Regenerate Cascadia Update

Updates from mid-November 2024 to December 19, 2024!

Hey all! We have a Regenerate Cascadia Update! This update covers the meetings and happenings from mid-November 2024 to December 19, 2024! An update every week is aspirational-perhaps when Brandon and Clare are so busy building relationships with most of their time! This update is quite long and detailed so please take a listen-the text below offers a very brief summary of the meetings and topics covered, with links added where possible. 

This quote from Clare Atwell summaries the value of this time spent:

“It is exciting with all these meetings and connections to see the development of significant relationships where alignment is really strong, and we can feel the sense of coherence through the conversations and through the alignments.  It is through the relationships that coherence is building.”

Regenerate Cascadia is strategically building internal support!

• Regenerate Cascadia staff are taking Winter Solstice through New Years off to rest, reflect and regenerate! Blessings for your Solstice and Holidays!
• Staff Meetings and Updates will shift to bi-weekly in the new year and add the full staff working with Regenerate Cascadia so each can report on what they are working.
• We have hired some staff and will be hiring others soon!
  • Welcoming Ben Moseley – Operations Assistant
  • Welcoming Ron Milam – Cascadia BioFi support, including helping to organize 2 Cascadia BioFi forums in 2025.
• We are going to be hiring soon. 
  • Cascadia Department of Bioregion side: 
    • Cascadia program manager
    • Cascadia Store Manager
    • Canada Support
      • Draft job description
  • Regenerate Cascadia side:
    • Community Steward
    • WordPress Developer/Website person
    • Graphic Designer
    • Event Coordinator
    • Design School: Cascadia Cohort Coordinator 
• Brandon and Clare have been focusing on developing a strong strategy for Regenerate Cascadia, including rolling out a Landscape Regeneration Team Development Program MVP (minimum viable process) starting in the spring of 2025. More information will be coming soon. If you have a glimmer of a team, or an already formed team, small or larger, check out how to initiate a Community Invitation for Bioregional Regeneration in Cascadia.   

Travels and upcoming events

• Clare Atwell will be attending the immersion in the Barichara bioregion at end of February 2025. Learn more here.
• A key strategy of Regenerate Cascadia is to create a Bio Financing Funding ecosystem to support the work in the landscapes of Cascadia.   We are excited to announce we are planning a Cascadia BioFi Conference May 16-18, 2025, in Seattle! This is the weekend after the Global Earth Repair Summit May 10/11, 2025, in Port Townsend, WA. connecting the two events.  More information is coming soon!

Updates

• Regenerate Cascadia received an email request from Eva Gladyk, founder and CEO of Metabolic to share what we are doing through Regenerate Cascadia in an interview and White Paper and more.
• Progress on the Cascadia Biofiance Facility continues. Regenerate Cascadia has been accepted by the Biofi Project as one of 2 cohorts of a new Biofi Cultivator to continue learning how to grow Bioregional Financing Facilities.  This will start in January 2025. Regenerate Cascadia has also been invited to be a part of an OpenCivics Bioregional Incubator to continue the learning.  Brandon and Clare met with OpenCivics on Monday December 9^th about the Incubator!
• The Design School for Regenerating Earth is beginning to plan their next Learning Journey which will start March 15, 2025, and focus on How to Organize Your Bioregion. A Cascadia cohort is planned and supported by people in the 2024 Learning Journey, Cascadia cohort!  
• October 31, 2024 Regenerate Cascadia participated  this Fall in a Gitcoin Funding Round-the focus of this call was an update and analysis of the Round.
• Kinship Earth has identified Regenerate Cascadia as a recipient for flow funding!

Resources

• New Bioregional Mapping Resource! Brandon Letsinger and Clare Atwell have referenced the book Islands in The Salish Sea, a Community Atlas by authors Shiela Harrington and Judi Stevenson many times!  In a recent session on mapping in the Design School for Regenerating Earth Steve Melville  unveiled an amazing new online version-Islands in the Salish Sea-An Island Map Explorer  Check it out!
• A comprehensive overview document of Regenerate Cascadia and current strategy, Design Pathway for Regenerating Cascadia, was put together for a recent conference. Reach out to Regenerate Cascadia for more information.
• Thinking Like Water: A Docuseries featuring restoration pioneer and water whisperer Bill Zeedyk– film series – 10 weeks (Renea Roberts)

Meetings Brandon and Clare

• January 8-13, 2025, Brandon Letsinger will be in Victoria, BC to meet with Clare Atwell and have other meetings. They will meet in person with Briony Penn & Dr. Robin June Hood on Salt Spring Island January 11-12, 2025 to talk more about how to work more closely. 
• In mid-January, 2025, Brandon and Clare will meet in person for a few days with 2 organizations-Salmon Nation CoLabs & Open Future Coalition to explore how more closely coordinate and collaborate together.  It is an opportunity to learn and show others what bioregional collaboration looks like.
• December 5-7, 2024, Brandon and Clare attended an in-person meeting sponsored by the NOVO Foundation  at the  Whidbey Institute focused on regenerating bioregions.  The Whidby Institute is in the process of creating a bioregional learning center, the Center for Knowing Home,   Whidbey Institute. 
• December 11, 2024 Stephen Gomes facilitated a connection for Brandon and Clare to meet with Marvin Kempf and his wife Michelle.  Mr. Kempf is the hereditary chief of the Snoqualmie people.  Rich conversation took place that covered the long history of bioregionalism in Cascadia, the history of the Indigenous peoples in Cascadia and excellent input on how to engage with First Nation and Indigenous tribes around our work.
• December 2, 2024 With Bill Baue, a focus on context specific, MRV (measurement, reporting and verification) indicators that help account for complexity. 
• November 26, 2024 Meeting with Cordell Jacks and Regenerative Capital Group with a focus on helping to shape Bioregional Funding Ecosystems.
• November 15, 16, 2024 Clare and Brandon traveled to Lost Valley and Eugen, OR for the first in-person prototyping of a Regenerate Cascadia community conversation in service of helping to activate Landscape Regeneration Teams!
• November 17, 2024, Brandon and Clare met with Cheryl Chen and the Portland organizing team in-person to further support their organizing efforts.
• Nov 13: Framework for Municipal partnerships with Randy Sa’ad and Bill Baue
• November 13, 2024 Talked with Will Masters in the Ogalla about creating a Department of Bioregion, sharing experience of the Cascadia Department of Bioregion.
• November 1-4, 2024 Brandon attended an in-person gathering for the Edge Finance Accelerator, a cohort of 14-18 groups working on h2-h3 bio financing.  The focus of the cohort is to learn together more on commoning, managing the commons and a strong focus on Indigenous rematriation.