brandonletsingerWhat is bioregional mapping? What is a bioregion? How do we map the layers and connections important to each place, stories left off traditional maps, and develop bioregional frameworks needed to steward our homes?
I’m excited to lead a four-week course, “Exploring Bioregional Mapping: Understanding, Mapping, and Nurturing Our Connection to Place,” starting Monday, May 4th. This course is being offered as part of the Birthing Bioregional Learning Centers (BLC’s) Learning Journey, in the Design School for Regenerating Earth. Each session will be weekly on Mondays, last 1:30 hours, from 11 am to 12:30 pm, and include presentation, discussion, and hands-on work to help people map their home places and bioregions.
In this interactive course, we will delve into the principles, techniques, and applications of bioregional mapping, focusing on helping each of us map our home places—unique regions known as bioregions. After the four-week session is over, people will be invited to present about their home places and bioregions, which we will compile and feature as a bioregional showcase.
If you are already a member of the Design School for Regenerating Earth, the program is already included as part of the membership.
For new folks interested in signing up, the cost of a one year membership to the Design School for Regenerating Earth is $50/yr, or $5 a month per person – which also gives you a full membership to the this course, the Birthing BLC Course, and a wonderful community of like-minded folks coming together around similar purpose.
Sign up for the Design School here: https://design-school-for-regenerating-earth.mn.co/
For people interested in taking this course from within Cascadia, to help develop or grow a bioregional learning site or learning center in your landscape, connect with or empower others doing the same work, or who would like to explore this coherence within our program, Regenerate Cascadia, we are covering the costs of the Learning Journey and a one-year membership to the Design School for Regenerating Earth.
If you would like to join our Cascadia Cohort, please sign up using this link, and we will send you a signup link: https://regeneratecascadia.org/birthing-blc-cascadia
Course Description:
In this course, we’ll lay the foundation by exploring the core principles of bioregionalism. We’ll discuss the importance of ecological boundaries, interconnectedness, and local self-sufficiency and how these concepts shape our understanding of bioregions. By the end of the course, you’ll have a solid grasp of the fundamentals of bioregionalism and its relevance to mapping.
We’ll dive into the principles and techniques of bioregional mapping. You’ll learn to map a bioregion, from gathering data to visualizing ecological boundaries. We’ll explore various tools and methods used in bioregional mapping and discuss the importance of incorporating local knowledge and community perspectives into the mapping process.
How do you map your bioregion and identify local ecosystems, resources, and community assets? You’ll apply the knowledge and skills gained throughout the course through group discussions and collaborative exercises to create your own bioregional map. By the end of the course, you’ll have a deeper understanding of your bioregion and how you can contribute to its conservation and well-being.
Each week, we will focus on a different topic, with a brief presentation, time for discussion, and an activity to help people map their home places and bioregions. After the four-week course, people will be invited to undertake a process for mapping their home places and share their initial research and findings with the group, helping us create an atlas of bioregions and bioregional frameworks that people find important.
