Abstract
Three storms in the 2017 hurricane season caused $265 billion in damages in the U.S. Southeast and Caribbean, including billions in losses in the agriculture and forestry sector. Climate change projections indicate that such disastrous hurricane seasons are becoming more normal. Working land management sectors need to prepare for this future. However, few studies evaluate hurricane resilience strategies, or challenges faced by land managers surrounding hurricane events. Boundary organizations are critical to hurricane preparedness and recovery, advising land managers before hurricanes, and often supporting recovery efforts. Here, we rely on public advisors’ experiences to understand how land managers pursue hurricane resilience. Using focus groups and an online survey of three agencies in the Southeast U.S. and U.S. Caribbean (n = 607), we identify challenges faced by land managers before and after hurricanes, and the strategies they implement to minimize damage. We learn that land managers are faced with many diverse and unique challenges related to hurricanes, but that long-term planning for hurricane events is uncommon compared to shorter-term preparedness and recovery activities. Efforts towards hurricane resilience should incorporate local needs, align with other land management goals, and increase overall resilience to climate change and related stressors. The results of this research can guide state/territorial and national-level prioritizations regarding hurricane resilience, as well as identify research needs on hurricane resilience strategies.
Highlights
The 2017 and 2018 hurricane seasons caused billions of dollars of losses in the agriculture, livestock, and forestry industries across the Southeast U.S and U.S Caribbean
According to the agricultural and forestry advisors in this study, short-term planning and recovery actions are critical to hurricane resilience, yet long-term planning is generally neglected by land managers
Long-term hurricane resilience plays an undersized role in planning among land managers compared to shorter term planning and recovery efforts
Summary
The 2017 and 2018 hurricane seasons caused billions of dollars of losses in the agriculture, livestock, and forestry industries across the Southeast U.S and U.S Caribbean. Every coastal state from Texas to Virginia and both U.S Caribbean territories had counties with disaster designations due to hurricanes or tropical storms during these two seasons (Figure 1) [4]. These figures do not account for damages to farm structures, reduced productivity in future growing seasons, or the personal burden on land managers and their families due to trauma or economic hardship. Despite the economic and personal hardships inflicted upon agricultural and forest land managers by hurricanes, Sustainability 2020, 12, 1364; doi:10.3390/su12041364 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
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