Cascadia (independence movement)
Encyclopedia
Cascadia is the proposed name for a bioregional political entity and/or an independent nation located within the Cascadian bioregion of the Pacific Northwest of North America. Proposed boundaries differ, with some drawn along existing political state and provincial lines, and others drawn along larger ecological, cultural and economic boundaries.

The nation would be created by secession of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, along with Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, Washington and portions of other states from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. At its maximum extent Cascadia would extend from the coastal Alaskan Panhandle to the north, extending into Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...

 in the south, and inland to include parts of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, the Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....

, Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....

 and Western Montana
Western Montana
Western Montana is the western region of the state of Montana, United States. Although there is no firm definition, Western Montana is roughly considered by some the western third of the state.-Geography, Biomes and Climate:...

.

As measured only by the combination of present B.C., Washington and Oregon statistics, Cascadia would be home to 15 million people, and an economy generating more than $750 billion worth of goods and services annually, which would place Cascadia in the top 20 economies of the world. Its largest city, Seattle, itself has an economy slightly smaller than Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, but larger than Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

. By land area Cascadia would be the 20th largest nation in the world, with a land area of 1,384,588 km² (534,572 sq mi), placing it right behind Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

. By population, Cascadia would rank as the 65th largest, just above Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

 and just below Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

 in population, or about the size of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

's population combined.

Description of the movement

There are several reasons why the Cascadia movement aims to foster connections and a sense of place within the Northwest region and possibly eventually secede. The main reasons stated by the movement include environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

 and bioregionalism
Bioregionalism
Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and environmental system or set of views based on naturally defined areas called bioregions, similar to ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics...

, a dissatisfaction with governments in the eastern part of the continent that continue to become more impersonal, secretive and non-representative, a strengthened social safety net, fiscal responsibility, and a strong devotion to human rights.

Columbia District

The Columbia District
Columbia District
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810...

 and the related Oregon Country
Oregon Country
The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...

 are precursors to Cascadia.

An 1813 letter from Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

 to John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...

 congratulated Astor on the establishment of Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...

 (the coastal fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...

 post of Astor's Pacific Fur Company
Pacific Fur Company
The Pacific Fur Company was founded June 23, 1810, in New York City. Half of the stock of the company was held by the American Fur Company, owned exclusively by John Jacob Astor, and Astor provided all of the capital for the enterprise. The other half of the stock was ascribed to working partners...

) and described Fort Astoria as "the germ of a great, free, and independent empire on that side of our continent, and that liberty and self-government spreading from that as well as from this side, will insure their complete establishment over the whole." He went on to criticize the British, who were also establishing fur trade networks in the region: "It would be an afflicting thing, indeed, should the English be able to break up the settlement. Their bigotry to the bastard liberty of their own country, and habitual hostility to every degree of freedom in any other, will induce the attempt." The same year of Jefferson's letter, Fort Astoria was sold to the British North West Company
North West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...

, based in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

.

John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

 agreed with Jefferson's views about Fort Astoria, and labeled the entire Northwest as "the empire of Astoria", although he also saw the whole continent as "destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation." As late as the 1820s James Monroe
James Monroe
James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...

 and Thomas Hart Benton
Thomas Hart Benton (senator)
Thomas Hart Benton , nicknamed "Old Bullion", was a U.S. Senator from Missouri and a staunch advocate of westward expansion of the United States. He served in the Senate from 1821 to 1851, becoming the first member of that body to serve five terms...

 thought the region west of the Rockies would be an independent nation.

Elements among the region's population sought to form their own country from the very beginning. Oregon pioneer John McLoughlin
John McLoughlin
Dr. John McLoughlin, baptized Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin, was the Chief Factor of the Columbia Fur District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. He was later known as the "Father of Oregon" for his role in assisting the American cause in the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest...

 was employed as the "Chief Factor" (regional administrator) by the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

 for the Columbia District, administered from Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District...

. McLoughlin was a significant force in the early history of the Oregon Country, and argued for its independence. In 1842 McLoughlin (through his lawyer) advocated an independent nation that would be free of the United States during debates at the Oregon Lyceum
Oregon Lyceum
The Oregon Lyceum or Pioneer Lyceum and Literary Club was founded in Oregon City, Oregon Country around 1840. The forum was a prominent fixture for the leading pioneer settlers during its brief existence...

