Submissions for the 2023 Summer Issue of the Cascadia Spoke are open!
2023 State of Cascadia survey is here!
the Cascadia DOB is proud to partner with the University of Washington GIS Certificate Program
The Cascadia Department of Bioregion is excited to partner with the University of Washington GIS Certificate program to work with a team of students to develop Cascadia related applications. This is also very exciting in that the Department of Bioregion just received our nonprofit ESRI ArcGIS online and desktop versions, so getting these set up and functioning to be able to pull data will be a huge boon for students and volunteers.
The Edge Prize: Applications are Open! Presented by the Salmon Nation and Terran Collective.
The Edge Prize is your opportunity to share what works, big or small, and find the others who want to join you, fund you, learn from you, or replicate your efforts locally. This is not a business plan competition. This is not a “pitch” competition. It’s not really a contest at all! This is about sharing what you’re already doing, why it’s working, and why it gives you hope.
Cooperative Gardens Commission: 4th Seed Distribution Applications are Open
Founded in March 2020, the Cooperative Gardens Commission (CGC) is a grassroots collective working to support food sovereignty efforts in response to COVID-19. The pandemic heightened the persistent injustice in our food system, falling especially hard on BIPOC, poor, undocumented, and otherwise marginalized communities. Our primary work is focused on distributing seeds to Seed Hubs, who function as central distributors of free seeds and information to their communities. In this capacity, CGC focuses on historically oppressed communities by prioritizing hubs already working with those most affected by the injustices of the pandemic and encouraging seed hub organizers who aren’t working with those groups to do so.
What is Bioregionalism? Great webcards using the DOB by the Alliance for a Viable Future
The Department of Bioregion is proud to be included in this post by Alliance for a Viable Future which also cites our executive director Brandon Letsinger. Check out more about their organization and learn more at: https://www.allianceforaviablefuture.org/
and give them a follow @allianceforaviablefuture
We were honored to be included in this post by Alliance for a Viable Future. Check out more about their organization and learn more at: https://www.allianceforaviablefuture.org/
and give them a follow @allianceforaviablefuture
Cascadia hoodies and shirts for the holidays, what designs would you like to see?
CascadiaNW Solstice in the Park: 2023 Arts in the Parks Grant Application
The Department of Bioregion is excited to share our application for the City of Seattle 2023 Arts in the Park grant through our program the Cascadia Northwest Arts and Music Festival. Cascadia Northwest Solstice in Seattle will be an all ages event taking place in Beer Sheva Park on Saturday, June 24th. The gathering will celebrate the summer solstice and bring communities together for a day of artmaking, installation art, workshops, music and fun.
Department of Bioregion featured in article "The Cascadia Region – Fun and Facts – Kelowna Capital News"
The Department of Bioregion was proud to be featured in a new article The Cascadia Region - Fun and Facts by the Kelowna Capital News on October 13th, 2022 by BW Uzelmann. Read the whole article at: https://canadatoday.news/bc/the-cascadia-region-fun-and-facts-kelowna-capital-news-55464/
The Cascadia DOB is excited to present at this years Bioregional Regeneration Summit: Oct 24-Nov 4th 2022
It is the time for Bioregional Regeneration!
BIOREGIONAL REGENERATION SUMMIT
Oct 24- Nov 4, 2022
English & Español
Radical Collaboration between people and places.
Ways to share resources.
Peer to peer exchange of know-how and knowledge.
Regeneration of ourselves through a deep and authentic connection with Mother Earth.
REGISTER
The Cascadia Department of Bioregion will be excited to present “Why Bioregionalism Matters”. The time and day is still being confirmed, but stay tuned.
Why a Summit
In recent years, many networks, organizations, coalitions, and collaborations have emerged to support regeneration at a bioregional and “landscape” scale. We believe we are at a moment when there is a need for and widespread interest in possibilities for “radical collaboration” so that these diverse initiatives can begin to function as a global ecosystem--one that can navigate the complexity of working across scales, across the private, public, and grassroots domains, and across the many interconnected systems where regenerative work is being imagined and enacted. The Summit offers an open and flexible invitation for participants to explore four connected contexts for this radical collaboration: How global networks can support one another How bioregions can support one another How funding innovation can support bioregional scale regeneration How we can support our emotional, physical and spiritual resilience as individuals grappling with the existential threats of the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, economic and social injustice, political fragmentation, and other dimensions of Collapse.
How to join
This scale of working maps itself onto existing places and landscapes in order to provide a meaningful and effective infrastructure for human-scale organising. Bioregions are an age-old organising principle that is being upgraded for the present age by many experiments taking place across the world. Out of that ferment of activity are emerging initiatives for environmental, social and economic regeneration that are place-appropriate.
