VOICES OF REINHABITATION Reinhabitory—refers to the tiny number ofpersons who come out of the industrial societies . .. and then start to turn back to the land, to place. This comes for some with the rational and scientific realization of inter-connectedness and planetary limits. But the actual demands ofa life committed to a place, and living somewhat by the sunshine green plant energy that is concentrating in that spot, are so physically and intellectually intense, that it is a moral and spiritual choice as well. —Gary Snyder Page 28 RAIN March/April 1984 The Prairie Bioregion Thanks to the many responses to our readers' survey (see page 4), we learned of your wishes for more news and information about bioregions besides our own, the Pacific Northwest. The timing seems fitting. Your calls come as more place-related groups are forming, older ones are expanding, and preparations for the first North American Bioregional Congress are well under way (see details on page 30). A coalition directly involved with organizing the congress, the Kansas Area Watershed Council, is also catalyzing efforts to rediscover the ecological and cultural diversity of the prairie bioregion. We asked Kelly Kindscher, CO-coordinator of the council and author ofa study of the Kansas food system, to briefly describe its place in the biosphere and recent activites that reveal its history and search for sustainability. -KN The Kansas Area Watershed (KAW) Council The prairie bioregion is difficult for a bioregional organization to represent because of its size. It stretches from Texas to Saskatchewan and from a mosaic of Eastern deciduous forest and prairie to the Rocky Mountains in the west (see map). Building on already established personal contacts in the central portion of the prairie bioregion, an organization called the Kansas Area Watershed (KAW) Council was formed. We represent the Kansas River watershed, 60,000 square miles of land in northern Kansas, southern Nebraska, and northeastern Colorado. This is an area of prairie and plains that is formed by the Republican, Arikaree, Smoky Hill, Solomon, and Saline rivers; joined downstream by the Big and Little Blue, Vermillion, Delaware, and Wakarusa rivers. We emphasize the rivers of our watershed because they connect the land and people, and their confluence of energy is symbolic of ours. We call ourselves KAW Council, and the acronym KAW is a native form of the word Kansas. It is one of the many names of the Kansas, Konza, Kanzas, Canzas, or Kansa Indians who previously inhabited this watershed. The word KAW means "people of the south wind." The warm south wind is common in our region, and wind characterizes the spirit of the inhabitants of this area. The word KAW is also the commonly used nickname for the Kansas River, and we use the word (pronounced kah) to call each other (like the native crows) and as a group chant sound. KAW Council has three main foci for our organizational efforts: political, ecological, and cultural. The political focus was highlighted at our first KAW Council gathering in spring 1982, when over 100 people gathered on May Day weekend while the land was greening, dotted with wild indigo and verbena blossoms upon the prairie, and sweet william and mayapple blossoms in the woods. We developed a platform of resolutions for nine interest areas (such as Ecological Politics and Food and Agriculture). These resolutions have been called "the best model for organizing bioregional committees" (see Raise the Stakes, Winter 1983, page 15, published by the Planet Drum Foundation). Since then, we have been directly supporhng the Kansas Natural Resource Council for its environmental lobbying efforts with the Kansas legislature, and we have become a cosponsor of the North American Bioregional Congress (see page 30). We will update and improve our resolutions at our Fall KAW Council. The ecological focus of KAW Council has been emphasized by campouts at various natural areas (such as in the Flint Hills and along the Republican River), by nature walks at our more formal events.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz