National
Water Center, Eureka Springs,
Arkansas
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Water and Bioregionalism . . though we continually strive to develop new technologies to deal with our problems, the greatest innovation is conservation. David Haenke, 1983 Science Fiction is just that. Fiction. Plus Science, which is also made up primarily of fictions and illusions mixed up with its minor discernment's about the nature. Life on this spaces hip/living organism Earth on the other hand is real, wilder, more imaginative by far in every way, just about too wild in its full power for the mind to look at straight in the face, the reason why we come up with fictions to divert us with desperate entertainment. We can’t stand natural reality. Yes, life on Earth is just so astounding in every dimension. The matter/energy patterns, forms, and interrelationships of the entire Earth are replicated in smaller and smaller versions in every single element that makes up the whole, the giant jewel box in space containing within it a nearly infinite number of ever smaller jewel boxes of forms and life forms nested one within the other down to the smallest molecular associations, everything either life, past life, or presaging life, everything mirroring and hologramming the totality, all without real boundaries in the enormity of Earth time, but rather all fully melded and ever intermixed. The “ordinary” on Earth is so astounding that we can’t begin to comprehend it or any part of it, and the “ordinary” so overpowers and mystifies us that we continually seek the “extraordinary” to divert us from the power all around us, seek “magic” as our minds dart in illusory journeys in the non-existent past and future to distract us from the magic that is all there is, and that saturates everything in the present. All of it floats in the great waters, and the waters flow in their riverine patterns, tributary, vein, artery, capillary, vessel vapor, steam, mist through it all, magic every drop.
Nested within the biogeographic provinces the smaller organs, bioregions, another, smaller sized home place defined both by
landforms and the living things that like to be there. Within the great prairie of North America, the Texas black land
prairie, Red River Valley, and tall grass prairie bioregions. Within bioregions, watersheds are the smaller organs, defining rivers flowing within the high points, or under the land. And now we are getting closer to home. Inside the watersheds, ecosystems, that forest over there, that swamp, that lake, this wetland, and now we are home. In fact, here we are, our bodies, our very selves. Our bodies are just small
hologramic Earth's, watersheds, and ecosystems, with the blood water flowing through, organizing systems of Earth, but, like everything else, Earth’s whole
history, we and all a living, walking history of the Earth, a collection of highly
cooperative and differentiated, mutated bacteria and the waters that it all came
out of. Meanwhile your body and mine, inside and out, is swamp, jungle, forest, prairie, mountain, valley, and river to tens of millions, billions, of creatures that
are sometime separate from, sometime part of the body, crawling, multiplying, fighting, eating each other, dying, recycling, mites, parasites, bacterial armies
of friends and enemies, viruses, legions on eyebrows, hair, teeth, skin and organs.
It all works as a phenomenally organized biologic community, four billion years in
development, of a degree astounding in its order and complexity, far beyond all possible computers, and one that our cities might study and emulate in order The bioregion, watershed, and ecosystem are of a scale that gets close enough to
home and our capacities to rudimentary comprehend to be truly useful. Would that But what always brings us home is water, and the watershed. Anyone who can’t define their bioregion can identify their watershed, because everyone on Earth lives in one. The watershed, and water, is the heart and center of bioregional understanding, even as water is the center and of all the nested jewel boxes of life on Earth. At the same time, the fluids wind and water sculpt and form everything we see in our watersheds and bioregions. The Ozarks that we look out over is, it is said, a 500 million year old, mile high plateau worn down to its present beautiful contours mostly by the action of the water of its watersheds. From that identification of the watershed as home, all the ecological understandings, principles, practices of bioregionalism can be brought home and applied in that place. Ecological: technology, forestry, energy production, agriculture, health, protection, economics, “waste management” and recycling, architecture, communities, education, restoration social organization can be brought home, and implemented. If you want to forget the “eco” part, these are just the tried, true, and phenomenally successful operation principles and rules of the Earth translated into human understanding and practice, in the context of the watershed, Call it anything you want, a watershed that does these things will survive and thrive if allowed to do them. At the same time, without the implementation of these ecological ways in virtually every dimension of life, built from the level of the local ecosystem and watershed on up, there is no such thing as “sustainability”. The integration of these ecological methodologies can restore and sustain any place on Earth, as surely as Earth will anyway, over time, without us, because these are the ways of Earth translated into human. And when the water that runs down through the middle of it runs clean we know it’s right. The organizing principle and the ultimate test for sustainability are one in the same. Someday if there is a future for humans on Earth these things such as the full identity of the health of our human bodies and families with that of the watershed, its water, and all its life, along with the necessity of doing all things ecologically, will I believe be such a part of life as to be just like breathing, and not even a subject of discussion or thought. Just a part of the autonomic system of the human part of the watershed’s life. No doubt people will always find something to fight and argue about. But if we are still here 250 years from now, it won’t be about any of this. No matter what, a river does run through it. Talk at Watershed
This could be thought of as merely a fashionable trend, but most of these eco-words indicate a serious attempt to revise the previous sense of ideas in their industrial context into a new mutualistic, shared-values context, I think it represents, and here comes that prefix again, an eco-cultural transition. This is a big shift, and the scale of a civilization change. It’s a new perception of human identity. What a person is, where they are and what they’re going to do about it. Possibly the older industrial transition was not as large as the one that we’re engaged in now. It involves the knowledge that we share the planet together, which invites a new sense of interdependence as opposed to independence. I think this will eventually become a mutual perception of the world regardless of the particular cultural diversity of human groups. The moral, social, philosophical, and spiritual dimensions of this idea are enormous. What should one do? How should one make a living? How should one behave toward other people and living things? We’re beginning to identify ourselves with the preservation of the biosphere as a conscious activity in major aspects of our lives. It’s not unusual when words come out of the natural sciences
into general cultural terms that they change their meanings. Almost nobody means
ecology in the strict We know that trees and rivers are actually complex habitats. But the industrial notion was : How can I take something out of nature and transform it to make something else out of it? We’re trying to reverse that. We’re trying to get an ecological perspective where a forest is once again a living context, a river is a living context. The terms that are coming out of the natural sciences for this include “watershed”. trees and rivers are part of a watershed. A watershed is also being seen as a large context for understanding our own human location within a natural system. How does this work? A young woman came to the Planet Drum office and said she had heard my lecture in her Ecosystemology class at Berkeley. Ecosystemology. There’s that prefix again. She wanted to make a presentation on the notion of watersheds for her class as an environmental sciences major. How could she do it? Well, start with the bowl itself, the water basin, the landforms of ridges, hills and valleys. Put gravity in it. Water flows and carries things downhill, primarily soil. Soil determines what kinds of plants will grow. Willows have to have their roots in water so when you see willows at a distance you’re looking at a place where water is near the surface. Some animals go where certain plants grow to browse. Some animals go near water to hunt other animals. All of those connections are in a watershed: landforms, gravity, hydrology, soil, native plants and animals. Next consider what people do each day. Whether or not sunlight falls on you might be because a shading hill is nearby, that’s part of the watershed. If you have fire wood it’s because of the biomass in the watershed. Our food is usually from rich bottom land that’s made up of soil that is carried downhill into the valley. Those are some of the considerations. Also, everything about planning: about where you put a house, whether or not it’s going to be dry, whether or not you’re going to get sun, what the water and waste restrictions might be, where the roads go. All of those human considerations revolve around the watershed. Now back up farther and look at the oldest ways humans have lived. We’ve mainly operated in the context of our immediate locales which meant we knew our watersheds. We were consciously relating to them every day. We weren’t just abstractly “on the earth”. We were relating to specific watersheds and used terms for the valley and we who live in this valley. Indigenous, land-based Europeans actively refer to things this way. The Welsh word “bro” meaning: all of us who live here around this river, my relatives, the animals of this valley, etc. (This might be where we got the word “borough”.) I told her that in order to understand that context, you’re
going to have to get out of the natural sciences department. You’re going to
have to shift over to the philosophy department, I directed her to read
Lucretius and Lao Tzu to find out what water really means, what water teaches.
