In the early ‘70s, I remember driving through Nova Scotia on my way back to Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) in St Johns. I stopped in Heatherton (near Antigonish) to meet with Allen van Newkirk, and his wife, Susan. Allen was a poet from Detroit who had set up the Institute for Bioregionalism Research.
I was teaching Biogeography and Computer Mapping in the Department of Geography at MUN.
Fast forward, almost fifty years, I have pulled off the bookshelf my collection of books on Bioregionalism. They include:
Reinhabiting a Separate Country. A Bioregionalism Anthology of Northern California, Edited by Peter Berg.
Bioregionalism, Edited by Michael McGinnis.
Bioregionalism and Civil Society, by Mike Carr.
In the McGinnis book, there is an excellent chapter by Doug Aberley.
“The term Bioregionalism was first conceived by Allen Van Newkirk who had been active in eastern US radical politics and who met Berg in San Francisco in 1969 and again in Nova Scotia in 1971.”
As conceived by Van Newkirk:
“ Bioregionalism is presented as a technical process of identifying biogeographically interpreted culture areas ….called bioregions. Within these territories, resident human populations would ‘restore plant and animal biodiversity’, ‘aid in the conservation and restoration of wild ecosystems’ and ‘observe regional models of new and relatively non-arbitrary scales of human activities in relation to the biological realities of the natural landscape.”
This led me to further research the writing and life of Peter Berg (see reference).
Meanwhile, from Chelsea Green Publishing:
‘Books provide a window into places we’ve never been and help us nurture imagination and explore new ideas from our own home‘.
This includes Rob Hopkins From What Is To What If: Unleashing the Power of the Imagination to Create the Future We Want.
From Edward Wedler, he forwarded a link to the bookstore in Parrsboro, Nonesuch.
They are offering a surprise package of five books on any topic you are interested in for $60 includes delivery. I should send my $60, my topic would be ‘Bioregionalism’.
Finally, Saturday, we took a quick day trip to New Glasgow to check on Heather’s Dad. It was a pure pleasure to drive through a different landscape, in this case, the Rawdon Hills from Windsor to Truro.
Acknowledgements
Edward for the link to the Parrsboro bookstore. Heather, for sharing the drive to New Glasgow and back.
References
Michael McGinnis (Ed.) 1999. Bioregionalism. Routledge.
Peter Berg (Ed.) 1978. Reinhabiting a Separate Country: A Bioregionalism Anthology of Northern California. Planet Drum books
Mike Carr.2004. Bioregionalism and Civil Society: Democratic Challenges to Corporate Globalism. UBC Press.
Cheryll Glotfelty and Eve Quesnel (Ed.) 2014. The Biosphere and the Bioregion: Essential Writings of Peter Berg. Routledge Environmental Humanities Series.
Mary was born in Poland in 1923. She was sixteen when Hitler invaded Poland at the start of the Second World War. Eventually, she arrived at Pier21 with her husband, Mike, in 1951. They moved to New Brunswick in 1961.
Meanwhile, Heather continues to organize our book collection. This brought to my attention, Mike Carr, 
Eventually, I turned to the bookcase, and rediscovered the 
The challenge is to integrate these resources ‘back to the land’. Recycling these materials will complement the planting of seeds in the greenhouse and cold frame.
We will see a resurgence in gardening. We will pull off the shelves, books by Niki Jabbour and Adam Footer. We will read about the work of Bob Cervelli and others. We will seek advice from community gardeners; sharing ideas and seeds. We will investigate the properties of biochar. We will reinforce the edges of our pond.
It contained two interesting links.
Later in the day, I picked up a bag of Honeycrisp at Graves grocery store in Bridgetown. Grown locally at Inglis Farms in Tupperville. The Honeycrisp variety is a product from the 
Later, we received our first online delivery of Brickyard Red beer from 
“Shepherd was a localist of the best kind: she came to know her chosen place closely, but that closeness served to intensify rather than limit her vision”
If we want to understand our Geography, let’s start with 
In these unusual times, it is the small details that catch one’s attention. Going to the grocery store is a different experience. Once a week, I stop at 
Two years ago, I was in England and picked up Nan Shepherd’s 
In the background, you can see the roof of the arena. You can also see that there are not many people around. Social isolation.
My interest was the impact of COVID-19 on teaching GIS in the universities. Brent observed that this pandemic will change the relationship between education and online learning. This caused me to reflect on Wendell Berry’s comment about ‘machine civilization’.
The first was a 
After finishing graduate work in Biogeography, and spending time in Indonesia, I could not resist the 
Talking to Andrew (my son) on the weekend, the current procedure for visitors to Nunavut is two weeks quarantine in a designated hotel in Ottawa (or another transit centre) BEFORE travel. If the quarantine is successful, then one can visit. This provides a clear measure of the vulnerability of these Northern communities from the COVID-19 virus.
