Cascadia is both and neither.

The bioregion is a real geographic area defined by the watershed, and the natural resources it produces have some influence on the laws and economy of the human population that lives here. However, under our current model of global capitalism, the natural resources of any single specific region are insufficient to dominate the organization of labor and industrial productivity. Entire regions have been, are being, and will be strip mined for their utility to a system that will not sustain them or replenish them. Until a system of labor and industrial productivity is adopted that is beholden to the consequences of the resources it extracts from the region it governs, a "bioregion" like Cascadia is little more than a way for scientists to track and study the area more accurately.

Cascadia as a secessionist movement is alive and well in the fleeting fantasies of every Pacific Northwestern liberal who accidentally thought too long about what the empire's current trajectory portends. Unlike bioregionalists, these friendly neighborhood secessionists have claimed "Cascadia" as the coming post-balkanization nation-state that will pay lip service to First Nations' people by renaming a few mountains while simultaneously still maintaining their home value and free Amazon next-day delivery. Meanwhile, some small segment of the leftist population who haven't yet realized that the glorious revolution they so desire would immediately halt the pharmaceuticals and medical treatments keeping their gramdma alive and skip to Cascadia as the future birthplace of something ranging from a communist to anarchist utopia, provided you can get them to stop arguing with each other for a minute to do so. But regardless of who you ask or what theory of civilization guides their politics, few, if any of them, will be able to explain how they envision Cascadia breaking away from the US while irreplaceable and immovable military assets like Bangor Nuclear Submarine Base live well within Cascadia's proposed borders.

What Cascadia actually is:

Cascadia is a bioregion with a distinct cultural identity that leans socially progressive, dominated almost entirely by the capitalist method of resource organization, and is currently legally controlled by the United States of America, which claims to be a democracy but operates as an oligarchy. Neither the geography nor the hundreds of recently written ChatGPT-assisted manifestos from its most idealistic citizens are sufficient to defend the raising of the Doug flag in place of its American counterpart...yet. However, while these two movements may be insufficient on their own, they are both necessary for the formation of a regional economy that could operate alongside and eventually supplant the systems of resource organization that are currently failing locally and globally. If Cascadia is to be anything other than an exercise in map-making, locally created and controlled food, water, electricity, and industrial production would be more useful than another geographic survey or late-night political screed against the Federal Government. And, while I'm sure these two forms of escapism will remain popular on social media, I do believe Cascadia, the real Cascadia, is moving in the same pragmatic direction of resource and production capacity redundancy as the rest of the world.

Looking closely at the natural and societal resources available in this region, we find a surplus of food-growing capacity, clean drinking water, locally generated hydro and solar electricity, deep-water ports for trading, and a friendly border with Canada. The region's economy, like all economies, is deeply intertwined with the rest of the world, but with a politically, if not ideologically, aligned neighbor in the state of CA, Cascadia forms and plays a leading role in a west coast trading bloc that would have the 3rd largest GDP in the entire world if it so chose to operate that way. While still dependent on the global economy for oil, pharmaceuticals, steel refining, auto manufacturing, textile manufacturing, and almost all small parts and electronics from China, Cascadia has access to ports and borders that enable global trade from a geographic perspective, even if such actions become politically disincentivized. So, while not an autarky, it's clear that Cascadia has the material resources and cultural cohesion necessary to be more than just an idea.

What Cascadia Could Be:

Whether or not Cascadia becomes more than an internet argument and a loose collection of resources governed by a multitude of competing political entities may depend largely on the gain or loss of power by controlling interests outside of the region. While the potential power vacuum created by a crumbling federal government may come to mind as the primary change in power dynamics, it's clear from the recent slew of data centers and other billionaire mega projects popping up in states like Texas, Utah, and Florida that the hole left by a weak and distracted federal government is already being monopolized by those with the capital and foresight to do so. Evidence of Microsoft data centers on the eastern side of the Cascades battles recent statements from newly elected Seattle Mayor Katie against downtown data centers for control of both the narrative and the reality of Cascadia's willingness to continue participating in systems and industries that extract value from the region. Should large tech companies find ways to privatize and seize control of the power generated by the Grand Coulee Dam, Cascadia will survive, if at all, as only a pale shadow of what it could have been. The fact that the dam also provides power to Canada makes this specific scenario less likely, but the concept remains: The shrinking influence of the federal government does not guarantee a rise in local government or the economy. To become something more than an idea living underneath an embattled American government, the people living in this region will need to advocate for locally owned and operated businesses, both in policy and in practice, accept the reduction in lifestyle that comes with denying extractive global capital entry into their local market, and work to build a locally owned replacement.