Do hard, fixed political boundaries allow natural neighbourhoods to flourish?
Do they protect ecological and cultural diversity on an appropriate scale?
Today we will be discussing bioregioning—a way of thinking dedicated to reinhabiting our rigid, anthropocentric delineations of the landscape through a place-based relationality, where borders are no longer barriers, but thresholds.
In “On Bioregional Boundaries”, David McCloskey writes: “While there are few straight lines in nature, there are many definite and powerful edges: ecotones, watershed divides, climatic zones, fault lines, and scarps,” noting that “careful attention should be given to such beginnings and endings.”
Yet, are bioregional boundaries at risk of becoming just as rigid as political ones, and do they truly speak to our ecological reality? Practically, we may need boundaries to solve problems and define spaces; ontologically, we must acknowledge that even hard ecological boundaries do not truly exist. Together, we will explore how to map and articulate boundaries that “speak.”
