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1990
A BIOREGIONAL READER
n exciting vision and strategy for creating ecologically sustainable
communities and cultures in harmony with the limits and
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THIS VOLUME HAS BEEN DONATED TO
MABEL SMITH DOUGLASS LIBRARY
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
BY
Students for
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HOME!
A Bioregional Reader
Edited by
Van Andruss, Christopher Plant, Judith Plant
and Eleanor Wright
Foreword by Stephanie Mills
NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS
Philadelphia, PA Santa Cruz, CA
Gabriola Island, BC
DEDICATION
For Fred, and for children everywhere.
Copyright © 1990 Van Andruss, Christopher Plant, Judith Plant and Eleanor Wright.
All rights reserved.
Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Home! A Bioregional Reader should be addressed to:
New Society Publishers,
4527 Springfield Avenue, Philadelphia PA, USA 19143
or
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island BC, Canada VOR1X0.
ISBN USA 0-86571-188-7 Paperback .
ISBN USA 0-86571-187-9 Hardcover
ISBN Canada 1-55092-007-3 Paperback
ISBN Canada 1-55092-006-5 Hardcover
Cover art by Carl Chaplin, "Walk For The Environment, 1989."
Cover design by Barbara Hirshkowitz.
Book design & typesetting by New Society Publishers Canada. Electrical energy produced by a seven inch turgo wheel
on the creek.
To order directly from the publishers, add $1.75 to the price for the first copy, $.50 cents each additional. Send check
or money order to:
New Society Publishers,
P.O. Box 582, Santa Cruz CA, USA 95061
or
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island BC, Canada VOR 1X0.
New Society Publishers is a project of the New Society Educational Foundation, a non-profit, tax-exempt public
foundation in the U.S.A.. Opinions expressed in this book do not necessarily represent positions of the New Society
Educational Foundation.
it
Table of Contents
Foreword Stephanie Mills .vii
Growing Home: An Introduction
Judith Plant.ix
Part One: WHAT IS BIOREGIONALISM?
.2
Living by Life: Some Bioregional Theory & Practice
Jim Dodge.5
More Than Just Saving What's Left
Peter Berg.13
Bioregional Perspectives
Gary Snyder.17
Revaluing Home: Feminism & Bioregionalism
Judith Plant.21
In Pockets of Resistance: The Back-to-the-Land Movement Matures
Christopher Plant.26
Where You At? A Bioregional Quiz.29
Part Two: LIVING IN PLACE
.32
Reinhabiting California
Peter Berg & Raymond F. Dasmann .35
Future Primitive
Jeremiah Gorsline & Freeman House .39
Living Here
The Frisco Bay Mussel Group .42
Speaking in the Haida Way
Gwaganad.49
The Hudson River Valley: A Bioregional Story
Thomas Berry.53
The Salmon Circle
Fraser Lang & Alison Lang.55
Part Three: NATURE, CULTURE & COMMUNITY
.58
Design Should Follow, Not Oppose, the Laws of Life
Nancy Jack Todd & John Todd .61
Totem Salmon
Freeman House.65
How Humans Adapt
Kelly Booth .73
Home Is Here
Wilfred Pelletier & Ted Poole.75
iii
Searching for Common Ground: Ecofeminism & Bioregionalism
Judith Plant.79
Community: Meeting Our Deepest Needs
Helen Forsey .83
Bioregionalism/Western Culture/Women
Mamie Muller .87
Earth Diet, Earth Culture
William Koethke.89
The Council of All Beings
Pat Fleming & Joanna Macy.95
Part Four: REINHABITATION & RESTORATION.100
A Green City Program for San Fransisco Bay Area Cities & Towns
Peter Berg. 104
To Learn the Things We Need to Know: Engaging the Particulars of the
Planet's Recovery
Freeman House .Ill
Taking Steps Toward a Restoration Ethic
Jamie Sayen .121
Fantasy of a Living Future
Starhawk .126
Part Five: SELF-GOVERNMENT.130
Devolutionary Notes
Michael Zxverin.133
Growing a Life-Place Politics
Peter Berg.137
Municipal Libertarianism
Murray Bookchin.145
Spiritualism: The Highest Form of Political Consciousness
The Haudenosaunee.147
Strategies for an Alternative Nation
Bill Mollison.149
LETS: The Local Exchange Trading System
Michael Linton & Thomas Greco .155
Building a Bioregional, Sustainable Alternative
Doug Aberley.159
Organizing a Bioregional Congress
David Haenke.161
Consensus
Caroline Estes.165
Welcome Home!
