Regenerate Skagit Hub

A Landscape Hub of the Regenerate Cascadia Network
Bioregion: Cascadia | Watershed: Skagit River Basin, Washington State

Vision

By 2035, the Skagit Watershed will be a living model of regenerative culture — a network of farms, forests, waters, and communities co-creating a thriving landscape from the mountains to the Salish Sea. Regenerate Skagit Hub exists to reconnect people, land, and water through stewardship, learning, and local economy.

Purpose

To convene and resource people in the Skagit Watershed who are regenerating soil, habitat, and community relationships.
We coordinate across scales — from backyard gardens to floodplain farms — linking existing efforts into one coherent, living network aligned with the Cascadia bioregional framework.

10-Year Goals (2025–2035)

Ecological

• Restore and protect 1,000 acres of riparian and forest habitat supporting salmon and pollinators.
• Bring 20 farms under verified regenerative management (soil health, biodiversity, water quality).

Social

• Establish 200 “revillaged” neighbourhoods practicing connection and shared stewardship.
• Develop 5–10 community food hubs or “village kitchens” as third spaces for meals, CSA distribution, and cultural exchange.

Economic

• Grow the Skagit Regeneration Fund to invest ≥ $1 million annually in local regenerative enterprises and land-based livelihoods.
• Support 50 cottage-scale regenerative businesses (farm goods, crafts, ecological services).

Cultural

• Host annual “Watershed Week” celebrating land, salmon, and people.
• Establish the Skagit Bioregional Learning Centre for training, storytelling, and cross-hub exchange.

First-Year Actions (2025–2026)

• Convene founding Steward Team (3-5 members) and advisory circle including Indigenous partners, farmers, educators, and youth.
• Conduct Watershed Mapping & Listening Tour to identify existing regenerative projects and local priorities.
• Launch pilot portfolio: 3 demonstration sites (farm, riparian restoration, village kitchen).
• Secure seed funding ($150k–$300k) to support coordination, mapping, and micro-grants.
• Apply for official recognition within the Regenerate Cascadia network and integrate into the Bioregional Atlas platform.

Governance & Partnerships

A sociocratic, circle-based model ensuring decisions flow from those most connected to the land.

Key partners may include:

• Skagit Watershed Council (salmon and habitat restoration)
• Skagit Land Trust (land stewardship)
• Wakíyétxw Indigenous collectives (Traditional Ecological Knowledge)
• Skagit Conservation District (soil & water programs)
• Local farmers and CSAs, Skagit Valley College, city and county planners, and community circles

Outcomes by 2035

• Measurable increases in soil carbon, water quality, and biodiversity across the watershed.
• A resilient local food economy and workforce rooted in regenerative practice.
• Deepened community bonds — seeing and being seen across differences.
• A replicable model shared with other Cascadia Hubs.

From Seed to System: 150-Year Vision for the Skagit Commons

Linking the 10-Year Regenerate Skagit Plan to a 150-Year Commons Vision

Years 1–10 — The Seeding Phase

The Regenerate Skagit Hub grounds a living network of farms, river stewards, and neighborhood villages.

• Focus: pilot projects, mapping, relationship-building, governance experiments, early funding.
• Key dynamic: voluntary participation, emergent collaboration, and small-scale proof of concept.
• Cultural root: seeing and being seen — reconnecting people to food, soil, and each other.

These projects are microcosms of commons logic: shared resources, cooperative labor, reciprocal benefit.
They generate the trust, literacy, and story base for what follows.

Years 10–50 — The Growth Phase

Networks between farms, villages, and local governments deepen. Regenerative economics becomes visible at the county scale.

• Land trusts evolve into commons trusts — farmers lease and steward land held for public benefit.
• Community kitchens and food hubs form the skeleton of a local provisioning system.
• Tokens or credits emerge as social currencies for stewardship, participation, and mutual aid.
• Governance circles mature: neighborhood → watershed → county, echoing sociocratic or bioregional principles.

The Skagit Regeneration Fund becomes self-sustaining, cycling local capital back into soil, housing, and education.
“Revillaged” neighborhoods and farm communities demonstrate a rising floor — security and belonging as baseline conditions for life in the valley.

Years 50–150 — The Commons Era

The principles in the Skagit Commons concept become the operating system of the region.

1. Floor-First Prosperity

The ecological wealth of the watershed underwrites a universal basic floor — secure housing, food, and participation for all.
The prosperity of the land literally feeds social stability.

2. Stewardship Over Ownership

Land and water are no longer private commodities. Generations of trust-based stewardship replace extractive ownership.
Farms, forests, and fisheries are held in perpetuity by the people of Skagit through nested commons trusts.

3. Participatory Culture

The token system of the early decades matures into a cultural economy.
Showing up, caring for soil, facilitating dialogue — all count as real work, visible and rewarded.

4. Mobility and Freedom

Movement between regions of Cascadia is easy and supported.
Every commons offers safe onboarding and offboarding.
Leaving Skagit doesn’t mean losing security; it means carrying regenerative citizenship wherever you go.

5. Intergenerational Legacy

Founding families and early stewards are remembered not as owners but as ancestors of the commons —
honored through stories, ceremonies, and guarantees of care for their descendants.

6. Integrated Economy

Energy, food, housing, and materials are all locally looped.
Surplus flows outward through trade that strengthens other bioregions instead of exploiting them.

7. Culture of Belonging

Art, story, and governance merge. Decision-making is a public ritual.
Every citizen has both a voice and a place to contribute.
Festivals, watershed gatherings, and story archives keep the sense of shared destiny alive.

Throughline

What begins in the first decade as a network of regenerative farms evolves into a regenerative civilization rooted in the Skagit watershed.
The ten-year hub builds soil, trust, and frameworks. The century-and-a-half commons builds culture, continuity, and care.

Each CSA box, each restored streambank, each potluck and kitchen becomes a prototype of the future commons —
the everyday practice of belonging that, over generations, grows into a new form of governance.

Closing Thought

The long horizon transforms the Regenerate Skagit Hub from a project into a lineage.
It’s not a plan to control outcomes, but a promise to keep the soil — both literal and cultural — fertile enough
for future generations to keep choosing each other.

Contact / Backbone Team (provisional)

Regenerate Skagit Hub Steward Circle
Email: hello@regenerateskagit.org
Web: regenerateskagit.org (in development)