On a lovely spring Friday, April 24th, the Whatcom Permaculture and Regenerate Whatcom hosted the monthly meet-up!

We gathered on Inspiration Farm ready to celebrate Spring and learn from the land. Here we ground ourselves and get ready to walk the land with feet bare; listening, learning from nature by observing with all our senses!

So much abundance of life…..the first principle of permaculture is to “observe and interact”. Our prompt was to go into the landscape and observe-with particular attention to the relationship between things to witness the inter-connectedness of all life.

We then did an impromptu “mapping” of the Nooksack water catchment. Prompted to draw/write key resources and forces, maps were made that included mountains, sea, the river, government, healthcare, forests, beaver, eagles and much more.

Folks had alot of fun art making and talking together. New connections made, old connections strengthened.

On the one hand the process and the resulting maps was a bit chaotic (being improptu!!!) and a bit messy-however, the conversation as each group talked about their map were deep and insightful about this land we love-it’s history, it’s current state and our hopes for its future.

Regenerate Whatcom is learning about how “Bioregional Mapping” is an important step to deeply understanding the land in service of developing a solid, long-term strategy for a future in which nature’s cycles are in balance, able to support all life to thrive, as once was true.

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The next Permaculture Meet-up will be Friday May 29th and the last Friday of every month.