. This view won support at first and a resolution was adopted. When the first settlers of the Willamette Valley held a series of politically foundational meetings in 1843, called the "Wolf Meetings," a majority voted to establish an independent republic. Action was postponed by George Abernethy
George Abernethy
George Abernethy was an American pioneer, notable entrepreneur, and first governor of Oregon under the provisional government in what would become the state of Oregon in the United States...

 of the Methodist Mission
Methodist Mission
The Methodist Mission was founded in Oregon Country in 1834 by the Reverend Jason Lee. The mission was started to educate the Native Americans in the Willamette Valley and grew into an important center for politics and economics in the early settlement period of Oregon.-Foundation:In 1831, several...

 to wait on forming an independent country.

In May 1843 the settlers in the Oregon Territory
Oregon Territory
The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Originally claimed by several countries , the region was...

 created their first “western style” government as a Provisional Government. Several months later the Organic Laws of Oregon
Organic Laws of Oregon
The Organic Laws of Oregon were two sets of laws passed in the 1840s that established a structure for government in the Oregon Country in the northwest corner of North America. These laws were created by a legislative committee formed after the Champoeg Meetings...

 were drawn up to create a legislature, an executive committee, a judicial system, and a system of subscriptions to defray expenses. Members of the ultra-American party insisted that the final lines of the Organic Act would be “until such time as the USA extend their jurisdiction over us” to try to end the Oregon Territorial independence movement. George Abernethy
George Abernethy
George Abernethy was an American pioneer, notable entrepreneur, and first governor of Oregon under the provisional government in what would become the state of Oregon in the United States...

 was elected its first and only Provisional Governor, with an opposing faction led by Osborne Russell
Osborne Russell
Osborne Russell was a mountain man and politician who helped form the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. He was born in Maine....

 favoring independence. Russell proposed that the Oregon Territory not join the United States, but instead become a Pacific Republic that stretched from the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 to the Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...

.

British claims north of the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...

 were ceded to the United States by the contentious Oregon Treaty
Oregon Treaty
The Oregon Treaty is a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States that was signed on June 15, 1846, in Washington, D.C. The treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to the Oregon Country, which had been jointly occupied by...

 of 1846. In 1860 there were three different statements from separate influential individuals on the creation of a "Pacific Republic".

Civil War

When the Southern states
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

 of the U.S. seceded to form the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

, some Oregon Territory settlers reacted to the instability of the union as another opportunity to seek independence.

Californians unsympathetic to the Union also pushed for the reestablishment of the Republic of California as an independent entity. The leader of California's federal forces at the outset of the Civil War was himself a supporter of the Confederate cause, but that movement proved weaker than its opposition. For his role in convincing Californians to remain in the Union, Thomas Starr King
Thomas Starr King
Thomas Starr King was an American Unitarian and Universalist minister, influential in California politics during the American Civil War. Starr King spoke zealously in favor of the Union and was credited by Abraham Lincoln with preventing California from becoming a separate republic...

 was honored as one of the two "heroes of California" in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection
National Statuary Hall Collection
The National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol comprises statues donated by individual states to honor persons notable in their history...

.

While independence movements during this time failed to take root, the Pacific Northwest continued to foment a radical and aggressive form of regionalism. This is exemplified by Adell M. Parker, president of the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 Alumni Association, in his speech at the groundbreaking of the Seattle campus:
That the West should un-falteringly follow the East in fashions and ideals would be as false and fatal as that America should obey the standards of Europe. Let the West, daring and unprejudiced, discover its own ideals and follow them. The American standard in literature and philosophy has long been fixed by the remote East. Something wild and free, something robust and full will come out of the West and be recognized in the final American type. Under the shadow of those great mountains a distinct personality shall arise, it shall adopt other fashions, create new ideals, and generations shall justify them (“With Due Formality” 1894).

State of Jefferson

After attempts in the mid 19th century at forming a State of Jefferson prior to becoming Oregon and then again in the 1930s, citizens attempted the best known of such movements in the region. During 1940 and 1941, organizers attracted media attention by arming themselves and blockading Highway 99 to the south of Yreka, California
Yreka, California
Yreka is the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States. The population was 7,765 at the 2010 census, up from 7,290 at the 2000 census.- History:...

