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Abstract
Water is often at the heart of contentious debates over natural resource policy in the Sierra Nevada. Besides the obvious issues of dams, diversions, fish, wetlands, and pollution, connections abound with other resources within the waterways and their watersheds. Whether an argument is over logging, roads, wildfire, endangered species, wilderness, sprawl of foothill communities, ski area expansion, mining, off-highway vehicles, climate change, or overgrazing, potential impacts on water or aquatic habitats quickly enter the discussion. These debates are often dominated by folklore and conjecture because the state-of-knowledge about aquatic systems and their relationship with Sierra Nevada landscapes is remarkably limited. The Sierra Nevada Science Symposium session on aquatic systems and watersheds was a sample of recent research that could contribute to better-informed debates about water-related aspects of natural resource policy in the Sierra Nevada. Six speakers delved into the problems facing specific taxa, the relationships between aquatic organisms and their physical environment, changes in water chemistry and sediment in response to land use, analysis of cumulative impacts at the watershed scale, and policy responses to impacts at the State level.
Parent Publication
Citation
Kattelmann, Rick; Shilling, Fraser. 2004. Aquatic systems and watersheds. In: Murphy, Dennis D. and Stine, Peter A., editors. Proceedings of the Sierra Nevada Science Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-193. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: 121-125
