CN! project Rain City Slam presents it’s 2019 Grand Slam featuring legendary poet Wil Gibson. This is Rain City Slam’s most fierce competition of the year!
Did you know that we support grassroots projects in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana?
Join us, other awesome Cascadians, and climate activists around the world in signing the petition asking the Nobel Foundation Board to create a new Nobel Prize for the Fight Against Climate Change NOW!
Great Northwest Productions, a CN! nonprofit family member, presents an art & music series, filmed & recorded in unique locations throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Nourishing Neighbors is a "pay-it-forward" program that lets patrons of local businesses donate towards the next meal for a community member in need.
The first ever Cascadia E-Cup championship league and tournament involving six of the best colleges in the Northwest begins on March 27th. This awesome event is being coordinated by our very own programming intern, Isaac Chandler, who will be graduating in history from the University of Washington this June. The tournament will feature a six week round robin with a two week break at the end of April for the finals of the National Collegiate series. The Cascadia E-Cup finals will be held live in Seattle as a part of Seattle's Cascadia Day celebration on May 21st and 22nd. Games will be streamed live on Twitch and at Cascadia Day festivals.
Folks down in Portland, Oregon are starting the Cascadian Flag Making Cooperative with the goal of producing locally made Cascadian flags! Alexander Baretich who is one of the founding members of this cooperative also the designed the Cascadian flag in 1995. How beautiful would it be for Cascadian Doug Flags to be made in region, upholding to all the principles and ideals of Cascadia, using locally sourced materials and a bioregional footprint?
Come and celebrate with Cascadians from around the region!
May 18th was chosen by Cascadian bioregionalist David McCloskey, as a way to celebrate the unique dynamism of our region, and is a wonderful way to get involved, learn more about Cascadia, and meet many others also interested in the idea :)
Find out more and RSVP via:
In Seattle: Facebook Event | SEA Chapter Website
In Portland: Facebook Event | PDX Chapter Website
In Vancouver: Facebook Event | VAN Chapter Website
In Bend: Facebook Event
In Eugene: Facebook Event
And don't forget to stay in touch! Find CascadiaNow on
Instagram | Twitter | Reddit | Facebook Page | Facebook Group
This exhibition will ask: What is being made here and why? How does the fashion industry shape the regional identity of the Pacific Northwest? How/why are we known as a locality innovates through research and technology as well as handcraft, finding new models of production and consumption that reframe behavior patterns to be positioned for a more sustainable future?
In Portland Oregon, a new Scouting organization has sprung up in the past year. The Cascadian 55th, an emerging community led association, sets itself apart from the Boy Scouts of America in several ways by creating a welcoming, open environment and billing itself as 'Traditional Scouting for Everyone'.
Chartered in February 2013, with group activities beginning in April, it was started by Portland native Travis Wittwer and his son Kael Wittwer after they called an open community meeting that drew several dozen families. They had their first Hullaballoo campout in June with 92 attendees and since has grown to more than 6 sections such as the Otter, Chipmunk, Timberwolf, Pathfinder, Rover and Auxillary; and while these have quickly filled up, they are seeking to continue to expand around the city.
The Cascadia Scouts are an official scouting organization with merit badges, scarves, backpacking trips and all. They are not the only independent scouting group as the World Federation of Independent Scouts oversees hundreds of scout troops worldwide that are distinct from the well-known Boy Scouts of America, including several other alternative troops in America. Their goal is to build a Traditional Scouting Association for Cascadia that is open to boys and girls, men and women and focused on a traditional, open and inclusive, outdoor program that is open to everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion (or no-religion) or other differentiating factors. It is their mission is to provide a positive learning environment within the context of democratic participation and social justice.
