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Our Organization

Cascadia DOB Logo CircleWe have been growing the Cascadia movement since 2005. The Cascadia Department of Bioregion brings people together to educate about Cascadia and bioregionalism, and be a hub for individuals and place based groups throughout the bioregion. 

The Cascadia Department of Bioregion is a 501(c)3 social movement organization 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:

 

An independent, resilient and inclusive Cascadia bioregion and movement organizing across watersheds.

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.

cascadia-fist-300x277We Promote:

  • Bioregionalism as a grassroots and positive alternative to the nation state and capitalism.
  • Place based hubs, made up of local organizations, communities and individuals.
  • Increased representation and direct democracy

  • Dynamic, Transparent and Accountable Government

  • Civil Liberties, Personal Freedoms, Digital Rights and Privacy

  • Indigenous Sovereignties and Nationhood Including Reconciliation, Land Back and Shared Stewardship.

  • Access to Non-Biased Information based on Fact

  • Bioregional Boundaries & Administrative Frameworks

  • Societal and Economic Equity

  • Access to Healthcare and Education

  • Energy Independence Based on Renewable Resources

  • A Net Carbon Bioregional Footprint.

  • Higher Quality of Life for Each Continuing Generation

cascadia-trans-flag-300x172Why a Department of Bioregion?

Cascadia is a 501(c)3 program of the Department of Bioregion.

Symbols are powerful. Not by themselves, but because of the power and tradition people imbue in them.

Rather than a State Department, we are a Bioregion Department. We promote bioregionalism as a viable alternative to capitalism and the nation state, and as a place based solution to contemporary problems facing our planet.

Indeed bioregionalism, the idea of living in connection to and within the confines of a place, in a sustainable, ethical manner, and when needing to step beyond those borders do so in a responsible way, is an alternative that has been the dominant way of living for the sum duration of human existence. A philosophy which has been intentionally disrupted and erased over the past several hundred years to support the narratives of colonialism, nationalism and capitalism; such as the inevitable separation, exploitation, extraction and domination from natural resources, as well as the supposed and necessary social woes from each.

Our goal is to build teams of barefoot and grassroot cartographers, geographers and organizers to subvert and subsume harmful and toxic language, narratives and symbols, and infuse these dominant power structures with a healthier and necessary way of living. We want to develop bioregional movements where our own information and models are housed, all over the world, each one responsible for a discrete bioregion and ecoregion. No political or economic motive other than improving the well being of our inhabitants and planet, and each accessible to everyone – not walled off, as scientific centers so often are, from the lives of ordinary people or from the realities of political processes. These movements would be at home with farmers, miners, planners, and heads of government and they would be able both to listen to, and talk to, all of them.

We are all the experts that we have been waiting for. We must be the leaders who do the hard work to begin reconnecting and rooting ourselves back into the places we live. By shifting the framework away from these colonial narratives and into bioregional ones, we are able to have conversations, and occupy spaces in ways that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to. In addition, for ourselves – it changes how we think, how we act and how we respond.

Every map we see is an imagined geography. What reality, what vision, do you want to share?

Using the principles of Bioregionalism – what would Departments of Bioregion look like? How would we respond to different issues? How do we work with indigenous organizers to create a movement or government? What is the population or GDP? What are the rivers, watersheds, forests, etc? We’re compiling these now – and it’s incredible that they don’t exist in current colonial frameworks, many of whom have spent centuries destroying any evidence of bioregional cultures and ways of living. Governments and corporations have specific economic and political agendas they promote through their information – and by creating grassroots and citizen led maps, information and resources – we create effective counter narratives that can inspire us to the changes we need to see.

Ultimately — institutions have their own power, traditions and language — and by subverting them, and infusing it with bioregionalism and our own principles — we begin our own shift towards those ends. Communities build these connections and affinities through shared language and cultural values — music, sports, work, hobbies, interests, activities, gatherings, fun, grief — transmitted through common media and events that build perceived connections. Just as Nations are imagined communities, they replicate themselves through maps, symbols, visual mediums and shared stories. Those shared values — the American & Canadian identities of consumerism, growth, manifest destiny — are all embedded within those models.

By seizing and creating our own symbols, our own narratives — we can begin a process of deconstructing these harmful systems, and envisioning what true & just alternatives might look like.

So what is the planet and the future you would like to see? Join with us to make that a reality.