Rogue Valley organizations work together in Almeda fire recovery effort

TALENT, Ore. — The Almeda fire struck Southern Oregon in 2020 and we have not yet fully recovered.

“Lots of the community has yet to rebuild, many thousands of people have yet to come back to our community, so we have to figure out what that’s going to look like,” state representative Pam Marsh (D) said, “How are our organizations going to continue to work together, how do we continue to tell our story to the outside community?”

Rogue Valley organizations heavily involved in the fire recovery effort worked together to come up with plans to collaborate and further serve the community.

“Also, to give them a chance to learn from each other and do some creative mapping activities so that they can envision how they want Jackson County to be prepared for a fire in the future,” said Leah Hampton, environmental humanities and creative writing fellow at the Confluence Lab at the University of Idaho.

The meeting was hosted by Our Family Farms, Coalición Fortaleza, and the University of Idaho Confluence Lab.

The Confluence Lab studies climate change and wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. It came to Jackson County to help local organizations understand how they can work together in fire recovery.

Attendees of the meeting recounted their experiences surrounding the Almeda Fire.

Many were emotional when speaking about packing their belongings as they evacuated and returning to what was left of their homes.

The attendees used their experiences to bond and used that bond to form maps of how they can help each other moving forward.

“It’s time to take a deep breath and understand how we organize each other and as we do that how we create a system that really has the survivors at the center,” Marsh said.

Marsh added that with survivors at the center of the plan, organizations will contribute to the long-term resilience of the community.

“Most likely we are going to face this again at some point and so ultimately what we want is more resilient individuals and a more resilient community so we’re in a better shape to weather whatever comes our direction,” Marsh explained.

Marsh said meetings like these are important to regain confidence that the community will rebuild, and the groundbreaking of the Royal Oaks Mobile Manor is a step in the right direction for fire survivors.