, where they collected tolls from motorists and passed out proclamations of independence. When a California Highway Patrolman turned up on the scene, he was told to “get down the road back to California”. The movement was created to draw attention to the area by proposing that Southern Oregon and Northern California secede from their respective state governments to form a separate state within the United States. A perceived lack of attention and resources from their state governments led to the adoption of a flag design bearing a gold pan and two X's, a "double cross". The movement quickly ended however after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

 on December 7, 1941.

Stanton Delaplane
Stanton Delaplane
Stanton Hill Delaplane was a travel writer, credited with introducing Irish coffee to the United States...

's coverage of the State of Jefferson won the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting
Pulitzer Prize for Reporting
The Pulitzer Prize for Reporting was awarded from 1917 to 1947.-Winners:*1917: Herbert Bayard Swope, New York World, for articles which appeared October 10, October 15 and from November 4 daily to November 22, 1916, inclusive, entitled, "Inside the German Empire."*1918: Harold A...

.

In 1956, groups from Cave Junction, Oregon
Cave Junction, Oregon
Cave Junction, incorporated in 1948, is a city in Josephine County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,883. Its motto is the "Gateway to the Oregon Caves," and the city got its name by virtue of its location at the junction of Redwood Highway and Caves Highway...

 and Dunsmuir, California
Dunsmuir, California
Dunsmuir is a city in Siskiyou County, California, United States. The population was 1,650 at the 2010 census, down from 1,923 at the 2000 census. It is currently a hub of tourism in Northern California as visitors enjoy fishing, skiing, climbing, or sight-seeing...

 threatened to tear Southern Oregon and Northern California from their respective state rulers to form the State of Jefferson.

Cascadia as Columbian watershed

The term "Cascades" was first used for the Cascades Rapids
Cascades Rapids
The Cascades Rapids were an area of rapids along North America's Columbia River, between the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. Through a stretch approximately wide, the river dropped about in .-Boat portage:Boat travelers were forced to either portage boats and supplies or pull boats up with...

, as early as the Astor Expedition
Astor Expedition
The Astor Expedition of 1810-1812 was the next overland expedition from St. Louis, Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River after the Corps of Discovery, led by Lewis and Clark.-History:...

. The earliest attested use of the term for the mountain range dates to 1825, in the writings of botanist David Douglas
David Douglas
David Douglas was a Scottish botanist. He worked as a gardener, and explored the Scottish Highlands, North America, and Hawaii, where he died.-Early life:...

. During geological explorations in the early 1900s the term was first applied to the region.

In 1970 the term "Cascadia" was adopted by David McCloskey, a Seattle University
Seattle University
Seattle University is a Jesuit Catholic university located in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, USA.SU is the largest independent university in the Northwest US, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs within eight schools, and is one of 28 member...

 sociology professor, to describe the region. McCloskey describes Cascadia as "a land of falling waters." He notes the blending of the natural integrity and the sociocultural unity that gives Cascadia its definition.

McCloskey is the source of the proposed Cascadian boundaries that include the complete watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 of the Columbia River, including the territories of what is now Idaho, western Montana, and smaller parts of Wyoming, Utah, and even northern Nevada. Although relatively common on maps of Cascadia, this definition is much larger than that used by many people in the Cascadia movement.

According to McCloskey, this "initial" Cascadia included parts of seven jurisdictions (Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Western Montana, British Columbia, and South East Alaska), running in the north from the top of the Alaska panhandle to Cape Mendocino
Cape Mendocino
Cape Mendocino located on the Lost Coast entirely within Humboldt County, California, USA, is the westernmost point on the coast of California. It has been a landmark since the 16th century when the Manila Galleons would reach the coast here following the prevailing westerlies all the way across...

, California in the south–and covering all the land and "falling waters" from the continental divide at the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. McCloskey, founder of the Cascadia Institute and co‐chair of Seattle University’s New Ecological Studies Program, saw Cascadian identity as something which transcends political or geographic definitions; it is more a cultural, ideological identity.

Ecotopia

Ernest Callenbach
Ernest Callenbach
Ernest Callenbach is an American writer. Life & Work =Born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, he attended the University of Chicago, where he was drawn into the then 'new wave' of serious attention to film as an art form...