No'rth American Bioregional Congress .170
RECOMMENDED READING, BIOREGIONAL DIRECTORY,
BIOGRAPHIES
Van Andruss .171
Epigraph
Gary Lawless.181
IV
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
G
rateful thanks go to all authors of this book for freely and generously contributing their
works. Many have labored in the field for over a decade, bringing a bioregional philosophy
to public consciousness. Not only have they racked their brains formulating an original set of
ideas; they have also contrived their expressions in such ways as to be plain and communicable.
Inspiration came from the North American house-calls up wild mountain trails; to Carl
Bioregional Congresses and especially those Chaplin for the cover art, originally the poster for
thinkers and friends along the West Coast who Vancouver's first "Walk For The Environment;" to
counselled and encouraged us—Bill Aal, Freeman Sheila Foley for her painstaking help in identifying
House and Seth Zuckerman. Loving thanks go to graphics for the book; to our community who kept
Judy Goldhaft and Peter Berg, who continue to act things going while the editors pored over papers;
as a rich source of information and artfulness in the and to the folks at the Hat Creek Gathering who,
bioregional movement. over the years, brought home to us the real pos¬
Our thanks also to Ellen Sawislak and David sibility of bioregional cultures.
Albert, the only publishers we know of who make Finally, thanks to Robin for her patience.
*
permission of the publisher. The New Catalyst Quarterly.
Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission
"Don't Move" by Gary Snyder first appeared in Upriver,
to reprint previously published and copyrighted articles Downriver, No. 10,1987. Reprinted by permission from author and
publisher. Upriver Downriver, P.O. Box 849, Areata, CA 95521.
and material from the following sources:
"Reinhabiting California" by Peter Berg and Raymond F. Das-
"The Value of a New Word: Bioregionalism" by Geraldine
mann. First published in Reinhabiting a Separate Country. A
Payton. First published in Columbiana, Summer 1988. Reprinted by
Bioregional Anthology of Northern California. Ed. Peter Berg. San
permission granted by author and publisher, Columbiana Magazine.
Francisco: Planet Drum Foundation, 1978. Reprinted by permission
Journal of the Intermountain Northwest, Chesaw Rt, Box 83F, Oroville,
from authors and Planet Drum Foundation.
WA 98844.
"Future Primitive" by Jeremiah Gorsline and L. Freeman House.
"Living By Life: Some Bioregional Theory and Practice" by Jim
First published in "North Pacific Rim Alive," Bundle #3, 1974.
Dodge. First published in Co-Evolution Quarterly, Winter, 1981.
Reprinted by permission granted by authors and Planet Drum
Reprinted by permission from the author and Whole Earth Review,
Foundation.
27 Gate Five Road, Sausalito, CA 94965.
Excerpts from "Living Here" by Frisco Bay Mussel Group. First
"Topography of the Bioregional Movement" by Sheila Rose
published by Planet Drum Foundation, San Franciso, 1977.
Purcell. First published in Raise the Stakes, No. 8, Fall 1983. Reprinted
Reprinted by permission from authors and publisher.
by permission from the author and Planet Drum Foundation, Box
"At Home in L.A." by Sue Nelson is excerpted from a prose
31251, San Francisco, Shasta Bioregion, CA 94131.
poem entitled "Land & the People 1989" delivered at the panel on
"More Than Just Saving What's Left" by Peter Berg. First pub¬
Green Cities at the 1989 U.S. Green Gathering in Eugene, Oregon.
lished in Raise the Stakes, No. 8, Fall 1983. Reprinted by permission
Reprinted by permission of the author.
from the author and Planet Drum Foundation. "Mish Meditation" appears by permission of its author, Lance
Excerpts from "Regenerate Culture!" an interview with Gary
Scott.
