The Harney County Wildfire Collaborative is a diverse group of partners working together to solve the complex issues around wildfire and make the sagebrush steppe landscapes in southeastern Oregon more resistant and resilient to wildfire. Since 2014, High Desert Partnership has convened and supported this group in coming to consensus on fire suppression, prevention and restoration. This session will describe how the collaborative has formed and how it continues to work together today.

Learn more about this work:

• Harney County Wildfire Collaborative (Website)
• Southeast Oregon Wildfire Resilience Project (Storyboard)
• SOWR Treatment Video (Senate Bill 762 funding)
• Land Sky Water Soul (4-minute film and snapshot of Harney County)

The Oregon RFPA model, the oldest in the nation, is over 60 years old. Join the volunteers running these nonprofits and ODF, providing administrative support, to explore the unique model, how they operate and how they’re funded.

Oregon has 45 Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs), which have played a unique role at the intersection of natural disasters and human and natural systems for more than 80 years. This panel brings together four SWCDs from across Oregon—Gilliam, Wheeler, Umatilla, and Upper Willamette—to discuss their districts’ roles and innovative approaches to supporting communities and natural systems before, during, and after natural disasters. Though they represent only a sample, all four have developed robust responses to disasters or contributed to recovery and response planning for events ranging from wildfires to floods. We’ll hear personal stories, accounts, and lessons learned; explore the power of SWCDs and their partnerships; and discuss next steps and calls to action. The goal is to raise awareness of SWCDs' role in disaster resilience and how they can bridge gaps and build strong partnerships with community members, government and nonprofit organizations, and Tribal Nations, all while continuing their work and securing the support and resources needed to build long-term, generational resilience.

Building rural community resilience through the Service Integration model. Service Integration is an organizing framework to address pressing issues at the local community level through effective communication and resource-sharing. Strong, functional relationships emerge from the process and can deepen community capacity to pivot toward disaster response/recovery if and when needed.

In August 2024, the Flat Fire burned over 23,000 acres and threatened the small town Sisters. Yet despite more than 820 homes within the fire perimeter, just five were lost. Then, this July, the Akawa Butte Fire once again threatened this frontier community, burning over 27,000 acres. And again, only two structures would burn. 

How did the town get so lucky? Certainly, a whole lot of luck; but also a lot of proactive planning, creative partnerships, and strong ties between local organizations and residents, all offering poignant lessons for other communities living at the wildland-urban interface. In this session, Sisters’ mayor and a local nonprofit director explore the policies, planning, and partnerships that helped save their town, and how those lessons are now shaping bold, collaborative approaches to community resilience.

What makes a community resilient? Strong relationships, local leadership, and the capacity to work together are essential foundations for responding to challenges, from natural disasters to economic uncertainty.

Join members of The Ford Family Foundation's Rural Community Building Collective for a conversation about how place-based community building strengthens rural resilience. Through real-world examples, we'll explore the Four Cs of community building, how local organizations identify and respond to community priorities, and how statewide resources can support locally driven solutions.

We'll also examine the vital role of longstanding community-based organizations, whose decades of experience, trusted relationships, and local knowledge provide continuity through changing circumstances and government leadership. Together, we'll consider how stronger partnerships between communities, funders, and government agencies can build lasting resilience from within.

The La Pine Basin All-Lands Partnership (LPBALP) exists to enhance coordination of the La Pine Basin region’s fire resilience through strategic, cross-boundary wildfire risk reduction efforts. By fostering collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies, as well as NGOs and community representatives, LPBALP aims to maximize resources, align mitigation strategies, and improve wildfire resilience across the La Pine Basin.

With Special Guests & Community Sharing

Followed by a musical performance

With pending honored guests.

Higher temperatures, drought, drier soils and vegetation, and reduced snowpack across the Pacific Northwest are resulting in longer wildfire seasons and an increase in the size, frequency, and intensity of wildfires. Farmers and ranchers, as land stewards, are uniquely vulnerable to wildfires. Wildfires occur naturally; nonetheless they can pose significant financial, human, and production-related risks for ranch operations. We will talk about what we've seen when it comes to farmer and community fire preparedness, and how we can improve future resilience.

Protecting farmland is essential to a resilient food system, but protecting land does not necessarily make it accessible or affordable to the farmers who need it. This presentation will explore how Community Land Trusts can create more affordable and secure pathways to farm while keeping land in agricultural production over the long term. Drawing on Oregon Agricultural Trust’s emerging land access work, we’ll consider how conservation and community-based ownership can work together to build a more resilient food system

When the Almeda Fire destroyed more than 2,600 homes in Southern Oregon, our community quickly learned that emergency response and long-term recovery are not the same thing.This presentation explores how unexpected partnerships, community trust, and meeting the most basic human needs became the foundation for resilience. Through powerful stories, practical examples, and lessons learned, attendees will discover how communities can build the relationships and systems that make recovery possible, long before disaster strikes.

We are in the middle of a loneliness epidemic, and that isolation weakens the social bonds that communities depend on to weather and recover from hard times. Drawing on neuroscience and social psychology, this session explores why humans are wired for connection, what breaks belonging down, and practical, science-backed ways individuals and communities can rebuild belonging. The result: communities that are stronger both during and after disruption.

