even light the fire so that it's already there, uh fill filled with water. Um but but there's uh because we're not getting enough rain or as much rain, uh root systems are quite dry. And the so you get sort of you know peat moss and and that sort of jazz between the roots. So if you have a fire, it can very easily light all that. All that it's I know it sounds like weird that just dirt catches fire, but it does, it's it's peat, it's loamy. Um and and then and it can burn in the root system for ages. You may think you have put the fire out, but come back and find that an island's been burnt to the ground to just stone because there's no there wasn't enough water in the root system to keep it from catching fire.

SPEAKER_00: 6:13

Smouldering. Doubs that make it closer down by fire soup.

SPEAKER_01: 6:17

Yep, fire soup.

SPEAKER_00: 6:19

Uh and yeah, so uh and outside of that, there's changing biodiversity because of the change in the climate, so different animal activity, worsening bugs. So black flies, ticks, mosquitoes, they like the warmer temperatures, the mosquitoes like the those when you do get that downfall and the water can't drain away. You've got more standing water, and then different seasons for plants to grow or bloom or not grow.

SPEAKER_01: 6:47

Well, but uh but you mentioned black flies. We so we went on a paddling course in the spring. Uh there were black flies and mosquitoes despite the cold temperatures. Uh, and we went again just back here in September and into early October, second round of black flies. I in my entire life don't ever remember two rounds of black flies in the year, just in the spring then.

SPEAKER_00: 7:10

The first round's bad enough. No, there were enough. And then on top of that, so the park itself might be undergoing some infrastructure challenges just because of the heavy rains or wind or whatever is coming your way. So um, you might have washouts on the roads, you might have the facilities are damaged. Um so just also be aware of that that you might not be able to access where you want to go because your road is washed out or your the park has something's been damaged because of the wind or the rain.

SPEAKER_01: 7:44

Yeah, I think I think probably the what it all sort of heads towards is being adaptable, being flexible with your planning. Don't just go with one plan. I mean, I never do, but I'm also a bit of a whack job.

SPEAKER_00: 7:57

So we love you for that.

SPEAKER_01: 7:59

Yeah. Yeah, plan the plan the crap out of it. Make sure you've got alternate availabilities for, you know, if you're going somewhere where you're six hours away from where you are now, it just you can read all you want. It may not quite sink in what you're about to be dealing with because it's so different from where you are, uh, you know, uh in a weather way.

SPEAKER_00: 8:22

Yeah, that's like here in Toronto. If you're driving three or four hours north, the weather can be entirely different from what we're getting. Uh monitor conditions. So the Park Canada does have an app. So if it's a pro if it's a national park, uh you can use Parks Canada app. But um Ontario Parks do not have an app, so you just need to check their website, um, use the air quality index, um, like weather network, things like that will give you the air quality index, they'll give you the bug report as well, and and check local news before you go and just be prepared. So use the SCOS Canada model, be prepared, that you've got you've got your waterproof gear, just especially if there's predictions during your trip that there's gonna be some weather. You've got sun protection, you've got layers because the width, the temperature is changing. Uh, you also, as far as um your gear, want to make sure that you know your gear will hold up to heavy rains or wind if needy.

SPEAKER_01: 9:19

Yeah, and try not to try not to contribute to the climate change. And um yes, you know, fossil fuels bad. Uh as much as anything, what you do when you're camping, you know, tr try to do the practice, leave no trace. Um echo-friendly gear, you know, solar lights. Uh, so you're not batteries great. If you if you live in my building, your batteries get recycled. If you don't live in my building, your batteries end up in the garbage. Uh don't do that. Which is terrible for the car. It's it's horrible. It's the leaching of mercury and stuff into the it's it's a personal pet piece. Um, you know, reduce your carbon footprints. Don't which we as a as a camping community are terrible at because we all very seldom carpool and and we drive long distances in not environmentally friendly vehicles, generally big ass trucks. We all have to get EVs.

unknown: 10:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 10:18

Uh well, and so health and fix safety, if you do happen to be camping in extreme weather, um, stay hydrated, especially with with the heat and the and the dry conditions. Um, try to stay in the shade if you can. Try to recognize the signs if you somebody in your party is suffering from heat exhaustion. Um, so if they're sweating profusely, if they're but their skin feels cool and clammy, they've got a fast or weak pulse, they're having muscle cramps, headaches, nausea, or extreme thirst, all of that, or they just seem a bit out of it. Sometimes that's all you'll notice is that they seem like they're not really all there.

SPEAKER_01: 10:54

You're saying I'm suffering from it all the time.

unknown: 10:57

No.

SPEAKER_00: 10:58

Um smoke exposure-wise, so N95 masks, air filters in your RVs, monitoring the air quality index before you leave, especially if you've got somebody who's susceptible in your party. So you know that your child or or somebody suffers from asthma, that unfortunately you may mean canceling your trip because they can't be out there breathing the wildfire smoke. Uh flood awareness, so pitching your tents in the appropriate spot so you're not on the downside of your site because that's the low part is the place where the water's gonna settle. We've unfortunately seen that before. And uh just also being aware of insect-borne illness. So um increasing uh tick and mosquito activity with the warmer and especially if it's moister weather, is gonna mean more bugs. And so tick inspections just to make sure nobody's carrying a tick around. And carry tick kit with you. Tick kit to and tick careful tick removal because if you preserve the tick and then you can send it to public health, then they can check it for Lyme disease, just so that that way you know if if unfortunately you were bitten by a tick, you know whether it's one that's bearing Lyme disease. And and you can certainly wear your protective bug gear. Uh and then otherwise, we just wanted to kind of summarize that you can still camp, even though climate change is happening. Uh, it can still be enjoyable, but you have to be adaptable and wear and prepared for it. Um, and then just check your local parks to see whether they do have any climate adaptation programs or even just educational programs. Um, it would be great to take your kids to an educational program about how climate change might affect camping or things that we can do to mitigate climate change. And that's it for me. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 12:41

Which is me as well.

SPEAKER_00: 12:43

That's it for us for today. Thank you so much for listening. Please do tune in again soon, and you can reach out to us on all of the social media. We are everywhere, and we would love to hear from you. And if you want to email us, we are at hi at supergatecampaign.com. That's H I at SupergitCampaign.com. And we will talk to you again soon. Bye. Bye.