's environmental Utopian novel Ecotopia (1975) follows an American reporter, William Weston, on his tour through a secretive republic (the former Washington, Oregon, and northern California) 20 years after their secession from the U.S. At first wary and uncomfortable, Weston is shown a society that has been centrally planned, scaled down, and readapted to fit within the constraints of environmental sustainability.

The self-published book was a best-seller. Some of Ecotopia's exotic environmental strategies (recycling bins, an emphasis on locally grown food, a bicycle sharing system, etc.) have become commonplace. More importantly the book has had a surprisingly long-lasting impact, as a required text in universities, and as direct influence on the German Green Party
Alliance '90/The Greens
Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

. "Almost immediately absorbed into the popular culture," the concept of an Ecotopia has influenced perceptions of the Northwest. Callenbach produced a prequel,
Ecotopia Emerging
Ecotopia Emerging
Ecotopia Emerging by Ernest Callenbach is a fictionalized history of the events leading up to the secession of Northern California, Oregon and Washington to form the steady-state, environmentalist nation of Ecotopia along the Pacific Coast of the United States...

, in 1981.

While other conceptions followed, this first "enviro‐branding" has had significant staying power thanks to being followed shortly by Joel Garreau's Nine Nations of North America
Nine Nations of North America
The Nine Nations of North America is a book written in 1981 by Joel Garreau. In it, Garreau suggests that North America can be divided into nine regions, or "nations", which have distinctive economic and cultural features...

(1981). Garreau’s Ecotopia, one of the "Nine Nations", included the Pacific Northwest coast west of the Cascade Range stretching from southern Alaska in the north to coastal areas of British Columbia, down through Washington state, Oregon and into California just north of Santa Barbara. According to Garreau, Ecotopia is a land of individualism and the environment. For Garreau, these "nine nations" provided a more accurate way of understanding North American society. The concept is very similar to Cascadia, though not identical, as it is Bay Area-centric as opposed to centering around the Cascadian Corridor
Pacific Northwest Corridor
The Pacific Northwest Corridor or the Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor is one of eleven federally designated high-speed rail corridors in the United States. The corridor extends from Eugene, Oregon to Vancouver, British Columbia via Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington...

 from Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...

 to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, BC. Also, Ecotopia was defined as including only the coastal region, up to about 120 mi (193.1 km) inland; Cascadia is usually defined as including large areas east of the Cascade Range.

Regional identity

The idea of Cascadia as an economic cross-border region
Cross-border region
A cross-border region is a territorial entity that is made of several local or regional authorities that are co-located yet belong to different nation states.- Cross-border regions in Europe :In Europe, there are a large number of cross-border regions...

 has been embraced by a wide diversity of civic leaders and organizations. The "Main Street Cascadia" transportation corridor concept was formed by former mayor of Seattle Paul Schell during 1991 and 1992. Schell later defended his cross-border efforts during the 1999 American Planning Association convention, saying "that Cascadia represents better than states, countries and cities the cultural and geographical realities of the corridor from Eugene to Vancouver, B.C." Schell also formed the Cascadia Mayors Council, bringing together mayors from cities along the corridor from Whistler, BC, to Medford, Oregon. The council last met in May, 2004. Other cross-border groups were set up in the 1990s, such as the Cascadia Economic Council and the Cascadia Corridor Commission. These groups were established to focus on transportation issues, and have not advocated secession or independence.

The region is served by several cooperative organizations and interstate or international agencies, especially since 2008 with the signing of the Pacific Coast Collaborative which places new emphasis on bio-regionally coordinated policies on the environmental, forestry
Forestry
Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...

 and fishery
Fishery
Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats,...

 management, emergency preparedness and critical infrastructure, regional high speed rail and road transportation as well as tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...



Under some definitions, Cascadia is energy sufficient, due to the high propensity for renewable energy resources (mostly hydroelectric and geothermal
Geothermal power
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. Earth's geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of minerals...

) and supplies many other western states such as California and Idaho with some electricity.

The area from Vancouver B.C. down to Portland has been termed an emerging megaregion by the National Committee for America 2050, a coalition of regional planners, scholars, and policy-makers. This group defines a megaregion as an area where "boundaries [between metropolitan regions] begin to blur, creating a new scale of geography". These areas have interlocking economic systems, shared natural resources and ecosystems, and common transportation systems link these population centers together. This area contains 17% of Cascadian land mass, but more than 80% of the Cascadian population. Programs such as the enhanced drivers license program can be used to more easily cross the border between Washington and British Columbia.

