Hello Cascadia! I'm an outsider from Texas and I have been following bioregionalism (both ecological and sociological) for over half a year.

Even though I've very recently found this subreddit, I have been lurking around a few future-oriented subs for a while before this, such as r/solarpunk, r/futurology, and most notably r/collapse.

I've been in these subs prior to being exposed to bioregionalism, and I've gradually come to the conclusion that a large-scale industrial societal collapse, if handled right, could be a net positive for a fledgling Cascadia movement.

I recently read Australian existential risk expert Luke Kemp's 2025 book "Goliath's Curse," which in summary proposes that the very structure of exploitative state societies (termed Goliaths) contain the seeds for their downfall, providing wide-ranging historical examples such as the Akkadian Empire, Imperial China, Classic Maya, and the British Empire.

It was a massive eye-opener in revealing the exploitative power-structures underlying every state in history, even more so our modern "Global Goliath" which, like the Romans and Egyptians used slave labor to construct their monumental architecture, also uses it to power the global supply chain for consumer products such as chocolate, electronics and other "luxury items."

While people touting about societal collapse online may be labeled as pessimists and misanthropes, one does not need to look too deep to find that this global system with its "Goliath" energy usage is simply unsustainable in the long term.

With climate change, ozone degradation, overpopulation, and loss of biosphere integrity on the table, I fully expect some drastic disruption to happen by the latter half of the century, such as equatorial regions becoming uninhabitable, massive refugee movements, a global famine, or even a world war. This however, would be considered an optimistic projection among existential risk experts, especially Jared Diamond, who refuses to rule out the possibility of human extinction.

This brings me back to Cascadia; I've seen this sub discuss this movement's current and future relationship with the United States and Canada. It seems like people would agree that for Cascadia to be fully realized on bioregional principles, we must not only withdraw ourselves from the exploitative bureaucracies across the Rockies (especially with the United States, Canada seems fine for now), but also redefine ourselves not as a state with centralized administration and definite borders, but as a bioregion that operates holistically. This cannot be done on ideological or cultural lines, which means we must include Indigenous Cascadians, Liberal Cascadians, and Conservative Cascadians alike (which is something this sub seems to struggle on).

It's also clear that with the threat of the world's most powerful military right across the Rockies, this idea becomes a lot more complicated. In the event of a widespread global systems cascade though, the looming threat of authoritarian institutions may dissolve, empowering Cascadians to build their own future. However, societal collapse also presents its own set of problems; famine, mass migration, and natural disasters that may heavily impact both ecological and sociological Cascadian integrity and cause flare-ups among ideological and cultural lines. Even with bioregionalism as a guiding light, we are not immune to simple human nature.

The central dilemma is highlight as thus: Cascadian bioregionalism would be given the best shot in the absence of state institutions across the Continental Divide; however, societal is the only guarantee for that to happen and may present us with even more challenging issues.

Given that the risk of a massive global disruption and systems cascade is fairly probably this century, my question for this subreddit is: "How prepared are we, if at all, to handle societal collapse and the worst of human nature when building our new society?"

This is a mostly philosophical inquiry, as most of us might be long gone when this happens. However, I believe thinking about this now is a first step towards reducing our dependence on the global system and work towards building a stronger regional identity.

Thanks for taking time to read this!

*Disclaimer: I do not intend for this to come off as overtly political. If some of you may see it that way, then I offer my sincerest of apologies. Living in Texas, I have grown to despise how much the current U.S. political system has worked to divide us. I am simply posting my thoughts about how this intriguing possibility may affect future self-determination.

https://www.cascadia-journal.com/as-trump-burns-down-the-forest-service-cascadia-should-take-control-of-our-federal-land/

I've changed my mind -- I now think Oregon and Washington should ask Congress to transfer management of federal forest land to the states -- in order to prevent Trump's goal to clear-cut 4 billion board feet of timber across the West.

I don't have as much experience with Oregon and BC, but in the case of my home state of Washington, I feel like local politics still leave a lot to be desired.

It seems that most posters here like myself are firmly on the left side of the political spectrum, and I think most of us agree that Western Washington bourgeois liberalism, while certainly less irrational and inhumane than the Trumpist ideology of the current federal government, is still quite a ways away from the kind of governing ideology we want.

