Burnt out on wildfire warnings: quality messages drive recreationists’ safety, but overload backfires

California (US) residents receive copious information regarding wildfires, especially during fire season. As climate change increases fire severity and frequency, fire messaging will likely also increase. This increase, alongside questions of the perceived relevance of such messaging, may lead to residents experiencing message fatigue, potentially influencing their perception about wildfire risk. If risk messaging is received by fatigued forest recreationists, risky recreation may result due to a lack of attention toward fire-related messages. To keep would-be recreationists safe and alert, a better understanding of their perceived fire risk and fire-related message fatigue is needed. We surveyed Southern California residents who recently recreated in the Los Padres, San Bernardino, Cleveland, and/or Angeles National Forests about the quantity, quality, and relevance of the fire messaging they received, and their affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses to that messaging. The results show that the focus of risk information, wildfire risk in general versus wildfire risk specific to national forests, influences an individual’s risk perception and likelihood of following risk messaging safety advice. At the national forest level, self-protective behaviors increase with more relevant risk messaging, but these behaviors decrease with more frequent risk messaging. Based on these findings, striking a balance between general and national forest-specific wildfire risk messaging is needed to be most effective and least fatiguing. Fire risk communicators should be cognizant of message fatigue as they strategize fire messaging to avoid increasing the very risk they seek to avoid. Our results are directly applicable to the US Forest Service and other agencies that manage heavily visited fire-prone areas and communicate about such risks.