Listening to the Land. Weaving Regeneration. Remembering Our Belonging.
We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the Willamette Valley Listening Tour, a collaborative effort to deepen relationships, amplify local regenerative efforts, and weave stronger networks of care and action across the Valley.
A Journey Rooted in Relationship
Beginning on September 2nd, 2025, this community-powered tour will travel across the Willamette Valley—visiting farms, forests, food systems, water protectors, restorative justice programs, and cultural landmarks. The tour is grounded in the belief that listening is the first act of regeneration.
Organized by a dedicated group of community weavers, this tour honors and uplifts just, equitable, and place-based projects working to restore the land and heal our relationship with it—and each other.
We’re asking:
How can we be better relatives to the land, water, and people of the Willamette Valley?
How can we collectively build systems of food sovereignty, ecological restoration, and restorative justice?
And what does bioregional regeneration look like—on the ground, right now?
It Begins at the Headwaters
Our journey begins on September 2nd, 2025 at Koosah and Sahalie Falls, the crystalline headwaters of the McKenzie River. Sahalie, meaning “the heavens” in Chinook Wawa, is a sacred place—a powerful reminder of the waters that sustain us and the ancestors who walked this land before us.
We will gather for a ceremonial opening from 1:15pm to 4:30pm, offering song, silence, intention, and reverence for Life. Meet at the Koosah Falls parking lot.
Later that evening, we’ll reconvene at Lost Valley Education Center in Dexter, OR at 7:30pm for a group “Salon” circle—an emergent conversation practice inspired by beloved elder Hazel Varde. Together, we’ll share reflections and explore what it means to show up as a healthy human cell in the body of Cascadia.
Tour Highlights & Collaborators
The Listening Tour will unfold across the Willamette Valley from September 2–17, visiting Eugene, Cottage Grove, Corvallis, Portland, and beyond. Each stop highlights regenerative work already in motion, including:
- Cottage Grove: Water and forest stewardship, cooperative housing and food systems, education and rural resilience with the Center for Rural Livelihoods
- Eugene: Food systems and infrastructure with Hummingbird Wholesale (tour and visioning session by invitation)
- Sector-based panels exploring land-based solutions in:
- Food Systems
- Housing & Community Development
- Forestry & Watershed Management
- Water Protection
- Education & Cultural Regeneration
- Finance & Cooperative Investment
Some sessions are public, while others are working gatherings for those already engaged in this landscape.
Why This Matters
We live in a time of unraveling—and regeneration. Regenerate Cascadia exists to nurture a bioregional movement that is place-rooted, interconnected, and aligned with Life.
As part of our effort to seed landscape hubs across Cascadia, the Willamette Valley is now home to three growing nodes:
- South Valley (Eugene, Cottage Grove)
- Central Valley (Corvallis, Salem)
- North Valley (Portland, Columbia River Basin)
This tour connects these efforts through story-sharing, relational weaving, and shared strategy, so that we may move together from vision into action.
How to Join or Support
Support the Tour
This work is powered by volunteers, weavers, and world-bridgers.
Donate today to help fund transportation, food, printing, and ceremony logistics:
GoFundMe: Empower the Willamette Valley Listening Tour
- Email swv@regeneratecascadia.org to learn about public events or get involved
- Visit willamette.earth/wiki for more background
Action is the antidote to despair. Together, we are remembering what it means to be good relatives—to each other, and to the land that sustains us.
Let’s walk this path.
Let’s listen together.
Let’s Regenerate Cascadia.
