Thank you

I feel it is time to talk honestly here about extreme weather and our parks and open spaces.

Sometimes in an attempt to be positive we can be less than open, and sometimes in an attempt to react we can focus on the negatives. I want to try and find a balance.

Yes there have always been extreme events. But we need to understand what is changing and how we can respond to those changes.

There have always been floods, droughts, heatwaves, fallen trees and periods of exceptionally wet or dry weather.

So when somebody says, “We’ve always had weather like this,” they aren’t necessarily wrong.

But they are missing something important.

Frequency and intensity matter. It is worse than before? Is it happening more often?

Something that happens once in fifty years creates a very different risk from something that happens every ten years, every five years, every year or potentially several times in a year. Because there becomes less time for recovery.

And that matters enormously when we look after parks and green spaces.

Risk assessment isn’t simply about asking:

Could this happen?

We also have to ask:

How likely is it to happen?

What would happen if it did?

Has that likelihood changed?

And are the things we put in place previously still enough?

That is where climate change becomes very practical.

The UK’s climate is changing. We are seeing increasing temperatures and changing extremes of heat and rainfall. Climate projections point towards warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers while intense rainfall and flooding can still happen during those drier summers.

That doesn’t mean every storm, flood, fallen tree or dry spell is “caused by climate change”. Weather has always varied.

It means the background conditions and probabilities are changing. And parks experience those changes in complicated ways.

A very wet winter can saturate the ground. A storm arriving afterwards may then affect trees differently.

A prolonged drought can stress a mature tree. Heavy rain a few weeks later doesn’t necessarily undo that stress.

Hot, dry conditions can increase a fire hazard risk by increasing likelihood, impact and harm. What may in other conditions have been a small square of scorched grass, becomes something with devastating consequences.

Intense rainfall can overwhelm paths, drains and watercourses that worked perfectly well for decades. Once can be an inconvenience, multiple times becomes much more damaging.

Newly planted trees may need watering more frequently and for longer than our old maintenance assumptions allowed. If water is in short supply this becomes a series threat to being able to increase the tree canopy.

Grassland, ponds, woodland and wildlife can all respond to combinations of events, not just one dramatic day of weather. Water quality becomes effected and wildlife becomes effected by the stress, showing signs of disease with some diseases being fatal for animals.

And sometimes the consequences aren’t immediate. What happens this year can make something more vulnerable next year.

That creates a difficult reality for Birmingham City Council, Parks staff, contractors, Friends groups, volunteers and communities.

We cannot prevent every problem.

There are thousands of trees, paths, buildings, play areas, watercourses and other assets across our green spaces. Resources are finite. People cannot inspect everything after every weather event, water every tree during every drought or guarantee that nothing will fail.

Nor should every unusual weather event cause panic.

What we can do is get better at noticing when risk has changed.

That might be very simple.

After prolonged rain, perhaps don’t assume the ground or trees are behaving exactly as they normally do.

During extreme heat, reconsider whether that volunteer task, walk or event should happen at the planned time.

After a storm, look before starting work or holding an activity.

During drought, notice struggling young trees and plants and share your concerns early.

If a path repeatedly floods where it didn’t previously, tell someone.

If the same problem keeps happening, don’t keep treating each occurrence as an isolated incident.

And importantly, don’t put yourselves at risk trying to solve something that needs trained staff, specialist equipment or professional assessment.

This isn’t about being frightened of extreme conditions. It is about becoming more observant and adaptable.

And the way we work together is changing too.

Birmingham Parks is increasing the number of people available to gather information, respond to enquiries and work proactively across our parks and green spaces.

For Friends groups, partners and residents, an important part of that will be much clearer communication.

Groups should have good, up-to-date contact information. They should know how and where to report different kinds of problems, what happens to that information once it has been reported, and what to do when something is urgent.

They should also have an understanding of what happens when normal arrangements change including how out-of-hours and on-call arrangements work during an emergency.

Because Friends groups aren’t simply another name on a contact list and residents are just people who live close by.

You are people who know these places.

So you notice the tree that suddenly looks different. The place that floods when it didn’t before. The damaged gate. The blocked drain. The path people have stopped using. The young trees beginning to struggle.

That local knowledge is incredibly valuable.

So we need to think about the two connected ways of working.

There is the normal operating procedure — how we look after parks, report problems, organise activities, share information and work together every day.

And there is the emergency operating procedure — what happens when something exceptional occurs and the usual arrangements are no longer enough. This includes extreme weather.

Friends groups and community partners need to be aware of and have an understanding of both of these.

That doesn’t mean asking volunteers to become emergency responders. Quite the opposite.

It means people knowing what to do, what not to do, who to contact and what happens next.

And it means Parks getting better at receiving information from the people on the ground, bringing it together, understanding what it is telling us and responding appropriately.

Risk assessments shouldn’t be documents that are written once and put in a folder. They should change when the world around them changes.

Procedures shouldn’t remain unchanged either.

And our communication can’t simply be something we think about after an emergency has happened.

We need to practise how we work together before we need it.

And there is hope in that.

Parks themselves are part of the solution. Trees provide shade and cooling. Healthy soils absorb water. Wetlands can hold it. Vegetation can slow runoff. Connected habitats can give wildlife somewhere to move. Well-designed green spaces can make neighbourhoods more resilient to heat and flooding.

Nature is resilient if we care for it and realise that in an urban area like a town of city we are very much part of that living system.

So adaptation isn’t simply about defending our parks from climate change. It is also about helping our parks protect us.

We don’t need everyone to become a climate scientist or emergency responder.

We need people to feel they are part of a much bigger system.

And we need people who know their local green spaces to keep doing something they are extraordinarily good at:

Noticing.

Notice what is changing.

Tell someone.

Know who to tell.

Learn from what happens.

Change what we do when the evidence tells us we need to.

And know that somebody is listening at the other end and will know how to respond.

Thank you for everything everyone who cares is already doing.

You are making a vital difference and the actions you take are massively appreciated! That’s every day not just in extreme conditions.

Together we can all act to manage the effects of our changing environment now and support the long term changes needed for a better future.