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Resilient Outdoor Assessment & Management

  • Writer: VOBA
    VOBA
  • Dec 17, 2025
  • 7 min read

Updated: Jan 6



Resilient Outdoor Assessment and Management is a step-by-step framework developed by the Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance to help Vermont’s outdoor businesses and organizations build climate resilience.


Designed for everyone from small retailers and guide services to trail nonprofits, resorts, and manufacturers, this approach responds to the real impacts of a changing climate, including heavier rain, shorter winters, extreme storms, power outages, heat, drought, and wildfire smoke, that affect safety, operations, and the natural landscapes our economy depends on.


By addressing both climate mitigation and adaptation while supporting business strength and competitiveness, this guide helps enterprises plan proactively, learn from peers, and turn climate challenges into opportunities that sustain individual businesses and Vermont’s outdoor economy as a whole.


Request a copy of the Resilient Outdoor Assessment and Management framework at info@vermontoutdoorbusinessalliance.org.

Here's what to expect:

What is Climate Resilience?

Why Climate Resilience Matters

How to Plan for Climate Resilience in the Outdoor Sector 

━   Step #1: Get Started

━   Step #2: Understand Exposure

━   Step #3: Assess Vulnerability & Risk

━   Step #4: Investigate Options

━   Step #5: Prioritize & Plan

━   Step #6: Take Action

Resources

Worksheets


 The Context: Lamoille Valley Bike Tours (LVBT) relies on the 93-mile Lamoille Valley Rail Trail as a local recreation asset for their shuttle service, e-bike rentals, and guided tours. When the 2023 floods shut down the entire trail – including the 17-mile section near their location in Johnson – the business lost its peak-season revenue, had no control over repair decisions, nor access to disaster relief. A second major flood in 2024 reinforced business vulnerability from being tied to state-managed infrastructure and from the lack of recovery financial assistance available to for-profit businesses experiencing losses beyond physical damage.


 The Challenges: 

 ━  Full trail closures were implemented after flooding halted all business operations, despite sections being clear and safe for use.

 ━  Repairs were not initially prioritized for the most economically active sections of the trail.

 ━  No financial safety net, as the business didn’t qualify for economic injury grants.

 ━  Public messaging around closures was inconsistent, often deterring visitors even when portions of the trail remained usable.


 The Option: LVBT complemented operational changes with state-level advocacy to influence repair decisions, communication, and long-term planning, which reflected the needs of businesses. This included pushing for partial rather than full trail closures and helping shape statewide conversations about climate resilience.


 The Decision: Formalize statewide engagement by joining the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative (VOREC) Steering Committee to represent outdoor businesses in resilience planning.

 ━  Communicated directly with VTrans after the 2023 flood to explain business impacts and the need to prioritize high-use trail segments.

 ━  Advocated with VOBA to legislators and agencies for a new flood-response approach that used partial closures with detours instead of full trail shutdowns.

 ━  Worked with state partners on visitor communication, pushing for clearer messaging about which sections remained open.


 The Result: These advocacy efforts led to meaningful changes in how the rail trail is managed during climate disruptions. As a result, LVBT and other outdoor businesses experienced:

 ━  A shift by the state in 2024 to partial closures and detours, allowing LVBT and others to continue operating during recovery.

 ━  Critical trail sections reopened faster, preventing devastating revenue loss.

 ━  Coordinated messaging emphasized what remained open instead of highlighting what was closed.

 ━  LVBT’s leadership on VOREC increased outdoor business representation in state resilience planning and strengthened state–business coordination for future climate events.


Key Takeaway: Repeat disruptions made it clear that LVBT needed more than operational workarounds; they needed to build relationships to communicate with recreation managers and develop a compelling advocacy case for prioritizing repairs to the LVRT.


 The Context: The Woodstock Inn & Resort Nordic Center relies on natural snowfall to operate, making it increasingly vulnerable to Vermont’s warming, wetter, and more erratic winter climate. The Nordic Center’s Director, Nick Mahood, and his team assessed their exposure. They identified several key assets at risk: their trail network, guest experience and expectations, retail activity tied to snow presence, and the winter revenue that sustains broader resort operations. Each of these assets was directly affected by climate-driven hazards such as variable snowfall, mid-season rain, and rapid freeze-thaw cycles. These conditions shortened the ski season and created operational uncertainty. They needed a strategy to stabilize winter access and protect its high-value assets.


 The Challenges: 

 ━  Shorter or irregular ski seasons caused by variable snowfall.

 ━  Mid-season rain events that damage the terrain.

 ━  High guest expectations for reliable ski conditions

 ━  Retail volatility, as customers delay winter gear purchases until snow is visible.

 ━  Financial strain from unpredictable openings and closures.

Amid these conditions, the Nordic Center was losing operational days and revenue. The team recognized the need for a tool that could “fill the gaps” during marginal snow periods.

 

 The Option: Test whether limited, targeted snowmaking could provide consistent, reliable terrain throughout increasingly unpredictable winters.


 The Decision: Woodstock Inn & Resort conducted a small-scale snowmaking pilot using a rented fan-snowgun. The intent was not to blanket the entire trail network, but to create a dependable, groomable loop that could:

 ━  Open the season earlier.

 ━  Survive mid-season rain events.

 ━  Maintain guest engagement and retail activity.


 The Result: The pilot proved highly successful and became a model for future investment:

 ━  The fan gun produced 104 hours of snow.

