Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project

Abstract

Sierra Nevada Ecosystems. The Sierra Nevada evokes images particular to each individual's experience of the range. These images take on the quality of immutability, and we expect to find the range basically unchanged from one year to the next. The Sierra Nevada, however, including its rocky foundations and the plants and animals that inhabit it, changes continually through time. Ecosystems respond to cumulative effects from the past; the old-growth forests in the Sierra today evolved under different conditions from those of the present. To understand how the landscapes of the Sierra Nevada are changing, and what role humans have in shaping the future, we benefit by knowing what makes up the current Sierra as well as key factors influencing change. This was the point of departure for the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project. A brief introduction to the Sierra Nevada and the context of the study are presented here;subsequent chapters summarize the study's findings

Citation

Millar, C. I. 1996. Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project. Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, Final Report to Congress, Vol. I, Assessment Summaries and Management Strategies, Centers for water and Wildland Resources, Report No. 36, University of California, Davis, California. Cooperative report of the PSW Research Station, PSW Region, USDA, for the Sierra Nevada Framework Project, Sacramento, CA