Catalyzing Community-led Regeneration Across the Cascadia Bioregion
After several months of planning we are pleased to announce the official launch of the Cascadia BioRegen Program, a significant new initiative from Regenerate Cascadia (a program of the Department of Bioregion, which is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting bioregional movement-building and organizing within Cascadia). The program builds upon decades of community-driven bioregional efforts and explores a coordinated approach to ecological restoration and community resilience across the Cascadia bioregion.
At Regenerate Cascadia, our mission is to regenerate the Cascadia bioregion and to cultivate the conditions for a regenerative movement to thrive.
Growing Core Capacity: Empowering Local Regeneration Teams
Introducing the Cascadia BioRegen Program
Learn more at: https://regeneratecascadia.org/bioregen-program/
The Cascadia BioRegen Program is one of our two programs in 2025-26, inviting individuals and teams to join Regenerate Cascadia as we offer communities throughout the bioregion—from Alaska to Northern California to the Yellowstone Caldera—resources, mentorship, and support to lead effective, place-based regeneration efforts. By aligning action with the natural boundaries of our ecosystems, we aim to restore not only the health of our lands and waters but also our sense of community, culture, and connection. Through this pilot program participating groups will: conduct bioregional assessments; build portfolios of regenerative projects; craft landscape-specific regeneration strategies; and begin to develop the readiness and capacity to effectively receive, manage, and re-grant funding within their communities.
This program is designed for individuals and teams who wish to work directly with Regenerate Cascadia to test our theory of change—putting the theory of Bioregional Finance (BioFi) into practice by collaboratively mapping bioregions, assessing community needs and opportunities, and creating innovative pathways to flow funding directly into landscapes. By joining the BioRegen program, participants enter our dedicated community of practice and gain essential resources such as grant and donation management, administrative services, insurance, and payroll assistance.
The program is structured around three different Circles of Commitment, each designed to support teams at distinct stages of readiness and development:
- Seed Groups: Small, emerging teams exploring initial bioregional assessments, community engagement, visioning, and foundational project development.
- Landscape Groups: More established teams actively organizing regeneration projects within defined geographic areas, developing project portfolios, refining regeneration strategies, and preparing their communities for funding opportunities.
- Landscape Hubs: Advanced regional coalitions cultivated through our intensive Landscape Hub Cultivator pilot, responsible for stewarding broader bioregional strategies, managing collective funding resources, and facilitating coordinated regeneration efforts across multiple communities and stakeholders.
As teams progress through these tiers they will grow hand-in-hand with our Cascadia BioFi Program, gaining opportunities to experiment with innovative financial mechanisms, such as flow-funding, that support sustainable, community-driven regeneration. Our aim is not to reinvent the wheel but rather to support the growth of core team capacities necessary for attracting and managing landscape-level funding, to complement ongoing initiatives, and experiment with new ways of supporting regeneration at the landscape level.
Stewards: Before You Find a Group
Central to the success of the Cascadia BioRegen Program is our network of dedicated Stewards—individuals who help convene, coordinate, and nurture local regeneration efforts. Regenerate Cascadia actively supports Stewards by hosting a dedicated community of practice and providing clear pathways to connect with others in their landscape, find potential collaborators, and strengthen local networks. Stewards have direct access to resources, community-building tools, and dedicated channels to seek advice, share insights, and build relationships. Additionally, our team offers personalized support to Stewards who wish to discover and connect with like-minded individuals in their area, ensuring no one has to start their regeneration journey alone.
Connect with us through landscapes (at) regeneratecascadia.org.
Seed Groups: Starting the Journey
Learn more at: https://regeneratecascadia.org/bioregen-program/seed-groups/
Seed Groups are ideal for small, newly-formed teams (as few as two people) beginning their regenerative journey. These groups often engage in bioregional mapping, relationship-building and community engagement, visioning exercises, and early-stage project development. We support Seed Groups to find other people in their landscape, begin their activities, raise awareness in our communications and newsletter, interact via virtual calls, connect to a larger regenerative community, and develop the capacity to raise up to $12,000 annually through the program-supplied DOB nonprofit backend.
