Introduction to the Department of Bioregion

The Department of Bioregion was launched in 2019 by many organizers who have been active with bioregionalism an the Cascadia movement for many years. The Cascadia Department of Bioregion is dedicated to placing Cascadia and bioregionalism into main stream thought as a viable alternative to current systems. We build place based watershed hubs that grow greater understanding of bioregions, promote place appropriate technology and policy, provide direct funding for community projects, and support the creation of movements to determine the carrying capacities and regenerative frameworks for each watershed and bioregion we live in. We believe the people living in a place are the best suited to take the lead on issues affecting their area.

Our Mission is to make Cascadia a reality
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As part of a interconnected networks of bioregional movements around North America & the world.

To accomplish these goals, we believe in bioregionalism, a grassroots approach to ecology that uses natural boundaries to reinforce sustainability, community self-determination and regional self-reliance. Regardless of where you are from, we want reconnect people into place in a healthy and sustainable manner, stand in solidarity to address past wrongs, and work to better protect all inhabitants living here. For the Department of Bioregion, we chose the State Department as a base for what we want to do (more than just a satirical jab), because, well, the state department does exactly everything that we want to do. We advance the interests of Bioregionalism and Cascadia. We train and manage watershed ambassadors and diplomats, who promote this goal. We develop policies that reflect these issues, conduct original research and create resources. We issue passports and welcome new citizens, and it is our hope that every person will take the time to become citizens, not just of arbitrary nation states they were born into – but of their landbase, watershed and home.

Ultimately — institutions and symbols have an incredible power. They have tradition, institutional knowledge and language — and by subverting these, and infusing it with bioregionalism and our own principles — we begin to shift the dominant discourses to our own, and show people alternative frameworks that begin real grassroots narrative building and change.

By adopting the Department of Bioregion, we wanted to challenge ourselves to envision what a Department of Bioregion would mean – what would it look like? By asking these questions – it is our hope to begin to shift thinking away from simply US, Canadian or other nationalities, and inspire people to begin to think locally, bioregionally and globally, as both a citizen of their watershed – and the world. We also do so with full acknowledgement that we live on ceded, and unceded lands of dozens of First Nations and Peoples, and do so with respect, and working for their sovereignty within the bioregion, using indigenous languages and Chinook wawa for place names wherever possible.

This is Cascadia and we are Cascadian. We hope you join us.