Snyder in The New Catalyst, Spring 1986. Reprinted by permission "Speaking in the Haida Way" by Gwaganad (Diane Brown).
of the publisher. The New Catalyst Quarterly, Box 189, Gabriola First published by Ruebsaat's Magazine, 685 W. 19th Avenue, Van¬
Island, BC VOR 1X0, Canada. couver, BC V5Z 1W9. Reprinted by permission from author and
"Bioregional Perspectives" by Gary Snyder. Excerpt from The
publisher.
Practice of the Wild, San Francisco: North Point, 1990. Copyright 1990 "The Earth" by Baden Powell, was first published in Reinhabit¬
by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission from the author and ing a Separate Country. A Bioregional Anthology of Northern California,
North Point Press. San Francisco: Planet Drum Foundation, 1978. Reprinted by permis¬
"Revaluing Home: Feminism and Bioregionalism" by Judith sion of author and publisher.
Plant. First published in The New Catalyst #2, Jan/Feb 1986. Excerpts from AHome" by Luanne Armstrong were first pub¬
Reprinted by permission from the author and The New Catalyst lished in TheNew Catalyst No. 15, Fall 1989. Reprinted by permission
Quarterly. from the author and publisher. The New Catalyst Quarterly.
"In Pockets of Resistance: The Back-to-the-Land Movement "The Hudson River Valley: A Bioregional Story" by Thomas
Matures" by Christopher Plant. First published in Kanada: Ein Ex¬ Berry. Excerpts from The Dream of the Earth, San Francisco: Sierra
press Reisehandbuch, Ed. Maria Feltes and Thomas Feltes. Germany: Club Books, 1988. Copyright 1988 by Thomas Berry. Reprinted by
Mundo Verlag, 1989. English translation reprinted by permission of permission from author and publisher.
the author. "The Salmon Circle," by Fraser Lang and "The Salmon Dance"
"Paradigm Shift" by Kirkpatrick Sale. First published in by Alison Lang first appeared in NABC III Proceedings. Reprinted by
Dwellers in the Land, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1985. permission of the authors.
Reprinted by permission from author and publisher. Excerpts from Micro-Cosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolu¬
"Where you at? A Bioregional Quiz" compiled by Leonard tion by Lynn Margulis and Dorian Sagan. Copyright 1986 by Lynn
Charles, Jim Dodge, Lynn Milliman, Victoria Stocklev. First publish¬ Margulis and Dorian Sagan. New York: Summit Books, a division
ed in Co-Evolution Quarterly, Winter, 1981. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Reprinted by permission of authors and
from Whole Earth Review. publisher.
Excerpts from "The Bioregional Vision," an interview with "From a Mechanical to an Ecological Worldview" by Nancy Jack
Kirkpatrick Sale in The New Catalyst, Spring 1987. Reprinted by Todd and John Todd. Excerpts from Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City
V
Farming: Ecology as the Basis of Design. San Francisco: Sierra Club "Devolutionary Notes" by Michael Zwerin. Excerpted from
Books, 1984. Reprinted by permission of authors and publisher. Deoolutionary Notes. San Francisco: Planet Drum Foundation, 1980.
"Culture is the Missing Link" by Van Andruss and Eleanor Reprinted by permission of author and publisher. Planet Drum
Wright. First published in The Catalist, April-May 1984. Reprinted Foundation.
by permission of authors. Excerpt from The Breakdown of Nations by Leopold Kohr. London
"Totem Salmon" by L. Freeman House. First published in & New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957. Reprinted by permis¬
"North Pacific Rim Alive" Bundle No. 3 by Planet Drum Founda¬ sion of author and publisher.
tion, San Francisco: 1974. Reprinted by permission of author and "Bioregionalism and the Green Movement" by Brian Tokar.
publisher. Excerpted from The Green Alternative: Creating an Ecological Future.
