Feeling the Patterns of a Continent

When we visited the Great Lakes, it was clear that local landscapes are embedded within larger continental patterns. Five rivers cross the dense urban core of Toronto to drain into Lake Ontario. Ancestral trade routes connect this vast water body with Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and the headwaters of the great Mississippi River. Simply zoom in and out of Google Maps and you will see these linkages clearly.

Right now, the majority of work in regenerative design takes place on isolated plots of land — a regenerative farm, permaculture project, or ecological restoration effort. While laudable, none of these efforts has a systemic effect because they are not properly woven into the larger-scale systems of integrated landscapes or continental linkages. We are helping make this nested reality visible through creative storytelling and community organizing lead by local groups in each place.

As we prepare to visit the headwaters of the Colorado Basin, we open ourselves up to be invited to give free public talks everywhere we go. While traveling through the incredible canyons of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, we hold the truly overwhelming majesty of the Colorado River in our hearts. And as we arrive into the humiliation of horrendous pillage where this great river drains into the Sea of Cortez through pipes, our hearts will grieve for the continent as a whole.

Onward, fellow humans.

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