Page 14 RAIN November/December 1985 - *• CONNIE COHEN Government Nature's Way Thefollowing article is excerpted from Kirkpatrick Sale's new book Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision. What does it mean to be a dweller in the land? Sale explains it in this way: To become dwellers in the land, to relearn the laws of Gaea, to come to know the earth fully and honestly, the crucial and perhaps only and all- encompassing task is to understand place, the immediate and specific place where we live. The kinds of soils and rocks under our feet; the source of the waters we drink; the meaning of the different kinds of winds; the common insects, birds, mammals, plants, and trees; the particular cycles of the seasons; the times to plant and harvest and forage —these are the things that it is necessary to know. The limits of its resources; the carrying capacities of its lands and waters; the places where it must not be stressed; the places where its bounties can best be developed; the treasures it holds and the treasures it withholds—these are the things that must be understood. And the cultures of the people, of the populations native to the land and of those who have grown up with it, the human, social, and economic arrangements shaped by and adapted to the geomorphic ones, in both urban and rural settings—these are the things that must be appreciated. That, in essence, is bioregionalism. But the essence of bioregionalism is not all Sale is concerned with. His book explores the myriad implications that the bioregional point of view has for many different aspects of society: government (as elaborated in the following piece), economics, settlement patterns, land use, citylcountry relations, and conflict resolution. The book also discusses the history of the bioregional concept: its roots in the past, its manifestations in the present, and its potentials for the future. Although much has been written about bioregionalism in the last decade or so. Dwellers in the Land is the first book- length treatment of the subject. A great deal of bioregional wisdom is collected in one place and presented in a systematic manner as has never been done before. A much needed book for the budding bioregional movement. —FLS Excerpted by permission from Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision, by Kirkpatrick Sale, 1985, 218 pp., $14.95 from: Sierra Club Books, 2034 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA 94115.
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