More than 100 people from across the Cascadia bioregion have already joined the Design School for Regenerating Earth’s six-month learning journey, “How to Organize Your Bioregion.” From Northern California to Victoria, and all the way east to the Okanagan, this cohort is already mapping a powerful movement across our watersheds.
This learning journey is designed for people ready to connect more deeply with their own local landscapes—whether you’re just starting out or already active in community work. It’s a space to meet others organizing in Cascadia and plug into a growing global network of people regenerating their bioregions. In just the past two years, the Design School has grown to more than 800 monthly supporters and participants from across North America and around the world. Sessions run biweekly through September 15th, and all are recorded—so you can join at your own pace. More than 240 are currently part of this years learning journey.
Andra Vltavin, our Community Steward, hosts dedicated Cascadia cohort calls every two weeks and is available to help introduce and onboard anyone interested in joining.
For the first time in more than 15 years, bioregionalists from across North America are coming together to plan a Continental Bioregional Congress — a gathering of organizers, artists, land stewards, and community leaders from across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. From 1984 to 2009, ten of these congresses were held in summer campgrounds, eco-villages, and rural landscapes to share skills, stories, watershed updates, and visions for a flourishing future. Now, with the growing wave of bioregional organizing, we’re ready for an eleventh.
Do you know the perfect location in Cascadia?
There is an open callout for locations in Canada, the United States and Mexico to host the 11th Continetal Bioregional Congress. We’re looking for the perfect location to host this gathering in 2026, and personally would love to find a site that could invite the continental congress here to Cascadia. Timing wise – we are likely looking at September, 2026. The site should support 300 to 1,000 people with flexible lodging (camping, cabins, or nearby hotels), space for group sessions and workshops, basic facilities, and options for shared meals or on-site food. This will be a chance to deepen connections across bioregions, spark new collaborations, and co-create solutions for climate resilience, ecological regeneration, and place-based self-governance.
The Department of Bioregion is growing, and we’re looking for passionate, grounded people to join our team. If you care about place, people, and supporting bioregional work in Cascadia and beyond — we’d love to hear from you.
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Community Organizer – 20/hr a week. Support the Cascadia Movement as a community organizer through the Cascadia Department of Bioregion. This role focuses on identity building, community engagement, movement building, and strengthening communications across the region.
This new role has been made possible specifically thanks to the generous monthly support of our community. Monthly supporters give small gifts of $10, $25 or $50 a month, and because of this we’ve been able to secure enough funding to support this role for almost a year, — our big goal over the next eight months will be to grow by 50 new monthly supporters by the end of the year, which will let this be a fully self-sustaining role for the long term.
In addition, we are also hiring a
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Nonprofit Program Officer – 15/hr a week. Join our core team to help steward programs, projects, and landscape teams as they come online. This front-facing role will work closely with our Operations Manager, Ben Moseley, to support onboarding, coordination, and day-to-day needs across the network, including as we begin to bring our fiscal sponsorship program online.
Please feel free to share with any friends who may be interested.
If you’re not familiar, Cascadia Day happens every May 18th, and is a chance to celebrate the unique spirit of our bioregion and the growing movement rooted in it. In a time of political uncertainty, lifting up a vision grounded in place, resilience, and community is more important than ever. From the mountains to the sea, Cascadia is home to vibrant ecosystems, cultures, and communities—and this day is for all of us who call this place home.
On the Day:
We’ll have a reminder go out the week before, and the day before May 18th. Our goal is to generate as much positive awareness & interest as we are able, and to showcase the rich diversity and wealth of the Cascadia movement. We celebrate both in person, and online.
Fly your flag, wear your Cascadia gear, go for a walk, host a gathering, or support a local business—whatever helps you feel more rooted in place. Let’s fill the day with love for our bioregion and help make the Cascadia movement more visible than ever.
What else is happening on Cascadia Day this year?
