How do you define your neighborhood?

We often define our communities on the basis of human boundaries, such as national borders, property lines, school districts, town boundaries, area codes, zip codes, government agency service districts and zoning districts. These confusing jurisdictions and service zones are often invisible, overlapping yet seldom connected, and are often not even based on geography. We have devised this complex web of abstract, gerrymandered jurisdictions to separate ourselves from the earth. It has become clear that our culture lacks a point of view, or frame of reference, that could lead people to consider themselves as a part of the living system they inhabit. Our paradigm for relating to the land and the cultural institutions we have created implement that paradigm. We need to find a biologically-and geographically-based way to divide the landscape into manageable regions.
The landscape of each town is composed of watersheds-groves of trees, wildlife habitat and other biological systems. These tangible, visceral realities we can relate to, manage and sustain.

What place do you live in? Where are you from? When will you be from where you live?

Underlying your neighborhood is a living ecosystem known as a bioregion. Bioregions are defined by landform, drainage systems, distinct communities of plants and animals, and a degree of biological self sustainability. Bioregions tend to have soft, permeable edges and clear centers (often a river or other body of water).

What drainage basin is your watershed part of? What stream or river runs near your house?

Many people have come to see watersheds as the basic building blocks of a bioregional point of view. Watersheds are defined by landforms. Their edges are the ridges and hilltops that direct water into a stream or river. The vitality of their living systems and the purity of the water that they contribute to the ocean is the result of all the day-to-day decisions of their inhabitants: Do I pour this paint thinner down the drain? Do I use toxic chemical fertilizer in my garden? Is there a place in my yard in which song bird’s nest?

Where does your sewage go?

Water moves in a cycle. Much of what we use soon goes down our drains or is absorbed back into the earth. [In some areas] people use a septic tank and leaching field to digest their water before it filters back into the water table. They depend on the earth and its living systems to digest and purify their waste before it reaches their neighbor’s well or reservoir. [Other areas] have exceeded the earth’s capacity to absorb waste and must rely on man-made sewer and waste treatment systems. The line between these various systems might be called the ”threshold of sustainability.” It shows where we have chosen to develop with greater density than the land can sustain. We now know the carrying capacity of the land and must make conscious choices when we push the land beyond that capacity.