After talking with other parents and staging several just-for-fun multi-family camping trips, the parents behind the Cascadia Scouts decided to get official. Now, the Cascadia Scouts have mutlple levels of scouting for different age groups and all will be welcome to participate "traditional scouting" trips and projects that develop leaders and a love of the outdoors. One potential trip for older kids this summer will be backpacking on a trail that circumnavigates Oregon’s Mount Hood and another in the works is brining treats to Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers.
If you are interested in helping support the 55th Cascadia, or helping start a chapter or branch in your community, you can donate at any Wells Fargo branch or email the 55thCascadia@gmail.com.
For more information, visit their website: http://www.55cascadia.org/
Also, if you live in the Portland area, you can also stop by this weekend, and support the 55th Cascadia at their multi-family yard sale that they are holding to raise money for the group.
Camp Cascadia, a protest to raise awareness of federal attempts to close, cap, and possibly privatize open air reservoirs at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, has declared success after more than four days of protest at Mt. Tabor in Portland Oregon. Beginning on July 12th and organized by community activists, concerned citizens, and Cascadia supporters, the event was featured in the Portland Mercury, The Willamette Week, the Portland Tribune, KGW, 750KXL as well as many other newspapers, blogs and radio interviews, spawning several community meetings, forcing a response from elected officials, and catapulting the issues to the front of public consciousness for the past week.
Since 2006, the city has fought a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that would force it to cover or do away with the scenic, open-air reservoirs in Mount Tabor and Washington Parks. Citizens are upset at what has been seen as years of stagnation in city hall to acquire a 'LT2 waiver' to the EPA mandate, which would opt Portland out of paying the huge costs for a system that many feel is working just fine. When the city council—with the exception of Commissioner Amanda Fritz—announced in June it had expended its legal options and would comply with the rule, outcry was instantaneous. Protestors—a coalition of Mount Tabor residents and water activists—widely characterize the decision as a giveaway to contractors with friends in city hall. They decry upcoming water rate increases, and want officials to pursue the same strategy as New York City, which has successfully delayed a requirement to cover an enormous reservoir.
Originally planned to be a 24 hour continual protest, organizers decided to scale back efforts the day before it began, instead staying in the park only during stated opening hours. The following days progressed without the drama of confrontation. Park rangers were present, but simply engaged in conversations while people passed the hours holding signs, passing out flyers, playing games, and enjoying the heat and sunshine.
Camp Cascadia was successful in that it raised peoples awareness of the issues of covering the Reservoirs. This increased awareness of what City Hall is doing is a great thing moving forward, and the impact it has had on helping individual and community involvement over watershed protection and encouraging public engagement has been an important step at keeping Portland policies, and the greater surrounding area, resilient, healthy and transparent.
Last month in Portland Oregon, the World Food Travel Association officially kicked off Cascadian Cuisine, a new initiative focused on the continuing promotion of food found, cooked and created throughout the Pacific Northwest. The conference brought tourism offices, food & drink producers, association leaders, wineries, brewers, chefs and journalists together for a full day of strategic planning & thought leadership, with the goal that the regional awareness will drive consumer consciousness, create jobs, and support responsible and local tourism efforts of communities across the bioregion.
At the meeting, the Association welcomed some of the most fervent food, drink and tourism players in the region to discuss topics such as borders, agricultural hallmarks, local entrepreneurship and sustainability in Cascadia. Erik Wolf, Executive Director of WFTA explained the vision, “At its very core, Cascadian Cuisine is about economic, sustainable and community development – bringing awareness, creating jobs, and preserving communities and the culinary culture of our region.”
Cascadian Cuisine draws deeply on the passion and unsurpassed quality of food and drink found in the bio-region that includes northwestern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Idaho and western Montana. In other words, as Jason French, Chef/Owner at Portland’s popular Ned Ludd Restaurant, says “the quality of our food and drink is very much grounded in the quality of the agricultural products found in Cascadia.”
For more information, including how to get involved with this project, please contact Executive Director of the WFTA, Erik Wolf at erik@worldfoodtravel.org OR (+1) 503-213-3700