As Tribal Nations and Tribal communities advance stewardship approaches rooted in culture, community, and responsibility to future generations, young leaders are stepping forward to help shape the path ahead. In this panel, Tribal young adults and Elders will share perspectives on ecological restoration, cultural resource protection, community engagement, and the importance of passing values and stewardship traditions from one generation to the next. Panelists will discuss how intergenerational learning helps sustain Indigenous knowledge systems and strengthen resilient landscapes, fire-adapted communities, and healthy ecosystems while creating meaningful opportunities for emerging leaders to build skills, navigate challenges, and carry forward a shared vision for the future. Join us to hear how Tribal youth and Elders are advancing ecocultural stewardship that benefits Tribal and neighboring communities alike, fostering resilience for both people and place for generations to come.

Oregon's climate is changing, but many communities thrive in locations where the climate would be hazardous in Oregon. In this workshop/presentation, we'll discuss how Oregon communities can adapt to grow and thrive into our climate future. This interactive session will build off of our partnership with South Willamette Solutions in Oakridge, Oregon, our work on the Oregon Cooling Needs Study, Infrastructure Climate Planning, and case studies and best practices. Activities include future climate adaptation scenario planning and demonstrations to empower participants to take action in their communities.

What happens when decades of limited resources begin shaping not only what rural communities can afford, but what they believe is possible—and ultimately, how resilient they can become?

Curry County has faced obstacles in its rural location, with organizations and community members who are often not included in traditional emergency and disaster planning roles. The CCCOAD has worked to become more inclusive by building relationships with local organizations, agencies, businesses, volunteers, and community members. By connecting people and resources, we can better identify needs, share information, support one another, and create a stronger, more prepared Curry County.

Disaster resilience depends on more than resources. It depends on the networks, relationships, and trust that connect them. Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COADs) are essential community coordination networks that bridge government emergency management and the organizations serving communities before, during, and after disasters. Join COAD leaders from across Oregon to examine a critical opportunity: How can we better connect existing resilience networks, reduce duplication, and build a stronger, more coordinated statewide system, while preserving the local trust and community leadership that make these networks work?

Not catered (on your own–or maybe with a new friend?)

PRO collaborators may utilize the Hall for the evening as a large group and/or smaller breakout groups!

(w/ flatbread pizza & popcorn!)
Fireside Room also available for small group networking & continued conversations.

What happens when Oregon state agencies team up with Watch Duty to rethink disaster preparedness? Get an inside look at a new pilot bringing government data into the hands of people who need it most.

Want to tell Oregon state agencies and Watch Duty what your community actually needs? Here's your chance. Join the conversation, challenge assumptions, and help shape what comes next. Audience participation is encouraged.

Southern Oregon University is transforming itself into a living laboratory where students learn through place-based, experiential work. Within SOU The Institute for Applied Sustainability (IAS) is leading this transformation through its flagship Community Resilience and Leadership Student Fellows Program and its emerging energy resilience initiatives.

This presentation will explore how IAS is bringing campus infrastructure, community partnerships, and a structured curriculum of self- and project-leadership together to strengthen regional resilience. We will share how we believe higher education and workforce development can be integrated with investments in energy resilience and community partnerships to build capacity across the region. Faculty, sustainability leadership, and students will share what we have learned from the program’s first year and where we see the model going next.

Power resilience means keeping essential devices running and recognizing the power we, as disabled people, have to shape solutions together. This session explores practical backup-power planning, access barriers, and the community connections that help us prepare for outages. As our climate changes and financial resources shift, we’ll discuss how disability justice, environmental justice, and collective care can guide our response.

A discussion of economic power through collective support. This will be a brief look into the math of community programs both historically and currently.

Disasters associated with climate change (including wildfires-the focus of this work) significantly undermine the well-being of families, with profound implications for social and economic recovery and equality. Due to structural inequities, low-income, immigrant, and ethnic and racial diverse communities tend to live in areas where climate disasters are more common and more severe, and these communities tend to have fewer existing resources, less access to safe locations, and more difficulties materially and emotionally rebuilding. Addressing the urgent need to identify practices that establish greater equity in disaster recovery for families, we use a social ecological, community intervention framework to explore how family resilience practices and Trauma-Informed Disaster Case Management (TI-DCM) practices might counter inequalities in climate disaster recovery for marginalized families. The aim is to understand better how TI-DCM may strengthen family resilience and disaster recovery, and to strengthen families and the workers who support them after climate disasters.

Resilience is increasingly one of the most widely used concepts in disaster work, yet it is defined differently across disciplines, sometimes in direct tension. This presentation traces resilience from its origins through its history and application, drawing on Dr. da Rosa's research on the 2020 Labor Day Fire recovery efforts and the Disaster Resilience Learning Network’s (DRLN) approach to building disaster resilience and recovery within their communities. It examines how resilience is understood as both a process and an outcome, and how its neoliberalization has shifted responsibility onto individuals and communities. The result can look like an abundance of resources while delivering uneven impact for survivors. The presentation then turns to the Network’s expanded definition of disasters, which recognizes that disasters are cyclical, chronic, and compounding rather than linear, and that historical trauma and legacies of subjugation continue to shape their impact. Transformational resilience approaches this expanded definition of disasters as structural and inclusive of political and structural problems that surround any single event, and the scope of resilience itself. The presentation highlights the work of DRLN CBOs in reclaiming resilience and situating it locally by shifting decision-making, using cultural lenses to understand resources, and giving up power.

Community resilience begins not with a program, resource, or institution, but with our relationships to each other and to the land. Through simple and accessible rituals and practices, we will explore how spirituality can become an entry point for community, creating spaces where people can feel rooted and connected, whether or not they identify with a particular faith tradition.

Panel will conclude with a community blessing, featuring a musical accompaniment.