Public support for the movement

A research study by the Western Standard in 2005 found that support for exploring secession from Canada sits at 35.7% in British Columbia, and 42% in Alberta. While difficult to gauge support specifically in Washington and Oregon, because no research has been done for those states, a nationwide poll by Zogby International in 2008 found that 22% of Americans now support a state's or region's right to peacefully secede from the United States, the highest rate since the American Civil War. However, none of these studies are specifically about forming an independent Cascadia. The movement saw much discussion in the 1990s, and while the increase in security and American nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

 after 9/11 set back the movement's momentum for some time, the concept has continued to become more ingrained into society and the public consciousness.

Portland Timbers
Portland Timbers
Portland Timbers may refer to any of four distinct professional soccer teams:*Portland Timbers, a Major League Soccer expansion team that began playing in 2011....

 and Seattle Sounders
Seattle Sounders
Seattle Sounders may refer to:*Seattle Sounders , a North American Soccer League team*Seattle Sounders , a USL First Division team*Seattle Sounders Women , a USL W-League team...

 games are a central point for the Cascadia movement and the Doug flag is commonly spotted there.

Cascadia as an integrated bioregion

Cascadian bioregionalism
Bioregionalism
Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and environmental system or set of views based on naturally defined areas called bioregions, similar to ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics...

 is closely identified with the environmental movement. In the early 1970s, a vision of bioregionalism began to be formed through collaboration among natural scientists, social and environmental activists, artists and writers, community leaders, and back-to-the-landers who worked directly with natural resources. A bioregion is defined in terms of the unique overall pattern of natural characteristics that are found in a specific place. The main features are generally obvious throughout a continuous geographic terrain and include a particular climate, local aspects of seasons, landforms, watersheds, soils, and native plants and animals. People are also counted as an integral aspect of a place’s life, as can be seen in the ecologically adaptive cultures of early inhabitants, and in the activities of present day inhabitants who attempt to harmonize in a sustainable way with the place where they live.

The Cascadia Bioregion has been defined in several different ways. One definition is all the watersheds of rivers that empty into the Pacific Ocean in North America's temperate rainforest zone, from northern California to Prince William Sound
Prince William Sound
Prince William Sound is a sound off the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System...

 in Alaska, and extending inland to the continental divide. This definition includes all of Washington, most of Oregon and Idaho, part of British Columbia, and smaller parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska. Another definition limits the bioregion to the coastal region west of the Cascade Range
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...

 and Coast Mountains
Coast Mountains
The Coast Mountains are a major mountain range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges, of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia. They are so-named because of their proximity to the sea coast, and are often...

 in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Sometimes this definition is extended conceptually from northern California to Alaska. In some cases this coastal definition of the bioregion is extended north and west to Kodiak Island
Kodiak Island
Kodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the United States and the 80th largest island in the world, with an...

, Alaska.

International cooperation

The idea of Cascadia as a political secessionist movement has received a degree of attention; however a more common idea of Cascadia is that of a cross-border region
Cross-border region
A cross-border region is a territorial entity that is made of several local or regional authorities that are co-located yet belong to different nation states.- Cross-border regions in Europe :In Europe, there are a large number of cross-border regions...

 whose shared culture and interests transcend the international boundary—a region integrated in terms of ecology, economics, culture, and political cooperation; one that many Cascadia movement supporters consider more important than secession. Many cross-border regions exist on Earth today, including Frisia
Frisia
Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...

, Kurdistan, and Lapland
Lapland (region)
Lapland is a region in northern Fennoscandia, largely within the Arctic Circle. It streches across Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula . On the North it is bounded by the Barents Sea, on the West by the Norwegian Sea and on the East by the White Sea...

. Despite a degree of shared cross-border history and cooperation, national connections are presently much more powerful than international ties within Cascadia; but polls have shown that people in British Columbia have more in common with people in Oregon and Washington in terms of values and culture than they do with people from eastern Canada
Eastern Canada
Eastern Canada is generally considered to be the region of Canada east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces:* New Brunswick* Newfoundland and Labrador* Nova Scotia* Ontario* Prince Edward Island* Quebec...