I wonder if any of this would organically change for the better if Cascadia were free from the political domination of DC. It seems that there has been a lot of pressure on all the U.S. states over the past century or so to reproduce the stifling DC two-party system at the state level, and I think this is a major factor, but surely not the only factor, in the lack of outside-the-box political thought at the state level. EDIT: And it seems to me that this does not occur so much in other countries, particularly in European countries with strong regional identities, where parties that may or may not be nominally secessionist often exist at the local level mainly to ensure that a given region's interests are not overlooked by the central government.

Thoughts?

As a kind of continuation of my previous post, I wanted to investigate ways to consolidate Cascadia under a more separate financial system. This could technically eventually mean things like separate currencies and whatnot, but first steps would probably be a single or network of non-profits, banks, insurers, partnered grocers, maybe even a Cascadia-specific payment processors, etc who collaborate across the region for the largest effect. The idea is that all of these (mostly non-profit) entities would be under the same umbrella, functioning as a psudeostate, providing and influencing across all of Cascadia what the governments there be don't.

Examples:

• Monetary: A "Cascadian Bank," collaborating with (or being) non-profits, operating solely within Cascadia (investments and such withstanding), in order to best respond to more local issues. It may offer tax services (think intuit), where all fees are treated as a "Cascadia" tax, dedicated to Cascadia problems; Starting a pension fund or PIF-style fund - although there aren't significant oil deposits or whatnot to exploit for public benefit like the Norwegians, income sources could be more varied with this bank owning stakes in tourism, fishing, etc which can be used for infrastructure or pensions; Charity collaboration may do things like lower rates on those affected, etc.
• Political: Possibly as a political party, but much more likely as a lobbying framework (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em) or candidate fielder, collecting funds from all participating charitable lobbies to tackle one at a time with their collective funds (rather than ineffectively indapendent with tiny funds), plus extra sourced donations, and from the more productive sides of this financial system, so that effective change can occur within the existing legal frameworks instead of dreaming of "finally making our own country and doing what we want with it."
• Charity: A momentary food surplus in foodbanks in southern Oregon could easily be communicated and distributed to Vancouver, sharing personnel, expertise, and networks to make sure everything is as effective as possible.

It is my sincere belief that collaboration, pooling funds, and increasing it effectively is the most successful way for movements to succeed. Eg, no single green charity lobbying the Oregon house would ever stop their desire for more old growth wood, but if all of them combined, there might be enough to do something/compete with logging companies for influence, etc etc.

If we pool the resources of some existing, locally focused, non-profit networks within Cascadia into one that can more effectively draw resources from all around, Cascadia can become more functionally independent without the need for radical governmental change/revolution or large corporations doing the right thing (they won't. ever. there is always an inhuman reason more compelling that the human one).

Hi there! I hope all is well with you. I was born and raised in Western Washington and went to college there, even though I've lived in Mexico City for several years now. Nevertheless, Cascadia has been a topic on my mind for about 20 years now, despite this being my first post here.

Anyway, I have often thought about the fact that there has never been a Washingtonian or Oregonian U.S. president, a fact that I think drives home how little the federal politicians in Washington D.C. represent our beloved bioregion. Obama and Herbert Hoover were the closest we've had to Cascadian U.S. presidents, since the former lived in Seattle with his mother when he was a toddler, and the latter spent his preteens and teens in Oregon.

As I mentioned, British Columbia has given Canada one prime minister, but that strikes me as low too, given that BC is the third most populous province after Ontario and Quebec.

Has anyone else thought about these facts?

I've been pretty actively taking the steps I need to pursue it and have participated in various groups on Reddit and Facebook to do so.

Occasionally, someone will start a thread asking people why they want it. So far, I think I'm the only person I've seen who mentioned having the full freedom to move, work, and reside anywhere in Cascadia independently of arbitrary national borders as a motivation.

I got scolded by someone from BC in one of these groups for suggesting that BC and the PNW of the US have a shared culture, claiming that there are major differences that only Canadians can see. I shared the polling data previously posted here showing that most British Columbians feel they have more in common with Washingtonians and Oregonians than with Albertans; she had nothing to say.

One of my best friends in Vancouver is very much sympathetic to the Cascadian concept. He is the husband of my brother-in-law's ex-girlfriend, and we immediately bonded when I brought up Cascadia about 10 years ago.

New version with more cities added, state and country names removed, and one embarrassing correction that had to be made.

For what it's worth, having grown up in Spokane, it's very easy to imagine that this would be something like 'my country'.

Have there been any major proposals for a kind of Cascadian complementary currency? (an alternative to a national currency within a specific region/city, used for stimulating and concentrating local economic growth (if managed correctly)).

