Can any of you recommend an area/community where permaculture is being seriously practiced in the Pacific Northwest? We have just moved from the east coast, and are deciding where to buy some land and build a home. We'd like to have some permie neighbors! Oregon and Washington preferred, the wet side of the Cascades.
I'm not sure what you mean by "seriously", but I think no matter where you land in Cascadia you won't be far from someone who is at least dabbling in permaculture. I am next to Portland and there are a lot of urban permaculturalists there (which made it easy to gather plant material). I'd recommend searching Facebook for the county or city that you are looking at, plus "permaculture", e.g. "clark county permaculture". The size and/or activity of the group might be tell you if that is a good area to search.
There's lots of us here! If you look in my signature, I have a list of Cascadia bloggers and websites--a lot of those people are here on permies. The Pacific Northwest/Cascadia ranges from Northern California though BC, Canada. So not all of us are in the US, but a lot of the growing conditions are the same and there's a lot we learn from each other.
And, like Dave, searching facebook for "homesteaders of seattle" or "Multnomah permaculture" is a good way to get in touch with really local people.
If there's enough interest here on permies, we could make local private forums, too!