In a recent article for The Western Planner, Lucy Bishop, Daniele Spirandelli, and Sarah Sieloff discuss one small town’s path toward climate resilience. This article kicks off a regular series, “Resiliency Corner,” which will periodically feature the trio’s insights.
Chiloquin, Oregon, a rural town of 790 residents, is poised to build a resilience hub — a facility that provides support for both disaster recovery and daily life. Lucy, Daniele, and Sarah trace the town’s journey to this milestone in the article titled “Points of Strength: Resilience Hub in Chiloquin.” It’s “a story that can inform small, rural communities striving to improve their own resilience in the face of economic and climate uncertainty,” they write.
Like many communities, Chiloquin faces increasing threats from climate instability, including devastating wildfires and economic impacts. Chiloquin began increasing its resilience by redeveloping contaminated and decaying downtown sites, securing over $1 million in federal and state grants for brownfield cleanup. Wildfires in 2020 and 2024 exposed the city’s vulnerabilities and disorganized emergency responses, showing the need for a centralized resilience hub. Chiloquin successfully applied for an Environmental Protection Agency Community Change Grant to support the creation of a facility to serve vulnerable populations and link existing community assets.
Lucy, Daniele, and Sarah note that, according to research, rural communities such as Chiloquin rely heavily on social capital — trusted relationships and shared local knowledge — to prepare for and respond to disasters. The town’s resilience hub represents a shift toward asset-based, community-driven disaster preparedness, building on that social capital.
Read the full article.