Registration
The Summit will happen in the Qiqochat platform. After registration you will receive an email with the access.
Agenda
The main agenda is a base to hold multiple conversations and connections. It can change during the event, go here often.
Donations
They are seeking an additional $15,000 to fully cover our time and expenses. Consider a donation of $25, $50, and $125.
Opportunity explorations
Invite people to engage throughout the Summit on a topic or activity you care about. Frame your exploration with background information, questions and/or activities, and a way to share outcomes. Your invitation will show up on the Summit network map where participants can indicate their interest and self-organize their engagement, with support from the Summit hosts and a team of “weavers.”
About the conveners
The Regenerative Communities Network is a global practitioner collaborative of bioregional networks along with individuals and organizations who share a commitment to place-based initiatives for environmental, social, and economic regeneration. Originally founded by the Capital Institute in 2018, the Network has been independent and managed by its members since the beginning of 2021. After a period of inwardly focused planning and organizing, this Summit represents the beginning of a new phase of outward-facing work in service to the broader movement of which RCN is a part, along with a plan to grow RCN’s membership and surface new possibilities for it to generate value for its network.
Your RCN hosts for this Summit are Melina Angel (Colombia Regenerativa); Isabel Carlisle (Bioregional Learning Centre UK) and Ben Roberts (Connecticut River Valley Bioregional Collaborative).
2022 Cascadia NW: Equinox in Pictures
With COVID, this was our first festival since 2019, and brought hundreds of folks out to Sedro-Woolley for a weekend of arts, music and fun. The entire purpose was to reconnect, gather and rekindle energy for hosting a full scale 2023 CascadiaNW festival. This year was also made possible with generous support of Arts WA, the Washington Chamber of Commerce and WA Festival Association.
CascadiaNW Music and Arts Festival Grant!
After a two year hiatus due to COVID, Cascadia Northwest Arts and Music Festival is excited to return this year with an equinox gathering to reignite the magic and reconnection of the Cascadia community. While it will be much smaller than usual, the goal will be together in person, fundraise and build energy for a full return of the CascadiaNW festival in 2023.
Happy PRIDE Cascadia!
June is Pride month. We use this time to acknowledge the LGBTQ community and honor the memories of those who fought for their right to love and be equal. It’s an important time for all of us to reflect on the sacrifices made for equal rights, to celebrate progress in a freer society, and to recognize there’s still so much more to be done until freedom reigns truly for each of us.
Cascadia Day is coming up May 18th! Easy ways to celebrate
2022 Cascadia Women's International Film Festival is back! Happening May 12-30.
The 2022 CASCADIA International Women's Film Festival is back! Live in-person May 12-15, and online May 19-30. They are based in beautiful Bellingham, Washington. Tickets are on sale now at http://cascadiafilmfest.org.
Cascadia Underground is excited to announce our first volunteer-written article!
The Cascadia Underground, a Department of Bioregion program, is excited to share their first volunteer written article "Heat Domes and You" by Dennis Beaman, with more regular content to come. The Cascadia Underground is excited to be a space where any Cascadian can submit articles, audio or video about issues they care about.
David McCloskey releases new Ish River Bioregional Map
Cascadia DOB Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Presentation
The Cascadia Department of Bioregion was excited to present with the People’s Voice on Climate as a part of a 90 minute presentation, panel and question & answer session on April 26th, 2022. The Panel Session: Climate Assemblies: Lessons learned and results from around the world and Washington state was part of the opening sessions, which brought more than 2500 policy leaders, advocates, academics and scientists from around the Salish Sea for a week of discussions geared around better stewarding our ecoregion and bioregion.
Final Cascadia Flag Image in Reddit's /r/Place
On April 1st 2022, social news site Reddit relaunched their strange, collaborative, combative art project known as /r/Place, the second of such a challenge, with the first taking place on April 1, 2017. As part of this project, several hundred Cascadians worked together for four days, day and night - to ensure we got an amazing Cascadia flag into the final image.
New PRIDE Gear is in!
Just in time for Pride, we are so excited for our first ever Cascadia PRIDE Resource kits, and a whole host of new Cascadia gear. For the first time, we’ve got a whole range of Non-Binary, Trans and Rainbow pins, stickers, patches and flags, and have also just created a new Cascadia “Progress” Lapel Pin, and have created a new PVC velcro stick Cascadia Rainbow Pride Patch. Because of popular demand, we’ve also re-upped our Cascadia PRIDE stickers with the trans colors in the trees.
