The Innisfree no. 4: Bioregions and The Innisfree

Digital collage by me circa 2004

Now that I've gotten the Yellow King out of my system my hope is that I will never have to mention him again.

So, if I am utterly hopeless for workable solutions to come at the international and national level, then at what level does the hope start to creep in? For me that is at the bioregional level, or more specifically at the watershed level. It's clear that the future will be in large degree determined by availability of water, and that water (combined with food production) could be a significant driver of cooperation. While the current state boundaries and political alignment aren't particularly great starting points for bioregional cooperation, pushes for cleaner water and food, and habitat restoration could be ways for states to cooperate across borders and partisan quibbling.

We already see the outline of how these types of bioregional spaces could operate with our national parks. More than any other American space, national parks most align with a bioregional mindset. They follow natural boundaries irrespective of political boundaries. They're areas where nature and humans are meant to coexist. And they're places where ecosystem restoration has flourished. For these reasons, I believe the national parks are some of the most important impact zones for future prosperity.

A low energy future necessarily means a future much more integrated with the production of food, and therefore the maintenance of ecosystems. As of today, we've virtually messed up every available ecosystem in the US, and when you consider the waterways of the country, there isn't a single inch modernity hasn't touched. Except the national parks and a speckling of preserves, which are the closest thing we have to a Helm's Deep of natural ecosystems in this country. That's what makes them so important. A low energy future will be much easier to grow outward from existing natural spaces than to just restore from whole clothe in isolated suburban patches. In the end, we'll have to have agriculture and food production, and eventually any number of cottage industries, dotting the landscape, but our national parks could make a great place to start.

What does that look like right now? I really don't know. For one, the federal government is in control of these spaces, and seems intent on carving it up and selling it off to the highest bidder, for oil, for gas, timber, and minerals. It's possible this continues unabated and the national parks too succumb to the modern affliction until they are all just more dead spaces. That might even be the likely outcome. But there are other ways this could go. We are, after-all, in the age of "You can just do things." Maybe groups of people start planting fruit and nut trees near trails and the edges of national forests? Maybe adjacent properties start regenerating and functionally expanding the boundaries of these parks? Maybe bioregional organizations emerge that take upon themselves to fill the funding and stewardship gap between the federal and state governments? Maybe all of these things at once.

My personal dream (and the practical impact of this blog project and my work at GreenBox Homes) is that there will grow continuous food forests and bioregional restoration zones that will allow people to walk or cycle from one end of this country to the next, visiting the tens of thousands of small towns and villages this country has to offer, and eating fresh locally-grown produce and value add products along the way. This is the other part of The Innisfree. This blog details my hopes and dreams, but it also catalogs the future I'm actively bringing about. This continuous food forest will exist if I have my say. And I intend to.

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