Wildfire & Rural Community Resilience Solutions Roundtable
December 17, 2026 • 1-4 p.m. PT / 2-5 p.m. MT
Live via Zoom • Free • Registration now open!
Across the rural West, wildfire is part of life, and so is the work of living with it. Small towns, ranching communities, tribal nations, and island communities are finding ways to prepare, respond, and recover. This WeCAN Solutions Roundtable will bring those stories together so we can learn from one another.
Wildfire resilience is a continuous effort with connected parts. What communities do before a fire can shape what happens when fire arrives, and both can shape post-fire recovery. We’ll explore community-rooted stories from across that arc.
You'll come away with a shared understanding of wildfire risk and the language to talk about it, practical ideas you can adapt in your community, and connections with neighbors, fire professionals, planners, and community leaders across the region who are working on the same questions.
Register Today!
The Solutions Roundtable is free and open to anyone who's interested in attending. Our focus is on rural communities and small towns across the Western U.S. and Pacific territories, but all are welcome to join.
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More about the roundtable
The roundtable program will include:
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A keynote from Jonathan Bruno, a fire responder for 27 years who serves on incident management teams and leads Coalitions & Collaboratives, a Colorado-based nonprofit that advances healthy and resilient ecosystems and communities through collaborative conservation and restoration. Jonathan will set out a common picture of wildfire risk in the West: what we mean when we talk about it, what the impacts are, and specific steps communities can take to protect themselves.
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Six solution stories from rural communities that have done the work before, during, and after fire. You'll hear from neighbors and homeowner groups, fire chiefs and planners, and the nonprofits that help hold communities together, with examples of what they tried, what they learned, and what they'd do differently.
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Peer learning and discussion with roundtable speakers and participants from rural communities and supporting organizations across the western U.S. and Pacific island territories.
About keynote speaker, Jonathan Bruno
Jonathan Bruno is the Chief Executive Officer of the national nonprofit Coalitions & Collaboratives (COCO), where he works with communities, agencies, and local partners to strengthen wildfire resilience from the ground up across the nation and world. His work is rooted in the practical realities of western landscapes—where private lands, working forests, watersheds, roads, homes, and neighbors are all connected. He was a founding board member of Fire Adapted Colorado, served as Chair of the organization, and later moved into a liaison role as his work expanded nationally. Jonathan is also the founder and national lead for the interagency Community Mitigation Assistance Teams (CMAT).
Jonathan began his career with the Coalition for the Upper South Platte (CUSP) as a field technician, working alongside volunteers and local residents in the Hayman Fire area and helping launch a forestry program in the Upper South Platte watershed. As COO for CUSP, he helped build a practical, on-the-ground forestry program that managed two slash sites and a biomass facility, operated a fuels reduction program treating approximately 1,000 acres annually, led an eight-person wildland fire team, and supported numerous Community Wildfire Protection Plans and related initiatives.
With more than 25 years of experience in emergency services, including work as a search and rescue safety officer, wildland firefighter, and burn boss, Jonathan brings both field experience and community perspective to his work. He focuses on the shared challenges rural landowners know well: caring for forests and rangelands, reducing wildfire risk, protecting water and access, and helping communities recover after disaster. His work sits at the intersection of emergency response, community preparedness, forest health, and post-disaster land restoration, with an emphasis on safer communities and resilient working landscapes.
Jonathan has received numerous awards for his work, including the White House Champion of Change Award and the 2015 Wildfire Mitigation Award. He holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado and graduated from the Executive Leadership Program at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Jonathan and his wife, Jennifer, live in the Gunnison area, where they enjoy time in the woods, western landscapes, and being grandparents.
Stay tuned... we will add our Solution Stories speakers here soon!
Solution Stories are the heart and soul of Solutions Roundtables, and we'll be announcing them as they are confirmed! These short presentations offer concrete examples of how rural communities are approaching wildfire from preparation and mitigation through response and recovery. You'll hear what's working, what we are learning along the way, and how you could adapt this to your own community.
Sponsors
Co-hosted by the Western Community Assessment Network (WeCAN), the Western Rural Development Center (WRDC) and Coalitions & Collaboratives (CoCo). Together, we are committed to bringing rural leaders, organizations, and residents together to share practical solutions and strengthen communities across the West.
