bioregionalist Peter Berg, founder of Planet Drum, coined the term to refer to those who characterize their home watershed and inhabit it in harmony (wu) with other species.
bioregionalism: defining and restoring our ancient relationship with our home watershed–was first articulated in the mid-70’s by Peter Berg and Raymond Dasmann. Other philosopher practitioners of environmental restoration also weighed in, like Berg’s partner Judy Goldhaft: Planet Drum, Reinhabitory Theater, Gary Snyder, Freeman House: Totem Salmon and Mattole Restoration Council and dramaturgists David Simpson and Jane Lapiner: Human Nature Reinhabitory Theater, Mattole Salmon Project and Sustainable Forestry. This was the First Wave of Bioregionalism.
In the Second Wave, people understood the concept immediately and took it home to their home watershed. In a relatively short time, tens of thousands of watershed organizations were operational in this country and throughout the world, working on restoring both the physical watershed, the biota that characterize it, and the human culture that arose in it. This has involved contact and friendships with native peoples who have called these watersheds home for millennia.Reinhabitory Institute would like to facilitate the Third Wave of Bioregionalism in the watersheds where we operate. We envision the concept (if not the term) being understood and practiced in every neighborhood, church and school on this continent.Currently we are operating in two bioregions: the Shasta Bioregion which includes San Francisco Bay watershed and the Longhouse Bioregion which is comprised of several closely related watersheds including the mighty lakes and rivers of NY and PA: the Saint Lawrence, Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Genesee and Allegheny Rivers as well as the Finger Lakes and eastern Great Lakes. Headwaters of these watersheds within a few miles of each other drain to the Atlantic and through the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.