Dialogue Through Design

I'm leading seminars with design students for an Ecological Perspectives course. Last week, we tried to answer these questions. It's amazing (and embarrassing) how disconnected I am from the environment I live in. How many of these can you answer for your region?

Where Are You At? A Bioregional Quiz
Developed by Leonard Charles, Jim Dodge,Lynn Milliman and Victoria Stockley. Coevolution Quarterly 32 (Winter 1981): 1.

1. Trace the water you drink from precipitation to tap.
2. How many days til the moon is full? (Slack of 2 days allowed.)
3. What soil series are you standing on?
4. What was the total rainfall in your area last year (July-June)? (Slack: 1 inch for every 20 inches.)
5. When was the last time a fire burned in your area?
6. What were the primary subsistence techniques of the culture that lived in your area before you?
7. Name 5 edible plants in your region and their season(s) of availability.
8. From what direction do winter storms generally come in your region?
9. Where does your garbage go? What do you think will happen to all the garbage generated by the Olympics?
10. How long is the growing season where you live?
11. On what day of the year are the shadows the shortest where you live?
12. When do the deer rut in your region, and when are the young born?
13. Name five grasses in your area. Are any of them native?
14. Name five resident and five migratory birds in your area.
15. What is the land use history of where you live?
16. What primary ecological event/process influenced the landform where you live? (Bonus special: what’s the evidence?)
17. What species have become extinct in your area?
18. What are the major plant associations in your region?
19. From where you’re reading this, point north.
20. What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom where you live?