Landscape Groups: Scaling Community Impact
Learn more at: https://regeneratecascadia.org/bioregen-program/landscape-groups/
Landscape Groups represent more established community initiatives, typically organized around broader geographic areas such as watersheds or counties, and include at least three stewards helping to hold basic administrative tasks. These groups have regular meetings and active local participation. They receive expanded resources through the BioRegen program, including unlimited donation and grant management, project communication tools, ability to work with contractors, technical guidance, and support.
Landscape Hubs: Coordinating Regional Regeneration
Landscape Hubs represent the most developed level of the BioRegen program. They have funded regeneration teams, hold the regeneration strategy and landscape vision for a place, and are the long-term goal of our theory of change and what we are trying to build through Regenerate Cascadia and our BioRegen program, particularly as it relates to BioFi. No hubs currently exist as we define them. In our vision Hubs serve as regional coordination centers, managing comprehensive regeneration plans, coordinating diverse stakeholders, facilitating the participatory governance of collective funding pools, and monitoring ecological and community health. Hubs facilitate collaboration among multiple local projects, helping weave them together into a unified regional vision capable of attracting systemic funding. Their goal is to coordinate at a larger scale, such as entire watersheds or ecoregions, in order to considerably enhance landscape impact through a holistic approach. Groups interested in becoming Hubs will begin to explore what is needed to hold this idea through our Landscape Hub Cultivator pilot.
Landscape Hub Cultivator: Building Regional Capacity
The Landscape Hub Cultivator is a one-year pilot we are launching as part of the BioRegen program to help groups begin to build the core capacities and test the processes we have identified as being critical to Regenerate Cascadia’s theory of change, which is based on assessing needs that have arisen from landscapes and the communities that currently steward them.
Participating teams will:
- Collaborate and co-learn by engaging actively in a dedicated community of practice that creates a peer-learning network, sharing inquiry, successes and challenges to enhance collective wisdom and impact.
- Be invited to include their group in our annual impact statement and submit a program budget for the upcoming year.
- Create a group case study both to share the ‘why’ behind a group’s formation and as a baseline for measuring growth and impact. These will form part of a story deck and organizational narrative that ensures unique landscapes are given voice alongside their stewards and helps us better share our holistic story and vision with funders.
- Hold bioregional mapping workshops to ensure the collaborative identification and documentation of key physical, cultural, ecological, and community assets as defined by the community.
- Co-create regeneration strategies and portfolios of regenerative projects based on community-identified assets and indicators, alongside Hub-level budgets to deliver the strategies.
- Participate in exploring how to establish ongoing funding mechanisms for landscape regeneration, such as: interacting with funders through co-learning workshops, story decks, showcasing projects and impact; supporting the development of local funding ecosystems; and collaboratively governing flow-funding pools.
Linking BioRegen and BioFi: Growing Regenerative Funding
As teams participate in the Cascadia BioRegen program and develop through the Circles of Commitment, their work will intersect strategically with our complementary Cascadia BioFi initiative.
BioFi provides innovative financial mechanisms specifically designed to support and sustain regenerative efforts, including localized flow-funding experiments, participatory budgeting, and bioregional funding collaboratives.
Through their involvement with our BioRegen program, participating groups and Landscape Hubs will prototype theoretical components of BioFi and build capacity not only to access financial resources but also to distribute funding within their communities effectively. Our BioRegen and BioFi programs will work hand in hand to discover what it looks like to co-create sustainable, community-driven pathways for regeneration at scale across the Cascadia bioregion.
Get Involved: Join the Regenerative Movement
The launch of Cascadia BioRegen is an invitation to all Cascadians committed to regeneration and resilient communities. Here are ways to participate:
- Start or Join a Seed or Landscape Group: Whether your community is just beginning or has already established regeneration projects, joining the BioRegen network offers critical support and resources. The process is straightforward, inclusive, and free. View the application here: https://regeneratecascadia.org/bioregen-program/application/
- Become a Steward! – If you’re just beginning, looking to find others, or want to start a Landscape group, don’t hesitate to reach out to landscapes (at) regeneratecascadia.org
- Stay Connected: Follow Regenerate Cascadia through our website, newsletter, and social media to receive updates, stories, resources, and opportunities to engage.
- Share the Vision: Discussing the BioRegen program within your community strengthens connections and nurtures the broader regenerative movement.