Since the mid 1980’s bioregionalists have gathered in a continental congress to “envision and develop a realistic, retorative way of life.” They believe the survival of humanity, and the planet’s bioregions, depends on the advancement of ecologically designed educational systems, along with others including economics, law and justice, and agriculture and forestry http://www.bioregionalcongress.org/history/history.htm.
Various academic institutions like the Oak and Orca Bioregional Elementary School in Victoria, British Columbia, now focus on ”empowering children to create fundamental social change towards more fulfilling and ecologically sustainable communities”, http://www.victoria.tc.ca/~yj383/oakandorca.html. The school integrates the “study of the local bioregion, experiential learning, consensus decision making, participatory democracy, ecological education, field work, nature interpretation, nature awareness, and deep ecology” into their curriculum.
The Colorado Plateau can be considered a bioregion. The PSU students first assignment before travelling to visit the Colorado Plateau is to define this bioregion. A composite definition will be synthesized from their efforts and posted on this site the first week of March, 2006.
A general definition for bioregions is, “geographic areas having common characteristics of soil, watershed, climate, native plants and animals that exist within the whole planetary biosphere as unique and contributive parts. A bioregion refers both to geographical terrain and a terrain of consciousness — to a place and the ideas that have developed about how to live in that place. A bioregion can be determined initially by use of climatology, physiography, animal and plant geography, natural history and other descriptive resonance among living things and the factors that influence them which occurs specifically within each separate part of the planet,” http://www.columbiana.org/bioregions.htm
During the trip to the Four Corners, students will delve into the Bioregional Outdoor Education Project (BOEP), a program of the Four Corners School of Outdoor Education, to learn about this initiative.
The hope is that by exploring bioregionalism on the Colorado Plateau and sharing findings with teachers and young people in the Four Corners region, the PSU students will be able to transfer their learning to other bioregions, so they can help shape sustainable communities, including that of the Pemigewasset Watershed in northern New Hampshire where Plymouth State University is located.
Along with materials found on the BOEP website, http://www.boep.org/, one of the general, bioregional, education tools the class will use is ‘Discovering Your Life-Place: A First Bioregional Workbook’ by Peter Berg, which help readers realize and map their relationships with local natural systems, http://www.planetdrum.org/.
–Mary Ann McGarry, instructor
