Grade school teachers introduce bioregional concepts, and graduate schools recognize theses and dissertations based on them. Poets, painters, theater groups, and other artists have embraced bioregional themes in their works. Permaculturalists and most organic farmers employ techniques that are appropriate to their particular locales and insist on maintaining soils, water sources, and native species. Urban ecology advocates use bioregions for "nesting" their redesigned cities in a broad natural context. Restoration ecology practitioners readily grasp the importance of an appreciative local culture for their efforts to revive native plants and animals. What does bioregional thinking look like? Peter Berg from the Planet Drum Society cites, "There is a strong affinity for bioregional thinking in many fields that relate to ecological sustainability. At present there are hundreds of similar groups (and publications) in North and South America, Europe, Japan, and Australia (© 2002 Peter Berg, Planet Drum Society) The Ozarks group has held continuous annual gatherings to promote and support place-based activities. The Mussel Group eventually played a pivotal role in persuading the public to vote down a bioregionally lethal Peripheral Canal proposal to divert fresh water away from San Francisco Bay. By the late 70s, bioregional organizations such as the Frisco Bay Mussel Group in northern California and Ozark Area Community Congress on the Kansas-Missouri border were founded to articulate local economic, social, political, and cultural agendas. Planet Drum Foundation in San Francisco became a voice for this sentiment through its publications about applying place-based ideas to environmental practices, society, cultural expressions, philosophy, politics, and other subjects. They wanted to do "more than just save what's left" in regard to nature, wildness and the biosphere. Where did contemporary bioregionalism come from? In the early 1970s, the contemporary vision of bioregionalism began to be formed through collaboration between natural scientists, social and environmental activists, artists and writers, community leaders, and back-to-the-landers who worked directly with natural resources. People are also counted as an integral aspect of a place's life, as can be seen in the ecologically adaptive cultures of early inhabitants, and in the activities of present day reinhabitants who attempt to harmonize in a sustainable way with the place where they live (© 2002 Peter Berg, Planet Drum Society) The main features are generally obvious throughout a continuous geographic terrain and include a particular climate, local aspects of seasons, landforms, watersheds, soils, and native plants and animals. What is a bioregion? A bioregion is defined in terms of the unique overall pattern of natural characteristics that are found in a specific place. These natural, geographical borders create the Cascadia bioregion.
In many ways, it is geographically, culturally, economically and environmentally distinct from surrounding regions and has unique flora and fauna, topography, and geology. Cascadia defines the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada, incorporating British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, parts of Idaho, southern Alaska and northern California through the watersheds of the Columbia, Fraser and Snake River valleys.
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