Bioregional Mind
Discussion
Joe Brewer:
"A bioregional mind is a more ecological way of thinking, a way to look at your surroundings with different questions and always asking how something at a smaller scale relates to the larger scale. It's about understanding the story of a river or a geological formation in the context of the history and life flows of the surrounding area. The bioregion is the smallest actionable scale that maintains whole-system integrity. You're always fractally scale-linking up (to the subcontinental, continental, and planetary) or down (to a single site or river) from the bioregion.
When you focus your thinking at the scale of the bioregion, then one person's backyard or farm makes more sense in the larger story – and activities/projects coordinated across the bioregion can multiply their effect. How does a plot of land (e.g. community garden, farm, park, forest) relate to the ecology around it (e.g. the river that might run through it) relate to the holistic landscape (defined by geography, ecology, culture, history) which ultimately relates to planetary processes (e.g. meandering and kinking jet stream, patterns of heat and drought)? Understanding the nested system of relationships and patterns supports deeper learning, wiser action, and can give everything more meaningful long-term effect."