How it wears things down. How it flows and seeks the low places, and why that’s
a desirable way for a human being to think and behave. And also to get over into
the anthropology department and find out what people refer to for the basics of
life. What they eat. What they think of the things they eat. What they mean,
Even what prayer means to indigenous people. I asked if there was a hillside with a spring nearby.
Gratefully, there was one that looked just like the spring in the city of Mount
Shasta in California that is the Then we all went to the edge of a cliff. This promontory was about a thousand feet high and looked down on the whole Hakuba Valley. We all stood and I asked the people to be quiet for a little while and try to put together what we had seen. After a few minutes, people started spontaneously talking about how the water came out of the hillsides, how it come through the forests into creeks and down into the rice fields. The rice was green and gold, beautiful just before harvesting. The river was powerful because the hills around it rise two thousand feet in something like a thousand feet. Really steep. River water has pounded down and brought gravel with it so that the banks of the river on both sides were ten times the width of the river. I said: “You know all of this was here before people came. And all of this will stay here after the Olympics are over and even after people leave. Here’s your choice. You see how powerful it is? You see how rich it is? You can either harmonize with this watershed pattern, try to get along with it and maintain it, or you can allow it to be degraded. It’s a values decision. You have to find the basis for making that choice in your hearts.” I couldn’t help noticing during my visit there that Japanese people have a great appreciation of spirit and respect for it. People were humble as though they had been in a temple. When we walked back they were quiet, almost whispering to each other as they showed plants and mushrooms to each other. We all got back in the bus and a woman came up and said: “I have to go but...” A man began translating what she said while I was looking at her somewhat dumbfounded. She said: “I’ve never been as touched by anything in my life.” I said: ”Ah, no.” She said: “Yes. I’m very, very grateful. I can’t thank you enough. I’m a school teacher and I was going to stop teaching.” I said “Oh, please.’ I looked at my friend and said: “Kim, isn’t there any way we can make a joke?” I was feeling embarrassed. He said: “No, you have to listen to her.” She said: “I’m going to make what we learned today the basis of what I teach to the children of this valley in the future.” What does this mean to us? Where is this going? I think it’s going to go as far as we push it. We must continue to push the reality and meaning of watersheds and bioregions, our natural homes. We’ve seen how far it’s taken us already. A quarter of the mail I get at Planet Drum Foundation has someone’s bioregion or watershed in the return address. They write the street, the town and the state, and then they put something like “Delaware Watershed” at the bottom. When I started putting “Shasta Bioregion” on our Planet Drum stationery years ago, I jokingly told people I was doing it to confound the US Postal Service. But people are now doing this in a dedicated way. Sometimes their address is even more detailed. They’ll write the creek in the watershed in the bioregion. I’m going to push this as far as I can and I want you to
push it as far as you can. I’m staying with a lawyer here in Washington who
presents cases having to do with health to government agencies. I asked him: “What’s
Washington like?” He said: “Washington is a very distracted political entity
because it’s so artificial.” The only solution is for it to be a regional
government, for Washington to be seen in the Potomac Watershed of the Piedmont
Bioregion. It’s the only way that this place can ever make any sense: Let’s
see what eventually happens to Washington, DC. Let’s
see what happens to the
places where we live. Let’s watch what happens to our city and county
boundaries, and state boundaries in terms of watersheds. Let’s help rejoin
them to the planet. Natural Systems for the
Treatment of Wastewater The following is from the abstract of this paper. Natural
Systems for the treatment of wastewater can significantly reduce the costs,
process energy and complexity of wastewater treatment systems with the potential
of achieving potable quality water for reuse or disposal. Byproducts can range
from fish to animal fodder. There is also a growing use of some of these systems