"How Humans Adapt" by Kelly Booth. First published in The San Pedro: R & E Miles, 1987. Reprinted by permission of author
Catalist, April-May 1984. Reprinted by permission of author. and publishers.
"Home is Here" and "Tne Parasites" by Wilfred Pelletier and "Growing a Life-Place Politics" by Peter Berg. First published in
Ted Poole. Excerpted from No Foreign Land: The Biography of a North Raise the Stakes, No. 11, Summer 1986. Reprinted by permission of
American Indian, Dy Wilfred Pelletier and Ted Poole. Toronto: Ran¬ author and publisher, Planet Drum Foundation.
dom House of Canada Limited, 1973. Reprinted by permission of "Municipal Libertarianism" by Murray Bookchin. Excerpts
Pantheon Books, a division of Random House. from "Cities, Councils and Confederations," from Turtle Talk: Voices
"Searching for Common Ground: Ecofeminism and for a Sustainable Future, by Christopher & Judith Plant. Reprinted by
Bioregionalism" by Judith Plant. First published in The New Catalyst, permission of publishers.
No. 10, Winter 1987/1988. Reprintedby permission of the author "Spiritualism: The Highest Form of Political Consciousness. The
and the publisher. Haudenosaunee Message to the Western World" from Basic Call to
"Community—Meeting our Deepest Needs" by Helen Forsey. Consciousness, ed. Akwesasne Notes, Rooseveltown: New York, 1978.
Excerpted from Healing the Wounds: The Promise of Ecofeminism, ed. Reprinted by permission of publishers, Akwesasne Notes, Mohawk
Judith Plant. Philadelphia & Santa Cruz: New Society Publishers, Nation via Rooseveltown, NY 13683.
1989. Reprinted by permission of the author and publisher. "The Fourth World Declaration" by John Papworth, from The
"Bioregion as Community: The Kansas Experience" by Gary & Declaration of the First Assembly of the Fourth World, 1980. Reprinted
Julie Coates. Excerpted from an article first published in Co- Evolu¬ by permission of the author and the Fourth World Review, 24 Aber-
tion Quarterly, Winter 1981. Reprinted by permission of authors and corn Place, London, N.W.8, England.
publisher. "Strategies for an Alternative Nation" by Bill Mollison. Excerpts
"Bioregionalism/Western Culture/Women" by Mamie Muller. from Permaculture: A Designer's Manual. Tagari Publications, 1988.
First published in Raise the Stakes, No. 10, Summer 1984. Reprinted Reprinted by permission of author and publisher, Tagari Publica¬
by permission of author and publisher. Planet Drum Foundation. tions.
"Earth Diet, Earth Culture" by William Koethke. First published "A Proposal of Marriage" by Michael Crofoot. Reprinted from
in Fifth Estate, Spring 1987. Reprinted by permission of author and the Second North American Bioregional Congress Proceedings, Hart
publisher, Fifth Estate, PO. Box 02548, Detroit, MI 48202. Publishing, 1987. Reprinted by permission of author.
"The Council of All Beings" by Pat Fleming and Joanna Macy. "LETS: The Local Employment Trading System" by Michael
Excerpted from Thinking Like a Mountain. Towards a Council of All Linton and Thomas Greco. First published in the Fourth World
Beings by John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming, Arne Ness. Philadel¬ Review, No. 26,1988, with acknowledgements to Whole Earth Review.
phia & Santa Cruz: New Society Publishers, 1988. Reprinted by Reprinted by permission from authors and publisher. Fourth World
permission of authors and publisher. Review.
"Getting Over The Distance Between Us," by Jerry Martien. "Bioregional Education" by Frank Traina. Editorial in Pollen:
Reprinted by permission of the author.
