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Rural Community Climate Resilience
September 28 @ 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Imagine our community in 2040. How have we adapted to the challenges of increased droughts, higher temperatures, and decreased snowpack? What local mitigation efforts have we implemented to protect our elderly, children, and those with compromised health? Join us for an afternoon of community brainstorming and roadmap building. This hands-on space will cover the emerging challenges to human health, food security, and water infrastructure from climate change and provide tools to support our community to be resilient.
Dr. Kyle Bocinsky
University of Montana – Assistant Research Professor
Dr. Kyle Bocinsky is an assistant research professor in the Department of Society and Conservation and the Director of Climate Extension for the Montana Climate Office, housed in the WA Franke College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana. He serves users of climate data and information in Montana, including outreach supporting agriculture, forestry, recreation, and urban and rural resilience planning, with a special emphasis on partnering with Native Nations to meet their climate resilience goals. Kyle is an anthropological archaeologist who specializes in cross-disciplinary, computational approaches to studying resilience in socio-ecological systems, with a focus on high-elevation arid agricultural systems. In addition to his positions at UMT, Kyle holds appointments at the Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at the Desert Research Institute and the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. He loves living in the Northern Rockies — and especially being outdoors with his husband, daughters, and dogs year-round.
Living in a Changing World: Climate Resilience in Western Montana
Western Montana is experiencing rapid climate change, with rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and increasing extremes such as flash droughts and atmospheric rivers. This presentation explores observed trends and future projections for the Crown of the Continent and surrounding region, drawing on high-resolution CMIP6 climate models and multiple emissions scenarios. Projections show warming of 4–5°F by century’s end, more days above 90°F, and seasonal shifts in precipitation—wetter winters and drier summers—impacting snowpack, streamflow, and water availability. As the headwaters of major North American river systems, Montana’s hydrologic future has regional and continental implications. The Montana Mesonet and new tools like the Drought Monitoring Dashboard provide critical, localized data to support decision-making. This talk highlights the importance of accurate monitoring, community engagement, and proactive adaptation to build resilience in the face of a changing climate—empowering residents, landowners, and resource managers across western Montana to navigate what lies ahead.
Pam Whitney, BSN, RNC, MPH, CIC
Infectious Disease Specialist – Missoula Public Health
Pam has been a Registered Nurse for 38 years and a Public Health Nurse for 30 of those years. She is a Disease Intervention Specialist investigating over 80 of the reportable communicable diseases in Montana. Pam is involved in many outreach projects through the health department to include Infectious Disease/STI education to organizations and schools, Community infection control, collaborating with community partners, HIV/Hepatitis C testing and other activities. Pam lives in Missoula and can often be found with her husband (a retired ID physician), on a sailboat on Flathead lake or Galveston Bay, Texas.
Climate change is linked to human health in many ways. Pam will share some of these issues.
Robin Kelson
Abundant Montana – Executive Director
Robin joined AERO’s staff in 2020 after two terms on the AERO Board of Directors. She is a graduate of the Leadership Montana Flagship Class of 2023. Trained as an attorney, biochemist, and facilitator with a talent for synthesizing information, Robin has worked with both start-up and Fortune 500 companies and held executive positions in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Her passion and curiosity focuses on human vitality and the resiliency principles built into evolution and ecosystems, and this has led her career choices in the sustainable energy, stewardship agriculture, and nutritional health fields for over 25 years.
Montana Food Production
In the 1950s, 70% of the food we ate in Montana was grown in Montana. Today? It’s only 3%. Importing 97% of our food from national and global sources puts Montanans in a vulnerable, risky position. Abundant Montana is leading a statewide initiative to get from 3% to 33% by 2033. Join Robin Kelson, Executive Director of Abundant Montana, to explore: What will it take to get to 33% by 2033 in your community?
Roadmap Details:
Date: Sunday Sept 28th, 12-5pm
Where: Riverbend Golf Clubhouse, Thompson Falls MT
Fee: Free, meal included
12 – 2:30 pm Guest Speakers Present, Half-hour presentation for each speaker, followed by Q & A after all speakers
Lunch provided for participants
2:30 – 4 pm Breakout Groups – Adaption Pathways, focus on nexus of human health and climate change, food security and climate change, and water systems
4 – 5 pm Breakout Groups Share with Collective