Fibershed

Like a foodshed, a fibershed is a small geographical landscape, or bioregion, where artisans produce goods using natural dyes, materials and farms located within 150 miles of their front door. Whereas some fibersheds focus on creating sustainable clothing, Livingston said the Los Angeles event is about educating the community through "re-skilling" classes like spinning, lap loom weaving, knitting, sewing and dyeing.

However, don't get it confused with a watershed, warns Burgess, because a fibershed must necessarily cross multiple topographic boundaries to work ecologically and economically. Right now, that means stretching the definition of "local" way out -- at least until sustainable fiber production takes off.

In recognition of Sonoma County's ranching heritage, thriving fibershed, and the Year of the Sheep in the Chinese zodiac, this year's poster boy and "rambassador" is Famous Ramus.

A fibershed (a term Burgess coined) is a “geographical landscape that defines and gives boundaries to a natural textile resource base, engendering appreciation, connectivity, and sensitivity for the life-giving resources within our homelands.”

Now, it’s on the lips of the kind of environmentally conscious fashionistas who filled Toby’s Feed Barn in Point Reyes Station this month for the first ever fibershed fashion show.

“We are part of the fibershed movement, proud of making beautiful, useful items, in a sustainable, humane manner, with a low carbon footprint,” said Adkins, 63, a retired environmental ecologist.

Through increased interest in alternative sustainable systems, fibersheds have been a leading force encouraging producers and customers to use natural resources, such as fiber, in a more beneficial and efficient way.