Think Out Loud

When the Holiday Farm Fire roared through the McKenzie River corridor five years ago, it destroyed at least 500 homes and most of the community of Blue River.  In the aftermath, many former home owners sold their property rather than rebuilding. Property values went up, and housing - especially affordable or mid-range housing - became very hard to find. In response, some community members founded the nonprofit McKenzie Community Land Trust. One of the only rural land trusts for housing in the country, the trust is nearing completion on six new homes for residents who make below 80% of area median income for Lane County. Tabitha Eck, executive director of the McKenzie Community Land Trust, joins us to explain the model.

Erica Alexia Ledesma was born in Medford and grew up in nearby Talent and Phoenix. After graduating from the University of Oregon, she moved back to Southern Oregon and, as she put it, “immediately got to community organizing.” She was among the community members who gathered for a strategy and solutions brainstorming meeting a month after the 2020 Almeda Fire destroyed thousands of homes, displacing many who had lived in historically low-income, Latinx and Indigenous neighborhoods. People were frustrated with the lack of responses from landlords and government officials. One elder stood up and asked, “Why don’t we just buy our neighborhoods back?” Ledesma says she co-founded Coalición Fortaleza [https://coalicionfortaleza.org/our-story/] out of that question [https://mailchi.mp/ce839b9c28fc/we-are-coalicin-fortaleza-somos-coalicon-fortaleza-5691077?e=0223e6862e]. It was a long process involving many more community meetings and a partnership with real estate developer CASA of Oregon. But five years later, Jackson county’s first resident-owned mobile home park [https://coalicionfortaleza.org/talent-mobile-estates/] is thriving. Formerly called Talent Mobile Estates, the residents have decided to rename it Talent Community Cooperative. With larger individual spaces and improved shared facilities, the park is nearing its 84 unit capacity. We talk with Ledesma about the new park and the other community empowerment work the nonprofit is engaged in.

Five years ago, the Labor Day Fires killed 11 people and destroyed more than 4,000 homes, becoming the deadliest and destructive wildfire season in the state’s history. Since then, the city of Phoenix has focused on rebuilding, including housing, rebuilding Blue Heron Park [https://travelphoenixoregon.com/stories/phoenix-rebuilds-after-tragedy-and-plans-for-future-growth/] and building a new food truck lot [https://www.centraloregondaily.com/destination-oregon/phoenix-phodery-tap-house/article_d76b7d1a-81da-11ef-a9af-8ff0cdaa92fe.html] known as the Phoodery. Eric Swanson is the city manager of Phoenix. He joins us to share more on what rebuilding has looked like.

The Flat Fire, which is burning two miles northeast of Sisters in Central Oregon, has grown to more than 23,000 acres and is 13% contained, as of Friday morning. The fire broke out last week, grew rapidly and prompted Level 1, 2 and 3 evacuation orders in Deschutes and Jefferson counties. On Thursday, Level 3 orders were downgraded to Level 2 in both counties. According to an update posted Thursday morning [https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122103793004991209&set=pcb.122103793394991209], five homes have been destroyed by the fire, the cause of which is still under investigation.     Jim Cornelius, editor-in-chief of The Nugget Newspaper [https://www.nuggetnews.com/] in Sisters, says that while the community is no stranger to wildfires, efforts have expanded in recent years to make it more fire-wise and resilient to wildfires. The city is considering updates to its development code for new construction and in the spring, a local nonprofit, Citizens4Community, organized community forums [https://citizens4community.com/events/spring-forum-25] to educate residents about fire insurance and wildfire preparedness, from assembling a go bag to requesting a free wildfire home assessment.    Cornelius joins us for an update about the Flat Fire, its impact on Sisters and how the catastrophic Labor Day Fires of 2020 shaped the community’s fire-readiness.

President Donald Trump declared an indefinite pause [https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-appeals-court-allows-trump-pause-refugee-program-litigation-continues-2025-03-25/] on new refugee admissions to the U.S. on his first day in office in January. Shortly after, he froze federal funding [https://www.npr.org/2025/03/06/nx-s1-5309763/refugees-limbo-trump-freeze-resettlement-programs] for resettlement agencies that provide services to refugees in the U.S. The decisions are part of a broader crackdown on immigration [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/27/us/ice-arrests-trump.html] that’s led to arrests [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/07/16/ice-immigration-enforcement-arrests-father-outside-kid-beaverton-guidepost-montessori-preschool/] and deportations [https://www.opb.org/article/2025/07/17/ice-deport-moises-sotelo-casas/] across the country.  The Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, or IRCO [https://irco.org/], provides education, health, employment and other support services to refugee and immigrant communities in Oregon. Executive Director Lee Po Cha joins us to talk about what it’s like to do that work in the current political climate.