How vulnerable is the Town of Gardiner to extreme weather?

That is not a question that should be answered solely by scientists, consultants or government officials. The people who live in Gardiner have something equally important to contribute: firsthand experience.

The town is working with Cornell Cooperative Extension on a Climate Vulnerability Assessment, and residents are being asked to complete a survey about the weather-related hazards they have experienced and the community assets they believe are most important to protect.

We encourage Gardiner residents to take the survey.

It is easy to look at a list of potential hazards and assume that some are more relevant than others. Increased flooding? Certainly a concern in some areas. Extreme heat? Increasingly difficult to ignore. Severe storms, heavy precipitation, drought, changing seasonal temperatures and stronger winds are all worth considering.

Sea-level rise, on the other hand, would not rank particularly high on my list of concerns for Gardiner. The town is not a coastal community, and there are other hazards that are much more directly relevant to residents.

If we were completing the survey, we would put flooding, severe storms, heavy precipitation, extreme heat and changing seasonal temperatures among the more serious concerns. Winter storms and windstorms would also deserve significant attention. Drought is a concern, particularly because of its potential effects on agriculture, water supplies and the natural environment.

But the most valuable part of the survey may be the questions that ask residents to describe what they have actually experienced.

A survey cannot simply tell officials that flooding is a problem. Residents can identify the roads that regularly flood, the neighborhoods that lose power, the fields that suffer during unusual weather, the areas where drainage is inadequate and the places where emergency access becomes difficult.

Those details matter.

Gardiner is an agricultural community with farms, forests, streams, wetlands, homes, businesses and historic resources. Protecting those assets means understanding which ones are most exposed and which ones would be most difficult to replace.

Ranking the assets listed in the survey, we might consider emergency services, people and public health, critical infrastructure, farms and agriculture, drinking water, the environment and private property to be especially important. Community services such as libraries, food pantries and shelters also become particularly important when a severe storm or other emergency disrupts normal life.

And there is another consideration that deserves attention: vulnerability is not distributed equally.

Older residents, people with limited mobility, households with fewer financial resources and people who depend on electricity for medical or other essential needs can face greater challenges during extreme heat, prolonged outages or severe storms. A community’s ability to respond depends not only on roads, power lines and emergency equipment but also on whether its most vulnerable residents can get the help they need.

Gardiner residents also know things that may not appear on a consultant’s map. A particular business may be essential to the community. A volunteer organization may play a critical role during emergencies. A historic property may have significance that cannot be measured simply by its market value. A particular stream, wetland, forest or agricultural area may be important for reasons that are not immediately apparent from a satellite image.

That is why this survey is worthwhile.

The goal is not to persuade residents to adopt a particular position on climate change. It is to identify the risks Gardiner faces and determine what the community values enough to protect.

The results will be shared this fall at a workshop where municipal officials will work to identify the community’s top hazards. That makes public participation particularly important. If residents do not provide their experiences and priorities, someone else will make those judgments for them.

Take a few minutes. Think about the storms, floods, heat waves, droughts and other unusual weather you have experienced. Think about the roads, farms, businesses, natural resources and community institutions you would hate to see damaged or lost.

Then take the survey and tell Gardiner’s officials what you think.

Local knowledge is one of the town’s most valuable resources. This is an opportunity to put it to work.