The Cascadia State of the Bioregion

Every year we survey several hundred people as part of on the state of Cascadia and the Cascadia movement, and provide a review of the past year, and a roadmap for what we have planned in the next. Join us, dig in to the data and get a unique glimpse into our growing movement and identity.

2020 Executive Summary

For all you wonderful Cascadians out there,

2019 was a year of many milestones.

As an all volunteer and grassroots movement, we have been absolutely honored by the incredible support and interest since we have received since first conceiving of the Department of Bioregion in July of 2018, and began meeting in November of that year. Regardless of affiliation, background or other groups a person worked with, we wanted to create diplomats able to effectively promote the message, place based embassies where people could focus on getting work done, and departments that could coordinate around issues important to them, all supported by a democratic membership and grassroots movement creating an ecosystem for an effective movement.

Our goal was to:

• create a positive framework and set of unifying principles for the Cascadia movement;

• encourage a network of Cascadian organizers and group, meeting regularly and coordinating actions around the bioregion

• grow the idea of bioregionalism and bioregional movements on a global platform;

• and be a fun, positive and satirical take on the State Department which challenged us to envision what a Department of Bioregion could really look like.

As you can see in our Cascadia Movement by the Numbers, since our first diplomat meeting in Seattle in April of 2019, that is exactly what we have set out to do. In a little less than eight months, we have grown our Facebook page has grown to 14,213 people, our email list to more than 6,000, our facebook group to a little more than 3681, our instagram to 682 and our twitter to 302, while the the Cascadia subreddit has just ticked over 15,000.

In our 2019 Year in Review, you can also read about some of the many activities that our diplomats helped engaged in. From hosting diplomat trainings and meetings, creating much needed resources, creating a Chinuk Wawa dictionary, organizing and promoting matches for the Cascadia Football team, members marched in parades, helped organize festivals and the annual Cascadia convergence event, popped up tables, outreached with businesses and Cascadia groups are now meeting in Seattle and Eugene, with individuals in more than 15 other cities working to get groups active as we enter into the new year. Organizers also maintain their own social media, project pages, run departments, and manage their own subbrands, such as the Cascadia Underground, Cascadia Passport, Yes Cascadia, Camp Cascadia, as well as supporting existing groups like Team Cascadia, Free Cascadia, Cascadia Forest Defenders & Earth First, Cascadia High Speed Rail, and many others.

To share and help give a face to this positive energy, we have created a 2019 Cascadia in Pictures area as well. But all of these milestones are just getting ready for the exciting things about to happen next year.

In July, at our annual Meeting of the Whole, our senior diplomats and members came together for our first ever in person gathering to discuss our mission, vision and long term objectives. Together, we outlined a short term and long term road map, which included:

• creating books, tools, maps and resources on bioregionalism, bioregional movements and the tactics & strategies we want to use to achieve our goals.

• securing permanent online and physical space for a network of community resources, to support Department of Bioregion diplomats, embassies, departments, and groups and communities in line with our principles.

• building a decentralized network of organizers, departments, projects and embassies across the bioregion each taking action on issues they care about, working together on regionwide campaigns.

• Developing a political, advocacy and legislative outreach arm dedicated to building support for Cascadian independence including: dedicated think tank, local candidate training programs, direct democracy & bioregional party, and advocacy for developing and supporting initiative campaigns that can bring policy in line with long term bioregional objectives.

• Growing resources to decolonize language and actions, grow indigenous sovereignty within our bioregion, and continue to reach out with each First Nation, group and organizer to bioregionally map pathways for decolonization and reconciliation.

• Strengthening activities for bioregional economy and supply chains, including locally sourced, ethical and responsible.

• Increase a positive awareness of the term Cascadia and the concept of bioregionalism

• A self-sufficient Cascadia movement that can support a broad network of organizers and projects thanks to strong financial health and organizational structure.

These milestone marks a few of the very exciting things that we have coming up in 2020. By defining our shared principles and organizing tactics, as well as creating a robust network of embassies, departments and projects throughout the bioregion, we will create new organizing spaces that will connect a wide and diverse coalition of people together through shared principles and values, and allow every person to be active about issues they care about.

In addition, we are overhauling a website, a short process that with our technical capabilities we expect to last no longer than 3-5 decades, which will open up the site so that anyone can submit articles, create forums, propose projects or start a group, so that we can begin shifting discussion off of facebook, and into to real life.

We want to be a community toolkit, a hub of resources, ideas and communication, with resources available to every person working to impact positive change in their communities. This will mean finding ways to not only sponsor projects, but to help secure funding so that people can be supported in what they care about.

It has been a unique pleasure to watch the Department of Bioregion and Cascadia movement grow and take shape over the past 15 years. Through online discussion, sharing ideas that we think is important, meeting in person and getting active about the issues we all care about, we will continue to grow in the New Year and beyond. Thank you for being a part of the Cascadia movement.

Bioregionally yours,

Brandon Letsinger
Grumpy Sasquatch & Co-Founder
Cascadia Department of Bioregion

2018 was an amazing year for Cascadia. Here are a few exciting things to look forward to in 2019:

A Platform for Impact

Join the cascadia.community, a new website, open blogging, discussion and planning space, resources, services and funding for groups, chapters and projects.

A Growing Diplomatic Corps

An umbrella organization able to extend our non-profit status, support and help fund all Cascadia related projects within our mission

A Growing Political Movement

A robust network of chapters, groups, projects, and events, helping build Cascadia as a positive and inclusive movement.

Membership

An active membership, able to impact their communities, whose resources support projects and chapters, using liquid democracy as our base.