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Help us make a Regional Impact: Call for Op-Ed Contributors: In preparation for Cascadia Day on May 18, Seattle journalist Andy Engelson, founder of Cascadia Magazine, is seeking volunteers to help write and submit op-eds across the bioregion exploring what increased autonomy and political independence could look like for Cascadia. With the U.S. sliding deeper into authoritarianism, these pieces aim to spark public conversations about how we can build resilience, protect human rights, and shape a more just and sustainable future rooted in our bioregion. If you’re interested in participating in this project, please email cascadiademocratic@protonmail.
com - Cascadia Day Art Submissions: To celebrate Cascadia Day, we are creating a Cascadia Day Art Gallery that will be featured at our Cascadia NW Arts and Music Festival. We invite you to share a photo, poem, story, song, or video that you feel captures the essence of Cascadia. This can be anything! – but also would love photographs people have that capture the essence of the Cascadia movement, the people, diversity, and power that people have been part of over the years, from demonstrations, to parades, to soccer matches. This is time to begin showcasing the amazing people behind this incredible idea and movement that has been growing for decades. (no AI please). If you’re interested in participating in this project, please email cascadia@deptofbioregion.org
Ways to Celebrate Cascadia Day:
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Share a post or story on social media
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Change your profile picture or banner
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Fly your Cascadia flag or wear your gear
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Print out a flyer or sign at your workplace, or for a nearby community space.
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Host a gathering, hike, or community activity
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Support a local, sustainable, or ethical business
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Take a moment to reflect in nature
Share posts on any social media platform you use – and tag us (@Cascadiadept, @Cascadiabioregion) on social media and use the hashtags #CascadiaDay #Cascadia #May18.
Have an idea you want to see included here? Let us know!
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Stay tuned. We’re just finalizing our schedule and will be excited to share full schedule and line up details in our next newsletter. Lots of cool updates coming.
Want to be Involved? Local BioFi Conference Planning Meeting Saturday April 19 at 4pm in Capitol Hill in Seattle
Join us for an in-person planning session as we prepare for the upcoming Cascadia BioFi Conference (May 16–18 in Seattle). This meeting is open to anyone interested in helping shape the event, support coordination, or contribute ideas around participatory funding, bioregional finance, and local regenerative projects.
Other Regenerate Cascadia Updates:
Bioregionalism in Practice: Weaving Local Solutions in a Global Context
Brandon Letsinger, Executive Director of the Department of Bioregion and co-administrator of Regenerate Cascadia, is excited to join the panel for Bioregionalism in Practice: Weaving Local Solutions in a Global Context, a global conversation on April 17, 2025, from 8:30–10:00 AM PST (15:30–17:00 GMT), hosted by Regenerosity and Be the Earth as part of the Nurture Funder Community of Practice. This event kicks off a new webinar series exploring how bioregionalism can increase community resilience and strengthen local economies through grounded stories, case studies, and practice. The conversation will open with Cecosesola, a Venezuelan network of grassroots cooperatives, and feature a panel of bioregional practitioners—from seasoned elders to new voices—sharing real-world reflections and strategies. All are welcome to attend. Register here: https://bioregionalism.
Want to support Regenerate Cascadia or the Cascadia BioFi Conference? Donate $2-10 to help us unlock $8700 in matching funds.
Regenerate Cascadia is excited to have been invited to participate in our second Gitcoin Grants round, hosted by Regen Coordi-NATION, and which features a $96,000 match pool, with Regenerate Cascadia eligible to receive up to $8,700. Gitcoin grants can be made using Paypal / Credit card – and uses quadratic funding, which prioritizes the number of small donations made – over large single one time gifts. $2 is the minimum amount needed to get a match (often x10-30 the original donation). For example in our first round, hosted by the BioFi project, Design School for Regenerating Earth and Open Civics, by raising nearly $400 from 90 unique contributors, we received $6000 in matching funds! If you’d like to support our work every little gift makes a huge difference. Each time we host these rounds, the interest also let’s us grow these donation pools, show community support, and our ultimate goal is to host our own funding rounds for landscapes and projects within the Cascadia bioregion. If you’d like to support our work, feel free to chip in a donation.
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4 stages of music, 3 nights of forested camping. and kids, with parents are free. Have you grabbed your tickets yet? |
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Cascadia is your movement!
THANK YOU. We’ve got a lot of work to do.
The Department of Bioregion is 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Together, we are building the Cascadia movement.
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