to treat difficult waste waters, such as heavy metals and toxic organic
compounds. A secondary benefit is the education in basic aquatic ecology
received by the policy makers and facility operators who implement these
alternatives. Tad Montgomery, Ecological Engineer Clancey's Cave, Otter Creek
Bioregion, Ohio Valley
The Salmon Circle The Salmon Circle may be accessed by clicking on the title above. Some North American Bioregional Water
Committee Reflections The Water Committee met initially at the first North American
Bioregional Congress (NABC) in May of 1984. Water workers from across the
continent designed a platform and wrote resolutions near Excelsior Springs,
Missouri, in the Kansas Area Watershed. In 1986 at the second NABC on the shores of Lake Michigan in the Leelanau Province of Great Lakes Macroregion, the Water Committee shared stories of Water degradation and deepened our resolutions. In 1988, at NABC III, on Cheakamus River, Paradise Valley, Squamish Ish Bioregion in British Columbia, again resolutions were refined. At the fourth North American Bioregional Congress in 1990 in the Kennebec River Watershed on the Gulf of Maine, when the Water Committee met it was agreed that we should give thanks to the Water. The morning the plenary session was to open, the Water Committee met on the banks of Lake Cobboseecontee and gave thanks to the water. The group joined the plenary session, bringing with us the purity and strength of purpose that we received from the water. When the Water Committee met on the Guadalupe River in the Hill Country of Texas at the 5th Turtle Island Bioregional Gathering each person told about their water work. We then sat in silence in the circle as it rained for about 4 minutes, the same amount of time each person had spoken. In 1994, at the 6th Turtle Island Bioregional Gathering, the water committee met on Otter Creek in Kentucky. We attempted to summarize the resolutions. In 1996, at the first Bioregional Gathering of the Americas, there was a good exchange of Water Information. It covered a wide range of experiences. Once again, it was remembered and noted that water speaks a
universal language of oneness and sustains all life. Water Committee Resolutions of the North
American 1984 – First North American Bioregional Congress, Missouri Water Committee Resolutions PHILOSOPHY
RESOLUTIONS 1. Water is the basis of life and is a primary organizing force of a bioregion. We resolve to work to halt all acts that degrade or limit the quality of Water and by this to improve and preserve the quality of life on the planet. 2. We ask each bioregional group to develop and submit its own Water policy and to forward this to an appropriate Water center. 3. Be it resolved that a Bioregional network be formed. With the help of NABC participants, Water Committee members will collect and disseminate information. BE IT RESOLVED THAT: All bioregional groups and bioregionalists agree with this statement: Water is the basis of life on this planet.
Water is an integral part of every bioregional and social sphere. Acts that
degrade or limit the quality of Water also degrade and 1986
– Second North American Bioregional Congress, Michigan — Water Committee “Through all our lives, the Waters have sustained, nurtured and healed our bodies and spirits; in return for the gifts of the land, the nutrients in the food, that pass through our bodies to become what we call “waste” be returned to nourish the land. To use the Waters as a carrier and dump for “waste” nutrients is a deep wrong which impoverishes the land, and brings sickness both to Water and to us as we participate in this injustice. “Since human “waste” must become a nutrient on the land, not a pollutant of the Waters, we must realize that though we continually strive to develop new technologies to deal with our problems, the greatest innovation is conservation. As we conserve precious Water, we can also conserve and enrich our soil through the recovery of human “waste”… “All over the Earth, the rivers, lakes, and oceans have struggled to cleanse themselves of our thankless waste, but can do so no longer by themselves while we still have the measure of grace and health they have given us by their struggle, we must join them to conserve, protect and HEAL THE WATERS…” All forms of Water, in the ground, on the land, and in the air are connected. It is a closed system. There is no new Water. Dilution is not the solution to pollution. There is no such place as ‘away’. There is no such thing as a safe level of pollution. The more pollution there is, the more it hurts human health and the health of the earth.
