The Cascadia Department of Bioregion is the local-place branch of the Department of Bioregion serving the Cascadia bioregion. It is the first branch of the DOB family, anchored in the watersheds and ranges of the Pacific Northwest. Where the parent Department of Bioregion holds the continental nonprofit infrastructure, shared learning, and 501(c)(3) umbrella, the Cascadia DOB carries the place-based work in Cascadia: bioregional mapping, indigenous partnership, watershed organizing, and the cultural and civic infrastructure that lets the bioregion know itself.
The DOB branch model
The Department of Bioregion operates a branch model. The parent organization extends shared infrastructure to local teams: fiscal sponsorship under its 501(c)(3) status, administrative systems, communications and visibility tools, insurance, peer learning, and connection to a continental network of bioregional organizers. Each branch, in turn, leads the place-based work in its own bioregion, accountable to local communities, watersheds, and indigenous partners. This division of labor lets local teams focus on relationships, coordination, and long-term regeneration rather than spending their first years on paperwork.
The Cascadia DOB is the founding branch and the working model from which the program is being templated for other bioregions. Its experience over the past several years has shaped the application materials, community agreements, and onboarding rhythms that future branches will use.
What the Cascadia DOB does
The work of the Cascadia DOB falls across the three program areas common to all DOB branches, expressed in forms specific to Cascadia:
- Bioregional learning, research, and mapping. Cascadia DOB stewards a long arc of mapping and atlas work in the Pacific Northwest, building on decades of regional cartography and contributing to a growing bioregional commons of place-based knowledge.
- Identity and movement-building. Through gatherings, the Cascadia Convergences, public education, and shared symbols rooted in the landscape, the branch fosters a watershed-based bioregional identity across the region.
- Coordination for long-term regeneration. The branch convenes watershed councils, place-based projects, and regional partners; works in close fellowship with Regenerate Cascadia on the Cascadia Bioregional Plan; and supports indigenous-led initiatives across the bioregion’s many First Nations and tribal territories.
Cascadia, in four parts
Several entities carry the word Cascadia, and they are easily confused. Each plays a distinct role:
- The Cascadia bioregion is the place itself: the network of watersheds, ranges, coasts, and ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest, and the human and more-than-human communities that live within them.
- The Cascadia Department of Bioregion is the DOB branch in Cascadia, the local-place expression of the parent Department of Bioregion’s mission and infrastructure.
- Regenerate Cascadia is the regenerative program organization, working in close fellowship with Cascadia DOB on landscape projects, the Cascadia Bioregional Plan, finance work, and on-the-ground regenerative practice.
- The Cascadia Northwest Arts and Music Festival is the cultural gathering, the public-facing celebration of bioregional culture in the Pacific Northwest.
These are distinct entities working in close partnership, not different names for the same body. The Cascadia DOB is the branch; Regenerate Cascadia is its sibling program; the bioregion is the ground beneath both; the festival is one of the cultural expressions that the wider movement supports.
How to engage
Place-based projects in Cascadia seeking nonprofit infrastructure, fiscal sponsorship, or a home within the bioregional network can begin at Get Sponsored. For general inquiries about the Cascadia DOB, partnerships, or the work of the branch, the contact page is the entry point. Organizers in other bioregions interested in starting a branch of their own are also warmly invited to be in touch.