We're working to #ChangeTheStory. Once upon a time… as the world was in crisis, generations came together, grounded by the land, to realign with life itself. The GTB (Greater Tkaronto Bioregion) is 3 million hectares on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Canada. It has a population of 10 million people (a quarter of Canada's population, including Canada's largest city Toronto). It's on the Great Lakes, which have 21% of the world's fresh water. The GTB is organized by watersheds through 13 Conservation Authorities, and has the largest Greenbelt in the world. This diverse urban/rural bioregion is pursuing whole-systems work through both social and ecological regeneration. You can help us #ChangeTheStory for all generations now and into the future.

The Legacy Project, a research and innovation group led by Brian Puppa and Susan Bosak, is the Core Team for the GTB – because this work is the legacy project of our time. The history of the local bioregional work goes back to a 1992 Regeneration report by former Toronto Mayor and federal cabinet minister David Crombie. Said Crombie, "This approach is both a way of doing things and a way of thinking. It's not a new concept. Indigenous peoples have long understood their connectedness to the ecosystem – the land, water, air, and other life. Thinking about the whole bioregion helps focus attention on the interdependencies – everything is connected to everything else." We did a short documentary with David Crombie.

We're working to #ChangeTheStory in the context of lifetimes across generations. We draw on an Indigenous concept of holistic, long-term thinking across seven generations while at the same time reflecting the modern context of a historic demographic shift. For the first time in history, as more people live longer, we will personally know (in our family and/or community) seven generations – our own generation; three before us (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents); and three after us (children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren). There is significant comfort, insight, and power in this ability to "touch time," to connect more generations than ever before.

We are also pursuing a Third Way – bringing Indigenous worldviews and knowledge together with Western science in a way that will enable us to walk into the greatest existential challenge humanity has ever faced. Check out this video discussion featuring Dr. Dan Longboat of the Indigenous Environmental Institute at Trent University.

In addition to being part of the Great Lakes Basin with 21% of the Earth's fresh water, the GTB has a couple of other unique features. The Niagara Escarpment, on the west side of the GTB, is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It stretches 725 km over a range of 430 m in elevations, and includes Great Lakes coastlines, cliff edges, talus slopes, wetlands, woodlands, limestone alvar pavements, oak savannahs, conifer swamps. It has 300 bird species, 55 mammals, 36 reptiles and amphibians, 90 fish and 100 varieties of special interest flora, as well as Cedar trees that are over 1,000 years old. The other unique feature of the GTB is the Oak Ridges Moraine, which is the heart of the bioregion. The Oak Ridges Moraine is a unique formation of sand and gravel deposits that captures rainwater, filters it, and slowly releases it into the landscape like a giant sponge. There are 16 major rivers and 66 river valley systems in the area.

Following in David Crombie's footsteps, the Legacy Project has been doing whole-systems work for two decades and renewed the GTB vision three years ago. We frame it as growing a Tree of Life – creating structures and processes to navigate through our current planetary predicament toward a fractally scale-linked story of Bioregional Earth.

To help bring this vision alive, we ran the six-day 7-Generation Bioregional Earth Summit in February, 2024. As a hybrid conference, several hundred people were involved locally as well as several thousand online. The Summit created momentum for the local work and laid the foundation for the recently launched Bioregional Earth website, co-stewarded by Susan Bosak, Brian Puppa, Joe Brewer, and Penny Heiple.

A civilization is about the deep story we all share over time – the meanings, values, structures, processes that guide us collectively. Story is the most effective way human beings have to navigate through the world. Can we live into a story of Bioregional Earth based on right relationship with each other and the Earth – one that puts life at the center of every decision and action in the context of Natural Law. To regenerate the entire Earth, we need this awareness woven into the daily ways we perceive, think, feel, and act.

We draw on the Bioregional Regeneration Platform developed by Joe Brewer, who is Co-Founder with Penny Heiple of the Design School for Regenerating Earth. This is a whole-systems approach that brings together and creates a rich interconnected context for the structures of a Bioregional Learning Center with a Portfolio of Projects and Funding/Governance. This approach to the work is about, in the words of Joe Brewer, "organizing with the incredible natural intelligence of local living systems within our bioregions." We need to be learning, working on the ground, and funding (flowing value) all at the same time. Find out more about holistic Bioregional Funding Ecosystems in this three-part video series.

We have a GTB Portfolio of Projects – with a wide diversity of social and ecological regeneration projects ready to go, from small projects needing $5,000 to much larger projects that cross the bioregion, like the GeoAI land cover mapping which will support both strategic planning and monitoring. The map will be a knowledge commons for the GTB, used by Conservation Authorities (organized by watersheds), municipalities, the public, and others. It will include cultural and Indigenous layers for deeper bioregional thinking.

Find out more about the projects in the GTB, the development of the Bioregional Funding Ecosystem, and meet some of the people/organizations involved in this evocative video summary from the recent Bioregional Regenerative Finance Forum which took place in the GTB.

All generations in the GTB are coming together to support the bioregional regeneration vision. Students and elders created the first GTB Bioregional Eco Market last year. This inspiring market video features a student EcoLeader and her grandfather.

Gitcoin funds will go toward supporting the growing intergenerational community network for bioregional learning/projects. Once upon a time… as the world was in crisis, generations came together, grounded by the land, to realign with life itself. #ChangeTheStory