Journal of Bioregional Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1990. Reprinted by
"Fantasy of a Living Future" by Starhawk. Excerpt from Truth permission of author and publisher, Sunrock Farm, 103 Gibson
or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery. Copyright Lane, Wilder, KY 41076.
1987 by Miriam Simos. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row,
"Building a Bioregional/Sustainable Alternative" by Douglas
Publishers, Inc.
Aberlev. Excerpt from "Sustaining Development in Rural British
Exerpts from "Ecotopia Emerging" by Ernest Callenbach. New
Columbia: A Bioregional Context,' 1989. Reprinted by permission
York: Bantam Books, 1981. Reprinted by permission of author and of author.
publisher.
"Organizing a Bioregional Congress" by David Haenke. First
"Green City: An Introduction" by Kathryn Cholette, Ross Dob¬
published in the Second North American Bioregional Congress Proceed¬
son, Kent Gerecke, Marcia Nozick, Roberta Simpson, Linda Wil¬ ings, 1988. Reprinted by permission of author.
liams. Excerpted from a presentation at the Green Cities Conference
Sexism, Racism & the Land" by Milo Guthrie. Excerpted from
in Chicago and published in City Magazine, Vol. II, No.l, Sum¬
a report on a workshop at the Third North American Bioregional
mer/Fall '89. Reprinted by permission of authors and publisher,
Congress, 1989. Published in the Third North American Bioregional
City Magazine, 71 Cordova Street, Winnipeg, MB R3N 0Z9, Canada.
Congress Proceedings, 1989. Reprinted by permission of author.
"On Permaculture and Community" by Bill Mollison. Excerpts
"MAGICal Reflections: All Species Representation at the Con¬
from Permaculture Two: Practical Design for Town & Country in Per¬
gress by David Abram. From the MAGIC (Mischief, Animism,
manent Agriculture. Tagari Books, 1979. Reprinted by permission of
Geomancy, and Interspecies Communication) Committee report in
author and publishers, Tagari Publications, P.O. Box 1, Tyaleum.
the Third North American Bioregional Congress Proceedings, 1989.
NSW 2484, Australia.
Reprinted by permission of author and publisher.
"A Green City Program for San Francisco Bay Area Cities and
Excerpt from an interview with Jeffrey Lewis by Paul Cien-
Towns" by Peter Berg. First published in A Green City Program by
fuegos and Ellen Rainwalker first appeared in the North American
Peter Berg, Beryl Magilavy, Seth Zuckerman. San Francisco: Planet
Bioregional Congress III Proceedings 1989. Reprinted by permission of
Drum Books, 1989. Reprinted by permission of authorand publish¬ author and publisher.
er, Planet Drum Books.
"Consensus" by Caroline Estes. First published in The New
To Learn the Things We Need to Know: Engaging the Par¬
Catalyst, No.3, Spring 1986. Reprinted by permission of the author
ticulars of the Planet's Recovery" by Freeman House. First publish¬ and publisher.
ed in Whole Earth Review, Winter 1989-90. Reprinted with
'Sustaining Bioregional Groups: The KAW Experience" by
permission from the author and Whole Earth Review.
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg. Excerpted from the Third North American
"Watersheds" by David McCloskey. First published in Coming
Bioregional Congress Proceedings, 1989. Reprinted by permission of
Home: On Naming and Claiming Your Bioregion, 1985. Reprinted by author.
permission of author. ’
"One Town's All-Species Day" by Chris Wells. First published
"Taking Steps Toward a Restoration Ethic" by Jamie Sayen.
in the Third North American Bioregional Congress Proceedings, 1989.
Excerpted from an article in Earth First!, Beltane edition, 1989.
Reprinted by permission of author.
Reprinted by permission from the authorand publisher. Earth First'
"Welcome Home" Statement from the First North American
P.O. Box 7, Canton, NY 13617.
Bioregional Congress Proceedings, 1984.
"Wilderness" and "Wilderness for Science" by Aldo Leopold.
