Nested Bioregionalism
Description
Alex Corren:
- what comes next? What natural patterns can support the emergence of a regenerative civilization?
"No bioregion exists in isolation. Everything is connected. So if we are to use bioregionalism as the organizing pattern to cultivate a regenerative paradigm, it must not be isolationist. These connected bioregions can be considered networked bioregionalism - where place-based communities are taking action and carrying out participatory governance on a local level while staying connected and sharing resources with the greater community.
This is in line with cosmopolitan localism, which describes resilient place-based communities and economies that stay connected to a global network of other aligned communities. Cosmolocalism and networked bioregionalism strike the balance between globalism and localism. Not too open, not too closed off. Just right.
...
If networked bioregionalism is about the horizontal relationships between bioregions, then nested bioregionalism is about the vertical relationships within a bioregion. Together, they can serve as a foundational organizing pattern to combat civilizational decline and support the emergence of a regenerative society.
There are different layers of 'place', and each has its own appropriate forms of organization and action. Honoring this pattern can serve as a guide to anyone hoping to navigate the complexity of the crises we’re facing, and how to actually do something about it.
There are three primary levels to nested bioregionalism: the Federation, the Node, and the Community."
(https://www.recommon.land/blog/nested-bioregionalism)
Characteristics
Alex Corren:
"There are three primary levels to nested bioregionalism: the Federation, the Node, and the Community. ... A Bioregional Federation is made of several Bioregional Nodes, which is made of several Bioregional Communities.
Bioregional Federation
Most definitions of a bioregion are on the large watershed scale. This is because zoomed-out hydrology is one of the highest orders of complex systems that we can see on any given landscape. But that’s a really big area, with many distinct landscapes within it.
For example, the Colorado River connects from the headwaters in the high alpine forests of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to the Sonoran Desert and the Sea of Cortez on the border of Southern California and Mexico. Well, at least the river used to before it was dammed up and sucked dry.
Those are vastly different landscapes that do not share a sense of place. But they are connected by the water, the life force of any landscape.
Because of the many different landscapes that constitute this pattern level, we can refer to it as a bioregional federation.
Bioregional Node
Taking this landscape pattern one layer deeper, we can identify these unique landscapes by their flora, fauna, and climate. Looking at the Colorado River bioregional federation, we can see that it mainly consists of the Wyoming Basin, Southern Rockies, Colorado Plateau, Arizona/New Mexico Mountains and Plateau, Madrean Archipelago, and the Sonoran Desert.
The term ecoregion (a ‘type III ecoregion’, according to the EPA) is often used to describe this layer of landscape pattern. However, it’s kind of confusing because most people likely associate the term ‘bioregionalism’ itself with this scale - of a similar ecosystem type. If bioregionalism is supposed to capture a sense of place, then the federation scale is too large, and the ‘ecoregion’ scale feels closer to a natural definition of ‘place’.
We can call this level a bioregional node.
Bioregional Community
Entering a bioregional node brings us to the community level. This is really where a sense of ‘home’ exists. This level is critical because it’s where the place-based magic happens. These are the local communities that know the nuances of the area, and most importantly are the ones that put things into action. These bioregional communities are the boots on the ground.
This generally lines up with the smaller watershed or tributary level. For example, within the Southern Rockies bioregional node is the Gunnison River watershed, a tributary of the Colorado River. Connected to that smaller river system are distinct communities that have their own identity, like the Roaring Fork Valley.
But it doesn’t have to be based around a river. I’m currently writing these words in the bioregional community I call home, also in the Southern Rockies but in the Peak to Peak region of the Front Range Mountains, east of the Continental Divide at the headwaters of the South Platte River. The bioregional community level is the most local pattern of organization in this framework of nested bioregionalism."