 ━  Fuel use was relatively low (approx. 30 gallons) for the operational benefit it provided.

 ━  Staff used existing grooming resources to shape, move, and redistribute the snow.

 ━  The produced snow allowed the Nordic Center to stay fully operational through January 2023, despite poor regional natural snow conditions.

━  Nordic Center recorded that January 2025 became the second-best gross revenue for that month ever.


Key Takeaway: Understanding which assets are most exposed and how targeted interventions can reduce that vulnerability showed that even limited snowmaking can significantly improve business stability.



 The Context: The Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) is a 740-mile paddling route that links historic travel corridors and supports economic activity across 45 small rural communities, requiring management of hundreds of access points, campsites, and portages. As NFCT assessed its exposure to climate hazards, the Executive Director, Karrie Thomas, identified several key assets at risk: river-access infrastructure, portage routes, campsites, water-level-dependent trail segments, and the community events that draw visitors to the region. These assets are increasingly vulnerable to climate-driven extremes in the region’s eight watersheds, such as severe droughts or sudden flooding that interrupt continuous passage and complicate stewardship.


 The Challenges: 

 ━  Severe droughts make river segments unnavigable.

 ━  Flooding that damages access points, campsites, and other infrastructure. 

 ━  Highly variable flows make paddling conditions challenging.

 ━  Increased strain on volunteers and staff maintaining dispersed infrastructure.

 ━  Community and visitor expectations for safe and reliable recreation access.

 

 The Option: NFCT is designing access improvement projects for greater flood resilience and to accommodate both higher and lower water levels, while also developing informational resources that guide paddlers to reliable options – primarily lakes and ponds – when river conditions fall outside the paddle-able range.


 The Decision: NFCT adopted a resilience strategy focused on designing resilient infrastructure, diversifying paddling access, and expanding informational resources.

 ━  Upgrade access points (e.g., extended stone steps) to stay usable as water levels fluctuate.

 ━  Site access points in flood-resilient locations to reduce damage during high-water events.

 ━  Partner with local groups and landowners to support long-term management and access resiliency-aligned funding.


 The Result: Diversified access and resilient design helped NFCT maintain consistent paddling opportunities despite three years of extreme flooding and drought.

 ━  Events and community engagement continued to grow, with races like the 90-Miler attracting 600 racers and thousands of spectators.

 ━  Participation increased across all events except those directly affected by weather closures.

 ━  Strong communication engagement (20,000-person email list with 40% open rate; strong social and web traffic), helping paddlers adjust quickly to changing conditions.


Key Takeaway: By pinpointing exposed assets and diversifying access, NFCT preserved paddling opportunities, supported local economies, and met climate-resilience funding requirements.


 The Context: The Boot Pro began as a 600-square-foot ski boot-fitting shop at the base of Okemo Mountain Resort, growing over 17 years into a 6,800-square-foot, full-service ski & bike shop known for top-tier boot fitting and race tuning. As they assessed their climate exposure, owners Alex and Shon Racicot identified several key assets at increasing risk: their winter-dependent revenue model, highly skilled technical staff, specialized service equipment, and customer loyalty built around reliable snow seasons. Warming winters, late openings, rain on peak weekends, and shorter operational windows created growing vulnerabilities for a business whose core assets were tightly tied to snow-dependent visitation. 


 The Challenges: 

 ━  Shorter, inconsistent winters result in delayed openings and early closings

 ━  Rainy weekends during peak periods

 ━  Lower visitation and higher visitor cancellations during poor weather

 ━  Dependence on a winter-only income stream, which was no longer reliable

Recognizing that these vulnerabilities threatened long-term viability, the owners determined they needed a resilience strategy that reduced exposure to winter volatility and fully utilized their skilled technical workforce.

 

 The Option: Diversify into mountain biking to build a year-round business model that offsets the financial risks limited to snow sports and a single season.


 The Decision: The Boot Pro chose not to add simple summer retail products but instead pursued a high-skill, high-service expansion aligned with their identity: technical expertise, equipment mastery, and customer trust. They became a Specialized mountain bike dealer and launched a structured bike program focused on:

 ━  Bike service and repairs

 ━  Bike rentals

 ━  Sales of one high-quality brand to simplify inventory risk

 ━  Guided bike tours

 ━  Staff training through VOBA workshops and brand-specific professional development

 ━  Group rides open to the public to build community presence 

This approach built on the team’s strengths as technicians, mirroring their reputation in ski boot fitting and race tuning.


 The Result: The Boot Pro officially became The Boot Pro Ski & Bike Shop. The shift was challenging, launching during a post-COVID inconsistent bike market, which resulted in excess national inventory, followed by Vermont’s 2023 summer flooding events. Regardless, after three years, the mountain bike business has demonstrated a return by covering overhead during uncertain winters and reducing reliance on a single season. Benefits of diversification include:

 ━  Hiring full-time, dedicated staff

 ━  Increased product- and service-based revenue

 ━  Summer customer engagement

 ━  Community demos, events, and guided rides


Key Takeaway: By identifying which assets were most exposed to shrinking winter seasons and then diversifying their services around those vulnerabilities, The Boot Pro built a more stable business model that strengthens long-term resilience.

Project support made possible by the University of Vermont Sustainable Innovation MBA Program Ellie Penfield-Cyr, Robert M. Phillips Vermont Entrepreneurial Equity Fellow

 
 
 

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