What could be a more fitting way to celebrate our planet than by deepening your knowledge of the patch of Earth on which you live?
Here are 20 opportunities to explore deeper into the place you live through a series of questions. You can use each question as a potential nature journal prompt, an artistic prompt, or a way to get to know the world better.
What was the total rainfall in your area last year?
Washington State Ferry watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
When was the last time a fire burned in your area?
Goat Peak fire lookout by Maria Coryell-Martin
How many days until the moon is full?
Full moon watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
What soil series are you standing on?
Soil samples watercolors by Nakaia Macomber-Millman
What are five edible plants in your region and their season(s) of availability?
Edible plants watercolor by Nakaia Macomber-Millman
How did the culture that lived in your area before you feed itself? Did it rely on foraging directly from the environment, raising animals, a simple system for growing plants in gardens, or did they have a complex agricultural system that included irrigating, plowing, fertilizing, and harvesting from large tracts of land?
Chum salmon illustration by Maria Coryell-Martin
From which direction do winter storms generally come in your region?
Moody iceberg watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
Where does your garbage go?
Litter illustration by Nhatt Nichols
How long is the growing season where you live?
Garden peas watercolor by Nakaia Macomber-Millman
On what day of the year are the shadows the shortest where you live?
Greenland sled dog watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
When do the deer rut in your region, and when are the young born?
Deer watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
Name five grasses in your area. Are any of them native?
Grasses watercolor by Nakaia Macomber-Millman
Name five resident and five migratory birds in your area.
Arctic terns watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
What is the history of how the land has been used where you live? Was it a farm or an orchard? Hunting grounds or a village?
Chimicum Valley farmland watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
What primary ecological event or process influenced the way the land is formed where you live? (Bonus: What’s the evidence?)
Mount Baker icefall watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
What species have become extinct in your area?
Dinosaur illustrations by Stella Coryell and Maria Coryell-Martin
What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom where you live?
Western trillium illustration by Nakaia Macomber-Millman
What are the major plant associations in your region? An association is the basic vegetation unit floristically defined from field data. Each association has a distinctive faithful species and a group of high-presence or constant species, which give the community or association a cohesive structure.
Berries and flowers illustration by Nakaia Macomber-Millman
Can you trace the water you drink from precipitation to tap?
Port Townsend beach watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
From where you’re reading this, point north.
Above the Ice watercolor by Maria Coryell-Martin
Big thanks to Nakaia Macomber-Millman, Nhatt Nichols, Stella Coryell, and Maria Coryell-Martin for lending their artistic talent to these prompts and to the Where Are You At Bioregional Quiz for the inspirational questions!