, and people in Oregon and Washington share similar culture and values with western Canadians more than they do with people from the eastern United States
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...

.

Cascadia exhibits binational and regional cooperation, governing bodies as well as cross-border NGOs. These ties continue to be strengthened through initiatives such as the establishment of a cross-border state ID card in 2006, the 'Pacific Coast Collaboration' agreement (PCC) signed by the governors of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska and the premier of British Columbia in 2008, the bioregional 'Cascadia Mayors Council' founded in 1996 and the establishment of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region
Pacific Northwest Economic Region
The Pacific Northwest Economic Region includes British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. It is designed to improve cooperation and communication between member jurisdictions as well as improve communication between...

 in 1991, a regional U.S.-Canadian forum in which all legislative members and governors are voting members, along with a consortium of the regions most powerful non-profit, public and private sector companies. PNWER is recognized by both the United States and Canada as the “model” for regional and bi-national cooperation that provides the public and private sectors a cross-border forum that legal scholar Andrew Petter
Andrew Petter
Andrew J. Petter is currently President of Simon Fraser University. He was formerly the dean of the University of Victoria's law school. He served briefly as Attorney General of British Columbia under the New Democratic Party government of Ujjal Dosanjh...

, a former BC cabinet minister and President of Simon Fraser University, describes as one of North America's most sophisticated examples of "regionalist paradiplomacy". PNWER is the only statutory, non-partisan, bi-national, public/private partnership in North America. However, none of these bi-national efforts promote secession.

Secessionist activism

Cascadian secessionist movements generally state that their political motivations deal mostly with political, economic, cultural and ecological ties, as well as the beliefs that the eastern federal governments are out of touch, slow to respond, and hinder state and provincial attempts at further bioregional integration. These connections go back to the Oregon Territory, and further back to the Oregon Country, the land most commonly associated with Cascadia, and the last time the region was treated as a single political unit, though administered by two countries. Some have asserted that political protest in the wake of the 2004 presidential election appears to be the primary reason for renewed separatist movements throughout states with substantial Democratic majorities, such as Washington and Oregon.

On September 9, 2001, the Cascadian National Party website was launched on Angelfire
Angelfire
Angelfire is an Internet service offering free space for web sites. It was founded in 1996 and was originally a combination web site building and medical transcription service. Eventually the site dropped the transcription service and focused solely on web site hosting, offering both free and...

, but faltered quickly.

Currently, the primary organization promoting regional sovereignty is the Cascadian Independence Project, with members in cities such as Vancouver BC, Victoria, Bellingham, Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Walla Walla, Spokane, Olympia, Portland, Eugene, and Salem.

Other groups discussing the Cascadia concept, such as The Sightline Institute, Crosscut, and Cascadia Prospectus, see the concept as one of a transnational cooperative identity, not secession. Still others, such as The Republic of Cascadia, are whimsical expressions of political protest.

Criticism

While mainstream coverage of the Cascadia movement has been traditionally positive, several strains of criticism have arisen, especially through personal discourse and opinion. These reasons include American nationalism
American nationalism
American nationalism refers to nationalism among the people of the United States. Nationalism is the correct and recognized term for the associated ideology and political movements, within the present United States, and during its history.-Origins:...

, Canadian nationalism
Canadian nationalism
Canadian nationalism is a term which has been applied to ideologies of several different types which highlight and promote specifically Canadian interests over those of other countries, notably the United States...

, and the opinion that Cascadia is a pipe dream, and is unlikely to happen because of the supposed stability of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Cascadians argue that with the massive debt and loss of public trust in the American government (in 2011, only 11% of Americans claimed to trust Congress), continuing resentment towards the Canadian government (2008 polls show 32-42% support for secession in Western Canadian provinces), and an increasingly regionally dependent economy and identity, the possibility for Cascadian autonomy continues to grow.

