Welcoming Regenerate Duwamish River Valley to the BioRegen Program
We’re glad to welcome Regenerate Duwamish as a Landscape Group within the Cascadia BioRegen Program. The group is connected with communities in South Park, Georgetown, and throughout the lower Duwamish River Valley—neighborhoods shaped by industry, the port, pollution, and climate impacts, and also by strong community leadership and care for place.
Regenerate Duwamish is guided by values of community self-determination, mutual aid, and shared stewardship. Their work is informed by regenerative and solidarity-based economies, just transition, and Indigenous knowledge, with a focus on practical, place-based action. Rather than bringing in outside solutions, Regenerate Duwamish supports work already underway through art, storytelling, co-design, systems thinking, narrative futures, and shared learning.
The group is guided by three local leaders. Christoph Strouse, regenerative urban planner, who’s co-creating systems change with community organizations, municipal partners and academia to advance a more just and regenerative future. Kim Schwarzkopf, Co-Leader of River City SkatePark, Film Producer, and Strategic Advisor for Reconnect South Park focusing on media and youth engagement. Debbie Pessein, Science Fair program coordinator at the Georgetown Steam Plant, who bridges art, industry, and environmental justice.
Together, they bring decades of experience in organizing, creative practice, and community-centered systems change. In the year ahead, Regenerate Duwamish aims to help nurture connections among local partners through community workshops focused on dialogue, storytelling, futures-thinking, and art. They will also support collaborative efforts at gatherings such as Cascadia Day, the Seattle Design Festival, and events at the Georgetown Steam Plant. In addition, they will share stories of ongoing local work through the Regenerate Cascadia newsletter, lifting up the people and projects caring for the Duwamish River and its communities.
As part of the Regenerate Cascadia network, Regenerate Duwamish can receive tax-deductible donations, apply for grants, and coordinate projects that bring together art, ecology, and community well-being. Through this work, they aim to support communities along the Duwamish River in caring for the river, the land, and one another over the long term.
See more from Regenerate Duwamish on their own webpage: https://regeneratecascadia.org/bioregen-program/landscape-groups/regenerate-duwamish/
You can donate to this Landscape Group here:
https://regeneratecascadia.org/support/