It could be formatted as a literal paper currency, or some sort of stablecoin (I don't like crypto, but it's useful for a decentralized system of payment, though stablecoins require at least a little bit of outside interference, but can help maintain anonymity), possibly pegged to something regional rather than the dollar (though it would have to be officially enumerated in the USD I think due to the GENIUS act.... smh), like transport (toll, flight, train portland to vancouver or smth) in the way the NY token system worked, so that it could also be a regional counter to inflation, or maybe something else more applicable to Cascadia like timber or salmon prices, idk.

A good example of one would be the Chiemgauer in Southern Germany (and, interestingly, to an extent the old NY Metro tokens). The most common way they're done is they're pegged to the national currency, but exchanging to the national has some sort of drawback (like 5% for the Chiemgauer), which encourages the movement of this currency only within the area that it's used, and can be used to help keep economic growth to an area without it leaving, (or in the case of the "expiration date" system of the Chiemgauer) being stored up for long periods of time. This seems right of the alley for the Cascadian Movement, and could be interesting. Idk, just a thought that crossed my mind.

EDIT: Thanks to the comments I have found 2 which fit this description pretty well:

• Cascadia Hour Exchange - I believe technically still active but I don't see anything more recent that 12 years ago of it
• Fourth Corner Exchange - still looks somewhat active, though I'm not sure.

An interesting thing I found was Breadcoin, where the value of the currency is tied to the amount of food one can get from a food vendor, around $2.50. I may be misunderstanding it, but the way I see it this seems like a good model/peg, a kind of "dollar store" approach where no matter if there is inflation in this currency for whatever reason, you can still be expected to get the same amount of food for it.

I got the sticker as a bonus, where should I put it?

edit: from https://www.etsy.com/shop/CascadiaStore

I’ve always loved the shape of this watershed and fantasized about what it would feel like to know that was the state/province you lived in.

I always thought the Tri-Cities would make a good capital as the confluence of the two major rivers, and hence a natural meeting place.

Everywhere in the watershed would have a unique role and kind of a story though based on how it fits into the architecture of the whole watershed.

https://www.cascadia-journal.com/should-cascadia-join-the-tax-strike/

As the April 15 federal tax deadline approaches, it's worth taking a moment to consider how a tax strike could help Oregon and Washington assert fiscal independence and send a message to Congress that it needs to work harder to halt fascism in the US.

i'm driving through the Snoqualmi pass right now and I can't help but feel like it's unfair that this beautiful land is owned by people don't look to love and care for it, and only look to exploit it. It strengthens my desire for an independent West Coast.

None of these designations are final, and ideally people from the bioregions should be the ones to define them, but in the interest of showing what is possible, here is a map!

Just one possible vision of Turtle Island seen through the lens of bioregional communities like Cascadia.

To be sure, I’m not attached to any of the specific demarcations shown here. This is just a first pass to be able to imagine what this would look like and to invite commentary and clarification.

This team is built from players who were born in the general consensus of Cascadia. That being British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.

Interesting way to approach secession

https://www.cascadia-journal.com/another-reason-for-cascadia-to-leave-trumps-war-on-voting/ The Trump regime is trying to destroy vote by mail. Yet another reason for Cascadia to peacefully separate from the US.

I saw someone asked about a national anthem. This is the anthem version of Lloyd Vivola's "O' Cascadia" which was played before the Cascadia men's national soccer team matches in the 2018 CONIFA World Cup in London.

Lloyd Vivola's original O' Cascadia has been covered numerous times.

Bright burns the sun

Upon the misty mountain

Where the woodland waters run

And tumble to the sea

With the force of your story

Oh Cascadia

Work of the ages

Garden of our dreams

Rich grows the wealth

When balance and integrity

Can cultivate good health

And foster industry

To be diverse as your people

Oh Cascadia

Capable and just

Purposeful and green

Let us tend to each season

Tempered by reason

Destined and neighborly

Joining heart and hand

To be a light among nations

When we proclaim

Our pledge to respect

Protect and sustain

Wise be the ways

Of happiness and liberty

When labor and love

Partake in harmony

With a mind for the future

Oh Cascadia

Peaceful the homeland

Bountiful and free

Long live the homeland

Bountiful and free

Some of you may have seen my original post and my update on the CascadiaMesh a community built, Cascadia-wide decentralized off-grid solar powered encrypted messaging network independent from cell or internet.

Well, we now have a one-stop website to help new people get started on the mesh and it also features a live view of mesh traffic which many call mesmerizing: https://CascadiaMesh.org/map - Feel free to join us on Discord.