Bioregion is short for “bio-cultural” region, and at it’s root simply means “life-place”.
Seattle is the largest city in the Cascadia Bioregion.
Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries, soil, rainfall, forests, animals and terrain characteristics, as well as the human cultures living within them.
At their smallest, a bioregion is a the smallest unit it takes to be self-reliant, and at it’s largest the full extent of a regions watersheds from where a raindrop falls, to it’s ultimate terminus.
It is the largest sense of scale in which connections based on physical realities will make sense, and is rooted in the idea that those who live in an area will have shared concerns and values based on that area, and that each community must be able to have a voice in the issues that may impact them, no matter how tangentially.
Circular Seattle Art & Industry Initiative