We don’t want other sources of Water Pollution, including; toxic rain, industrial discharge, soil erosion, agricultural run-off, damage due to damming, draining of marshes and channelization, municipal waste Water, landfills for municipal or toxic waste, dumps for low and high level radioactive waste, deep well injection of hazardous waste, depletion of aquifers, or any other degradation of Water resources that we might have missed. We discourage development in the fragile interfaces between Water and land: the coastal zone, including estuaries, coral reefs and the outer continental shelf; as well as wetlands, inclusive of marshes, bogs, swamps and sloughs. The most effective way to limit human population to sustainable levels in bioregions is to prohibit transportation by humans of Water between bioregions. Therefore we suggest a ban on human intervention in Watercourses. The Water Presentation began with a Water song: “We all come from the water and to her we shall return, like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean." 1988 – Third North American
Bioregional Congress, British Columbia — Water as follows: 1. We shouldn’t interfere with Water courses, except to heal and rehabilitate. 2. We are firmly opposed to inter-basin transfer of Water in principle. 3. Watersheds should be a natural organizing principle of bioregional action. We urge participation in on-going efforts that recognize the significance of Watershed. 4. We want non-degradation of ground Water: a) in terms of quantity, the rate of withdrawal from aquifers should not exceed the natural state of recharge; b) in terms of quality, no pollution of aquifers should be allowed; c) we urge the development of appropriate bioregional strategies for cleaning toxified aquifers. Further recommendations by the committee included that a Water Workers Network be formed. 1990 – Fourth North American Bioregional Congress, Maine Water Committee Resolutions The Water 1992 – Fifth North American Bioregional Congress, Texas Water Committee Resolutions No resolutions were considered. The following report was submitted: We thanked the Water all week and she blessed us in many ways. Trips to the spring at the headwaters of the Guadalupe River brought many visions. 1994 – Sixth North American
Bioregional Congress, Otter Creek, Kentucky — Water Let’s give thanks to the water every time we drink and use it. We are water-borne creatures, all life still begins from the water. Water is the basis of life and is primary organizing force of a bioregion. We need to work to improve and preserve the quality of water on the planet, therefore we ask each bioregional group to develop its own water policy. We need a bioregional water network. Through all our lives the waters have sustained, nurtured, and healed our bodies and
spirits; in return for this gift we have defiled the waters with our poisons and wastes;
we have violated the natural order and law followed by all other living things of the
land; the law being that the gifts of the land. the nutrients in the food that passes Human waste should become a nutrient on the land, not a pollutant of the waters, we should realize that though we continually strive to develop new technologies to deal with our problem, the greatest innovation is conservation. As we conserve precious water, we can also conserve and enrich our soil through the recovery of human “waste.” All over Earth, the rivers, lakes, and oceans struggle to cleanse themselves of our thankless waste, but can do so no longer by themselves. We must protect all life forms by healing the waters. All forms of water in the ground, the air, and on the land are connected. There is no new water; it is a closed system, which for eons has had a natural cleansing process — a process which we should not disturb. We seek non-degradation of water. We seek a more respectful use of water; we want water use conservation. Industry needs to recycle and clean its waste water. We seek biological methods to filter and cleaned the waters as opposed to chemical methods. We don’t want other sources of water pollution including: toxic rain, industrial discharge, soil erosion, agricultural runoff, damage due to damming, draining of marshes and channelization, municipal waste water, landfills for municipal or toxic waste, dumps for low and high level radioactive waste, deep well injection of hazardous waste, depletion of aquifers, or any other degradation of water. We seek protection for the fragile interfaces between water and land: the coastal zone including estuaries, coral reefs and the outer continental shelf, as well as wetlands, marshes, bogs, swamps, and sloughs. Go to: healing
the waters |
National Water
Center Barbara Helen
Harmony :: email:
peace@ipa.net
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As an organism Earth has some very large organs: oceans
and continents. Continents further differentiate themselves. Nested in them are what geo-eco-cartographers have called
“biogeographical provinces”. These vast areas have “boundaries” flowing about in geologic time that contain not
only landforms but life forms that like to be in this home place and its climate. For instance, one of the biogeographic
provinces in North America/Turtle Island is the great prairie that stretches from Canada down to Texas.
When
I was with the San Francisco Diggers nearly 30 years ago, Paul Krassner of The
Realist magazine wanted to put our street communications out as the “Digger
Papers”. In one of those essays I used the word “ecology”. He had never
heard it. Krassner was an intelligent, urbane New Yorker who had to go to the
dictionary to look up the word “ecology.” Today, there are many words that
have “eco” from ecology as a prefix. Eco-friendly, eco-fascist,
eco-feminist, eco-terrorist, eco-consumer, eco-freak, eco-literate, eco-art, eco
governance. And this list is probably growing while we’re scrambling to
try to account for their reality.
