The second pattern I am using to co-create my bioregion is the tree; an example of a dendritic or branching pattern which is found throughout the natural world.
I have used the same examples I used in the nest pattern, only this time they appear as tree features. My home becomes a leaf, my neighbourhood (North Beachmore) a twig, my village (West Kintyre) a small branch, my biocommunity (Kintyre) a bigger branch, my administrative region (Argyll and Bute) the trunk and my bioregion (Argyll) the roots.
This pattern has its plusses and minusses. It is the pattern which is adopted by top-down organisations which see themselves at the centre of all decision-making. However, it is potentially a great pattern for the distribution of precious resources. At any one time – depending upon need – the resource might be best directed to a particular branch, or even a particular leaf. An example was the blizzard of March 2013 which effectively cut off much of Kintyre for a whole week. 500 workmen fanned out from a base in north Kintyre and targetted the most affected areas to get the lights back on. This would not have been possible without the strategic knowledge and experience of Argyll and Bute Council as a functioning administrative region.
In other words, this pattern is essential for what the medical world calls triage: the immediate allocation of resources to those most in need (as in an A and E department in a hospital).
It is useful in resilience planning where resilience involves an emergency. However, to build long-term resilience we need the kind of mind-shift advocated in bioregioning-thinking: grounding, connecting, celebrating and belonging. We also need a different kind of pattern, which is described in the next post.
bioregioning 