One consistent structure keeps map filters, reports, search and moderation aligned — and keeps one person’s report legible to everybody else.
Animals and insects that can bite, sting, charge, transmit disease, or otherwise injure people.
Examples: Rattlesnake, bear, mountain lion, shark, stingray, jellyfish, moose, bison, coyote, scorpion, black widow, ticks, wasp nests, fire ants, aggressive dogs
Storms, lightning, extreme temperatures, snow, ice, wind, and rapidly changing conditions.
Examples: Lightning storm, severe thunderstorm, extreme heat, heat index danger, extreme cold, blizzard, high wind, hail
Wildfires, prescribed burns, smoke, evacuation zones, and dangerous fire conditions.
Examples: Wildfire, smoke, active burn areas, evacuation zones, burn bans
Flooding, currents, cold water, surf, thin ice, and water that is not safe to drink.
Examples: Rip current, flash flood, canyon flooding, cold water, thin ice, contaminated water, unsafe drinking water
Cliffs, unstable ground, rockfall, avalanches, landslides, trail damage, and low visibility.
Examples: Rockfall, avalanche risk, unstable cliffs, landslides, trail washouts
Personal safety, crowds, area conditions and road users — the hazards that are other human beings.
Examples: Aggressive person, harassment concern, threatening behavior, unwanted following, unsafe crowding, crowd surge, blocked exit, civil disturbance, reckless driver, road rage
Road closures, washouts, bridge damage, power lines, utilities, construction, and structural failures.
Examples: Road collapse, washout, bridge damage, downed power lines, utility failures, pothole and road damage
Poisonous plants, toxic mushrooms, thorns, irritants, spores, and other botanical hazards.
Examples: Poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, toxic mushrooms, thorn hazards, irritating sap, harmful spores
Every report records the broad family, a narrower subcategory, and the exact hazard. That is enough structure to make filtering useful without dragging anyone through a technical form.
Level 1: Wildlife → Level 2: Reptiles → Level 3: Rattlesnake
Others run the same way: Water → Ocean / Surf → Rip Current. Terrain → Rock / Ground → Landslide. Plant → Toxic Mushrooms → Poisonous Mushroom. Infrastructure → Roads → Road Washout. When something genuinely does not fit, there is an “Other / Not Listed” path so the report still gets filed rather than abandoned.
The same hazard is a different problem depending on distance, scale, weather, exposure and how sure anybody is. So the person filing a report picks a severity, and that severity is stored and shown separately from what the hazard is. It is a human judgment, not a computed score, and the app presents it as one.
Where sourced guidance exists, it is in the app: what to do before, what to do if it happens, and what not to do, drawn from the National Park Service, CDC, Red Cross and state agencies. The rest carry the report and the location, which is still the thing you needed to know.
