Posted about this in 2004 on Worldchanging. Almost ten years later, I’m still pondering the question “What would an updated Bioregion Quiz look like now, and what media would it use?”

What would the quickest introduction to place-based systems thinking look like?

——————-

Jim Dodge & Co.’s “Where You At?” bioregional quiz is quite a classic (and still relevant):

1. Trace the water you drink from rainfall to tap.

2. Trace it out of the house and back to a river, aquifer or the sea.

3. What “soil series” are you standing on?

4. What was the total rainfall here last year?

5. When was the last time a fire burned through here?

6. What were the primary subsistance techniques of the culture that lived here before you?

7. Name five native edible plants here and the season(s) that they are available.

8. From what direction do winter storms generally come?

9. Where does your garbage go?

10. How long is the growing season?

11. Name five birds that live here. Which are migratory and which stay put?

12. What species have gone extinct here?

13. What primary geological processes or events shaped the land here?

14. What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom here?

15. Name five grasses here. Any of them native?

16. What is the land use history here?

17. Where does your power come from and how is it generated?

18. Where is the nearest large wilderness?

19. How many days till the moon is full?

20. Point North.

[Photo Credit]