Page 50 RAIN Summer 1986 Bioregion United by First Cascadfa Congress On the weekend of July 25-27, the First Cascadia Bioregional Congress took place at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. The event was attended by about 100 participants who represented communities from southern Oregon to southern British Columbia, predominantly west of the Cascade Mountains. The congress was designed to be an event where people from throughout the bioregion could come together to share visions, make plans, and celebrate the life of the region. There were no keynote speakers, panels, or workshops, only work sessions during the day and play sessions in the evenings. The congress consisted of seven committees and seven forums, the distinction being simply that the committees. met for four two-hour sessions and the Metro-Net: Networking Resources in the Lane County Metropolitan Area, by Meta Hough, 1986, 52 pp., $2 from: Meta Hough 907 River Road, Suite 185 Eugene, OR 97404 In one sense, this is just another local information directory, similar to what has been done in .many communities under the guise of "people's yellow page.s," "green pages," and so on. It is a comprehensive listing of nearly 300 businesses, human services, and social change organizations in the Eugene area, complete with descriptions of "purpose," "activities," ."organization," and "requests" for each one. What makes Metro-Net special is the collection of essays and section introductions by Meta Hough throughout the booklet. The values filter is similar to many other alternative directories, but the clear and systematic articulation of these values in the accompanying text give the directory a sense of mission and direction. If you live in the Eugen~ area, you '11 find this useful as a reference tool and perhaps a source of inspiration and new perspectives. If you live anywhere else, you may find this to be a worthwhile model for a resource directory in your forums met for two two-hour sessions. , , The committees were as follows: · Forestry; Land-Based Food Systems: Agriculture and Permaculture; Water Issues: Fisheries .and Aquaculture; Waste and Pollution; Energy and Appropriate Technology; Cooper~tive and Community-Based Economics; Grassroots Democracy and Community-Building. · The forums were as follows: Communications and Education; Arts and Culture; Spirituality· and Ceremony; Ecofeminism and Post-Patriarchal Values; Water Quality; Peace and Nonviolence; People of Color/ Indigenous Peoples. (The Indigenous Peoples Forum was created as a separa~e forum, but was combined with People of Color due to lack of participation. The absence of Native Americans at the congress was a serious shortcoming.) Statements and resolutions were drafted by the committees and forums and brou~ht to the final plenary session, The Northwest Information Directory: A Guide to Unusual Sources and Special Collections, edited by Steve Johnson, 1986, 238 pp., $9.50 per single copy, discounts for multiple copies from: Information Technology Institute 1135 SE Salmon Portland, OR 97214 This directory contains detailed descriptions of over 600 special information collections and unique libraries in five Northwest states (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington). It also lists museums, archives, electronic databases, census qata resources, and genealogy collections. .In order to put all these resource listings into perspective, the book begins with an insightful and well-researched overview of the "information economy" of the Northwest, discussing past, present, and future of the evolution of the Information Age in the Northwest. This directory is the product of an eight-month research project carried out by RAIN's sister organization, rthe Information Technology Institute. The Northwest Information Directory is an indispensable tool for: librarians, and will be very useful to writers and researchers seeking hard-to-find information. · The listings of historical collections are particularly extensive for where the congress as a whole adopted most of them using a consensus process ' led by Caroline' Estes. All statements and resolutions are considered to be in perpetual draft form. All, whether consensed or not, will be recorded in . the proceedings, to be made available through the Coritinuation Committee. A resolution was passed to encourage local congresses in 1987 and to reconvene the bioregional congress in 1988. The Continuation Committee will be he1pfog local communities in this work. It was noted at the congress that some people living in the coastal areas of the region do not identify with the name "Cascadia." Because these areas were not well-represented at the Congress, it was agreed that a special ·effort should be m·ade to biing people in these areas into a process of naming the bioregion. For more information, contact: Greenet, CAB 305, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA 98505. anyone delving into the history of the region. For infom.~niacs in seneral, this will be a delight. -FLS Discovering Northwest Volc'anoes, by Nancy Field and Sally Machlis, 1980; Discovering Salmon, by Nancy Field and Sally Machlis, 1984; Discovering Mt. Rainier, by . Nancy Field and Sally Machlis, 1~80; $2.75 each from: ' Dog-Eared Publications PO Box 814 Corvallis, OR 97339 These three "Learning and Activity" books are valuable tools for Northwest bioregionalists seeking to impart a sense of place and knowledge and love of .nature in our children. The books contain games to play, riddles, puzzles and mazes to solve, models to build, and other FUN activities. Learn to build·a volcano. Draw a food web. · What do a can of soda pop and a volcano have in common? How is a salmon like l'3 tree? How is the earth•s mantie like .boiling water? Each book also contains accurate scientific information and illustrations, science projects, and activities planned to help educators in a classroom. ·In Discovering Northwest Volcanoes, we learn the difference between the four \ own area. -FLS , '---------------~--
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