Do you live in a bioregion? Do you know what a bioregion is? If not, you are about to be in for a whole new perspective on the Chesapeake Bay. The bioregional concept is alive and kicking in the American West. What follows is a quote from the homepage one of the most organized bioregional movements, the Cascadia region of the Pacific Northwest:
"Bioregions are geographic areas having common characteristics of soil, watershed, climate, native plants and animals.... A bioregion refers to both the geographical terrain and a terrain of consciousness -- to a place and the ideas that have developed about how to live in that place." Peter Berg, bioregional philosopher
In some ways, this concept flies in the face of the recent globalization of environmental and economic issues. It implores us to consider ourselves in the context of a geographically delineated area, such as a watershed, rather than a politically determined area, such as a state or nation. Although some of our activities affect the economy and environment in faraway places, it may be beneficial to direct our attention to a more local "ecosystem." (In the tradition of ecological economics I will combine ecology and economics in the term ecosystem).
Why might this be? Think about how the choices you make every day affect your local and global ecosystem. For example, if you live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, you might run a soybean farm. Material and economic flows through the farm are based on your decisions. Should you buy fertilizer from Southern States, which buys its supplies from a wholesaler in, say, New York; or should you negotiate with your neighbor who grows cows for some or his manure to spread on your fields? If you buy the fertilizer from the supplier, nutrients are added to the region from outside, and money flows out of the region. Additionally, your cow farming neighbor may be forced to allow his excess manure to run-off into the stream on his property which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay. As a result of fines imposed on him for breaking environmental regulations, the cow farmer may be forced to sell his farm to the lowest bidder, a developer. A year later, you have townhouses for neighbors.
Of course, this is an extreme example. But it is important to realize that in the aggregate, the choices we make affect what happens around us. A lot of things have made it easier to forget that we live in a place that is different from other places around the country. We can drive down any major road in any town in any state and see the same fast food restaurants, warehouse clubs, and car dealerships. Gone are the days of the corner drugstore where the pharmacist knew everyone's name and prescription history and the small grocery store that hired local boys to make home deliveries. Now, if you go into any CVS or Giant, you know the layout, but nobody there knows you.
There are ways that we can begin to get in touch with our bioregion that will have a profound affect on how we interact with others and the environment. Ask yourself these questions from the Bioregional Quiz "Where You At?"
  1. Trace the water you drink from precipitation to tap.
  2. What were the primary subsistence techniques of the culture that lived in your area before you?
  3. Where does your garbage go?
  4. Name five resident and five migratory birds in your area.
  5. From where you're reading this, point north.
These are but a few questions that can be used to evaluate your basic environmental perception of place. The whole quiz and scoring rules are in the book Home! A Bioregional Reader (see references at the end).
Policies of the fedral and state governments can be changed to encourage bioregional activity. In the Chesapeake Bay region, the Chesapeake Bay Agreement of 1983 is an example of the type of partnership that must exist for action on the watershed level. Even this does not guarantee that states will act in ways cosistent with conservation at the bioregional scale. This is evident in the almost yearly battles between Maryland and Virginia in how fishery resources will be managed. Fish do not know when they have crossed from Maryland into Virginia, but they may have a much greater chance of being harvested once they have done so, because the fishermen are acutely aware of this arbitrary boundary in the water. More control by the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Council would help to smooth out these management policies. There are countless other examples of how it does not make sense to govern people on one side of a state boundary differently from people a mile away but in another political state.
The bioregional ethic must begin with the individual residents of an area, and not with legislative action. Here is some advice from Gary Snyder from Home! A Bioregional Reader:
"Bioregional awareness teaches us in specific ways. It is not enough to just "love nature" or to want to "be in harmony with Gaia." Our relation to the natural world takes place in a place, and it must be grounded in information and experience"
(p. 18)
I can hardly do justice to the bioregional movement in this one essay. I highly recommend that you check out some of the following links:
  1. California's Bioregions
  2. Cascadia Planet
  3. GreenBeat E-Zine Jaunary 1996 issue on Bioregionalism
  4. Humboldt Nation
  5. A Vision: Bioregionalism and the Net
  6. Learn more about the Chesapeake Bioregion by exploring the links on my page of Chesapeake Bay Information Sources

References
Van Andruss, Christopher Plant, Judith Plant, and Eleanor Wright (eds.) 1990. Home! A Bioregional Reader, New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, PA.
ISBN USA 0-86571-887-9