Critics who cite the stability of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in particular as making Cascadia unlikely as a reality cite the popular academic opinion that the Civil War
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....

 showed that states had no right and/or power to leave the Union and thus all present states will always be part of the US. Because of this, proponents of Cascadian Independence focus on building regional identity and awareness, highlighting distinct social, economic, environmental and cultural features that make Cascadia unique. Because of the historical context of secession within the United States, as well as a general anti-militaristic sentiment embodied within the movement, organizers envision a peaceful democratic process towards independence through the use of popular vote or a referendum by the people. In a reversal of this, in Canada, the recent failure of Quebec to secede by a margin of less than .5% highlighted the growing sense of alienation many provinces feel from a federal government increasingly viewed as distant, and unrepresentative of citizens needs and beliefs. Supporters of Cascadia also point out that the United States has changed significantly in the past 150 years since the Civil War, and that the recent Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...

 and Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...

 movements have shown that change can occur rapidly, in an unprecedented fashion, in ways no experts or analysts predicted.

Another point of contention within the Cascadia movement is the perceived ideological difference between the western portion, often viewed as progressive liberal, and east of the Cascades and Coast Mountains
Coast Mountains
The Coast Mountains are a major mountain range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges, of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia. They are so-named because of their proximity to the sea coast, and are often...

, which tends to hold viewpoints more in line with libertarian conservatism. Principles of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 such as gay marriage, the death penalty, racial equality
Racial equality
Racial equality means different things in different contexts. It mostly deals with an equal regard to all races.It can refer to a belief in biological equality of all human races....

 and environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

  have been raised as possible debates. As Cascadia incorporates many green
Green politics
Green politics is a political ideology that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy...

 principles, it could be difficult to obtain local consent for inclusion of eastern Oregon
Eastern Oregon
Eastern Oregon is the eastern part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is not an officially recognized geographic entity, thus the boundaries of the region vary according to context. It is sometimes understood to include only the eight easternmost counties in the state; in other contexts, it includes...

, eastern Washington
Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington is the portion of the U.S. state of Washington east of the Cascade Range. The region contains the city of Spokane , the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the fertile farmlands of the Yakima Valley and the...

, and the BC Interior, and inclusion against the popular will would compromise social values emphasized by supporters of the movement, unless the politics in those regions shifted. Other Cascadian ideas such as a decentralized government, increased transparency, and local representation may find more support, and polling data suggests there are distinct cultural values within the Pacific Northwest commonly found on both sides of the Cascade mountains.

While some supporters of the Cascadia movement cut off Cascadia at the crest of the Cascades for this reason, making it a long, narrow coastal region, others claim that while eastern Cascadians may have many conservative viewpoints, many of them also share the ecological values and other cultural traits, such as being relatively irreligious, with their neighbors west of the mountains and in the progressive cities.

Language

  • Main articles: Cascadian English and Chinook Jargon
    Chinook Jargon
    Chinook Jargon originated as a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest, and spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to other areas in modern Oregon and Washington, then British Columbia and as far as Alaska, sometimes taking on characteristics of a creole language...



Aside from recent immigrants, and perhaps a few small populations of American Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

, virtually all Cascadians speak English of the Pacific Northwest English
Pacific Northwest English
Pacific Northwest English is a dialect of the English language spoken in the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest is defined as an area that includes the American states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, western Montana, southeastern Alaska, northern California, the Canadian provinces of British...

 dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 , which essentially has aspects of both General American English and Canadian English
Canadian English
Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...

, naturally being more on the Californian side in the south of Cascadia and more towards a Canadian accent in the north.

Chinook Jargon
Chinook Jargon
Chinook Jargon originated as a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest, and spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to other areas in modern Oregon and Washington, then British Columbia and as far as Alaska, sometimes taking on characteristics of a creole language...

 was a pidgin
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...

 trade language used over much of the Pacific Northwest during the 19th century. Its lexicon, of about 500 words, drew from English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, and various indigenous languages such as Chinookan
Chinookan languages
Chinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples.-Family division:Chinookan languages consists of three languages with multiple varieties. There is some dispute over classification, and there are two ISO 639-3 codes assigned: and...

 and Nuu-chah-nulth
Nuu-chah-nulth language
Nuu-chah-nulth is a Wakashan language spoken in the Pacific Northwest of North America, on the west coast of Vancouver Island from Barkley Sound to Quatsino Sound in British Columbia, by the Nuu-chah-nulth people...

.

The language was spoken by both whites and Indians as an intermediate language. Its origins may predate Indian-European contact. At its peak Chinook Jargon was spoken by as many as 100,000 people and used from Alaska to California and east to the Rocky Mountains. It is moribund today, but a few words, such as potlatch
Potlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures...

 and skookum
Skookum
Skookum is a Chinook jargon word that has come into general use in the Pacific Northwest region of North America.The word skookum has three meanings:# a word in regional English that has a variety of positive connotations;...