^ Epigraph, by Gary Lawless. Reprinted by permission of the
Excerpts from an essay entitled "Wilderness" in A Sand County
Almanac. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
VI
FOREWORD
Stephanie Mills
W
e have now officially entered the Earth Day Decade, and a media-stirred multitude of
citizens is asking what can be done, indeed what they can do, about environmental crisis.
Much of the conventional wisdom offered in creaturely associations that can carry the lifesome
response is easy and relatively superficial, ul¬ ethic forward through the generations.
timately unconvincing, or to put it more charitably, For taking this longer view, bioregionalism is
amounts to just preliminary conditions. An often categorized as "visionary;" and visionary is
average guy or gal may do every last one of the sometimes a euphemism for impractical. (This
fifty simple things to save the Earth and by the neatly overlooks the fact that what industrial
millenium, still find themselves hurtling around civilization has deemed practical has proved
the sun on a dying planet. everywhere to be lethal.)
If that is so, what would it mean to get serious So. Concede that it is visionary, even idealistic:
about saving the Earth, anyway?... bioregionalism cleaves to the value that free
...Probably a little "something more" than people, freely associating, informed by the biologi¬
Green consumerism, and certainly more than late- cal and geological truths of their home places, will
ly-Green politicians. bring the best within themselves, along with the
In Home! you will hear the voices that are ar¬ health of their lands, to full flowering. And, be¬
ticulating the something more. It is called cause the biological is unsentimental and the
bioregionalism. Infused with the poetry of nature geological hard, bioregionalism is, equally, mun¬
observed, bioregionalism is an intelligent and im¬ dane. Reinhabitation—the work of making oneself
aginative political philosophy, perhaps the only sustainably at home—takes labor in the land and
one currently affirmed by truths evident to the a rigorous study of natural history and all its im¬
indwelling senses. Certainly it is unique in es¬ plications.
chewing centralized authority, and hierarchy, in Thanks to its holism and diversity,
the governance it sketches. bioregionalism defeats making any single
Bioregionalism is about growing a lifeway, manifesto. Thus Home!, by virtue of being a collec¬
rather than imposing policy or fine-tuning and tion, is an apt introduction to the varied expres¬
reforming industrial civilization's present prac¬ sions, concerns, and actions of bioregionalism.
tices in order to buy more time for what Freeman Surely there could be no likelier creators of such a
House calls "the commodity spectacle." It seeks reader than the editorial collective that has
more thorough change. For humans again to par¬ gathered and shaped this book. These are people
ticipate in, rather than mine. Earth's ecosystems, who really live the bioregional ethic. Members of
most of our lately-accustomed ways—of thought, a larger group of homesteaders in a remote but
perception, society, tenure, and livelihood—will nonetheless threatened mountain region in inte¬
have to be radically reshaped towards sus¬ rior of British Columbia, they strive as a com¬
tainability. In dozens of particular places across the munity for a high degree of self-reliance, relate
continent of North America, (and doubltess else¬ with due respect to the first peoples of their region,
where, by other names) bioregionalism is conjur¬ employ consensus decision-making, exercise their
ing those shapes. It aims at "saving the whole by citizenship in defense of the forests around them,
saving the parts," in Peter Berg's succinct formula¬ and have contributed to the bioregional move¬
tion. ment as a whole by their salient publishing and
Bioregionalism upholds the hope of learning to thoughtful participation in (and in 1988, their
live more lightly on the Earth, of developing com¬ hospitality to) the North American Bioregional
munities integrated with their local ecosystems— Congress.
Vll
The bioregionalist faith as it is fleshed out in diversity.
these pages is that given a little push by clear ideas, It is life's earthly beauty and its daily consum¬
local organizing, and that which can be learned mations, not the cheap glamor of political or tech¬
from digging in the dirt, humans can and will nological dominance, that draws bioregionalists
come together to work for the restoration of life— on.
home life—and the regeneration of its wild
viii
