Service Territory

The heart of our service territory is the “Driftless Area*” – a unique bioregion covering parts of four adjoining states: Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, whose corners all meet along the upper Mississippi River. (Read more about the Driftless Area below.)

From this core region, we also extend our program offerings to leaders and communities in the metropolitan areas around us, such as Minneapolis-St. Paul, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Des Moines.

Together, these rural communities and their neighboring cities represent a diverse and sizeable constituency for the programs we offer throughout the region. Most leadership programming is offered on the East or West coast, making it less accessible and less affordable for people in the upper Midwest.  Our hope is to provide leadership renewal programs for leaders working toward a healthy, just and sustainable society, here in their home region. Occasionally, we may offer an event that also draws participants from other parts of the country.

The Driftless Area*

The 24,000-square-mile Driftless Area is spread over 57 counties within the upper Mississippi River watershed. It consists of mostly rural and small-town communities and some medium-sized cities.

This area’s special character begins with its geologic history. The most recent continental glacier bypassed this region, leaving it dominated by exposed ancient bedrock rather than by the glacial drift common in most of the upper Midwest. Its steep cliffs, bluffs, waterfalls and deep and narrow valleys set it apart from surrounding regions. Elements of its karst topography – formed by water dissolving underground layers of sedimentary rock – include springs, caves, fissures, sinkholes, disappearing streams, and algific (cold-air) slopes. These landforms result in diverse microclimates and ecological communities that are especially beautiful, and especially vulnerable to threats like erosion and groundwater contamination – forces that affect human and non-human communities alike.

Human activity has adapted to this unique landscape and has led to more mixed land use than in the surrounding plains. Croplands and pasturelands are often, by necessity, smaller-scale.  Many diversified organic and/or “sustainable” farms produce some combination of commodity crops, fruits, vegetables and nuts. State forests, state parks and private wild lands are used for hunting, fishing, canoeing, hiking, skiing, cycling, horseback riding and bird watching.

People are also drawn to this region for its cultural history and diverse traditions. Residents include Native American peoples, people of Scandinavian, German, Czech, Hispanic and Latino, African American, Bosnian, Somali, and Nigerian descent and more. Several well-established Amish communities also flourish here.  Religious traditions include: Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and more.

The Driftless Area is also home to many talented artists and artisans, including painters and potters, woodworkers and weavers, musicians and metal-smiths.

Urban and Rural Perspectives

There is no shortage of work to be done toward a healthy, just and sustainable society in the Driftless Area and its surrounding cities. Though rich with natural and cultural resources, this area also faces real problems – from hunger and joblessness to contamination of soil and groundwater from agricultural chemical use.  Each place has real work to be done in conserving and renewing community health on all levels. We hope to support many of the skilled and committed people engaged in this work.

The challenges facing our communities – whether experienced in rural or urban settings – are not isolated from one another.  They are all a part of the same regional fabric we weave together, no matter where we live. We attempt to reflect this holistic perspective in the design of our programs.

Our current focus on leaders in community food systems – especially as they relate to children’s health, food security, food justice and environmental public health – has been a powerful example of this interrelated nature of our regional reality.  Our first retreat served community food systems leaders from rural, small-town, urban and inner-city communities. (Read our program report by downloading the pdf here.)

From many different angles and entry points, these leaders are each working on the fundamental need to provide all people with access to healthy food from our region. From health concerns around high-fructose corn syrup to devastating soil mineral depletion, from insufficient access to healthy food for low-income children in urban “food deserts,” to high cancer rates in farm families and increasing chronic conditions among farm workers and urban minorities, these leaders are struggling with the ramifications of the same industrialized food system – no matter where they live.

 

 

 

Going to the Roots

Whether in food systems or any other “issue area,” the leaders we serve are on the frontlines of the change process, working for both immediate assistance and long-term systemic transformation.  They understand that our seemingly separate and distinct problems are all part of a common experience.  Though their daily work may be specific, they each understand it to be relevant to the larger picture we share.

We believe that this fundamental interrelation transcends not only issue areas and geography, but also the inner and outer dimensions of our lives. There is a larger pattern to our struggles in relationship with one another and with Earth.  As Wes Jackson suggests, “The deterioration…of our planet, is an outward mirror of an inner condition.  Like inside, like outside.” War and oppression may very well be a part of that same mirror. What inner confusion or separation allows us to continue damaging our life-supporting planet and one another? We believe this is not merely a cultural and psychological question, but a spiritual question.  Addressing this basic tendency for self-destruction may be the only option we as a species have left.

With this in mind, our focus is on tending the deep inner roots of wholeness and regenerativity. We provide leaders with opportunities for soulful personal regeneration, alongside renewal of professional commitment. Every day, these leaders improve social justice, environmental health and community resilience, while inspiring others to do the same. Renewing them is our direct commitment to the emergence of a regenerative culture, for our bioregion, our society and our globe.

* Because geologists found that “driftless” is not an entirely accurate term for this region, it’s now called the Paleozoic Plateau in technical circles. But for many in the general public, the term “the Driftless Region” still sticks today. This region was originally termed the “Driftless Area” due to the scarcity of glacial deposits (called “drift”) and geologists’ resulting belief that the area had never been glaciated. Though it was indeed bypassed by the most recent glaciers that scoured the Midwest about 10,000 years ago, this region is not entirely “Driftless.” Later studies found many remnants of 500,000-year-old glacial drift.  With that research, the term Paleozoic Plateau (Prior, 1976) was adopted and is used by geologists, natural scientists and biologists to refer to the topographically and ecologically similar area around the juncture of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.


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