Humboldt County was shaped in the 60s and 70s by the exodus of urban Americans towards rural environments that marked the back-to-the-land movement across the U.S.  Many of the new settlers to Humboldt had been steeped in counterculture in San Francisco and beyond, and brought with them skills in organizing and an ethics of place.

Arising from counterculture, bioregionalism can be understood as a social phenomenon that values decentralized community self-governance and envisions political boundaries aligned with ecosystem types, aiming to foster a profound sense of place-based ethics and interconnectedness within human societies.

At its core, bioregionalism in Humboldt emphasizes a profound emphasis on safeguarding both forests and watersheds as integral to maintaining the ecological balance and resilience of distinct bioregions.