, are still used.

See also

  • Secession
    Secession
    Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...

  • Secession in the United States
    Secession in the United States
    Secession in the United States can refer to secession of a state from the United States, secession of part of a state from that state to form a new state, or secession of an area from a city or county....

  • Oregon boundary dispute
    Oregon boundary dispute
    The Oregon boundary dispute, or the Oregon Question, arose as a result of competing British and American claims to the Pacific Northwest of North America in the first half of the 19th century. Both the United Kingdom and the United States had territorial and commercial aspirations in the region...

  • Lincoln (Northwest state)
  • Northwest Territorial Imperative
    Northwest Territorial Imperative
    The Northwest Territorial Imperative is an idea popularized since the 1980s within white nationalist and white separatist groups in the United States. According to it, adherents of these groups are encouraged to relocate to a five-state region of the Northwestern United States — viz., Washington,...


Further reading

  • Todd, Douglas. "Cascadians: Shared Cultural Traits, Values." The Vancouver Sun
    The Vancouver Sun
    The Vancouver Sun is a daily newspaper first published in the Canadian province of British Columbia on February 12, 1912. The paper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. It is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday...

    . 7 May 2008.
  • Abraham, Kera. "A Free Cascadia." Eugene Weekly. 9 September 2006.
  • Fleming, Thomas. "America's Crackup." National Review
    National Review
    National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...

    , 28 June 1997, Vol. 49, Issue 14
  • Gauk, Matthew. "Welcome to the Evergreen Revolution." The Martlet, 9 November 2006.
  • Henkel, William B. "Cascadia: A state of (various) mind(s)." Chicago Review
    Chicago Review
    The Chicago Review is a literary magazine published four times per year in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago. It was founded in 1946. Three stories published in the Chicago Review have won the O. Henry Prize...

    , 1993, Vol. 39, Issue 3/4
  • Jannsson, David. Divided we Stand, United We Fall (2006) - CounterPunch
    Counterpunch
    Counterpunch can refer to:* Counterpunch , a punch in boxing* CounterPunch, a bi-weekly political newsletter* Counterpunch , a type of punch used in traditional typography* Punch-Counterpunch, a Transformers character...

    , 20 December 2006
  • Ketcham, Christopher. "Most Likely to Secede - Interviews with a few prominent figures who actively promote self governance." Good Magazine, January 2008.
  • Nussbaum, Paul. "Coming together to Ponder Pulling Apart." Philadelphia Inquirer, November 2006.
  • Overby, Peter. "We're outta here." Common Cause
    Common Cause
    Common Cause is a self-described nonpartisan, nonprofit lobby and advocacy organization. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican former cabinet secretary under Lyndon Johnson, as a "citizens' lobby" with a mission focused on making U.S. political institutions more open and...

     Magazine
    , Win92, Vol. 18, Issue 4
  • Crane, David, Paul Fraser, and James D. Phillips. "Western Regionalism: Views on Cascadia." Canada-United States Law Journal, 2004, Vol. 30, p321-347, 22p
  • Powell, Mark W. "The Americas: British Columbia's future may not lie with 'Old Canada'." Wall Street Journal. Jun 9, 1995. pg. A11
  • Will, Gudrun. "Cascadia Rising." Vancouver Review, 2006.
  • Woodward, Steve. "Welcome to Cascadia" The Oregonian, 14 November 2004.
  • "Welcome to Cascadia." The Economist
    The Economist
    The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

    , 5/21/94, Vol. 331, Issue 7864

External links

  • Cascadian Independence Project, The primary group actively pushing for bioregional independence.
  • Cascadian English Cascadians discuss their own regional dialect, and Chinook Jargon
    Chinook Jargon
    Chinook Jargon originated as a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest, and spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to other areas in modern Oregon and Washington, then British Columbia and as far as Alaska, sometimes taking on characteristics of a creole language...

    , Cascadia's original trade language.
  • AltaColumbia A comprehensive list of Cascadian autonomy and secessionist movements and groups.
  • Cascadia Related Links A list of websites related, both directly and indirectly, to Cascadia.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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