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Everyone, rural and urban alike, has a reason to care about conservation of California's Sierra Nevada. This magnificent mountain range offers an experience of nature to over 100 million visitors each year. It's also provides 2/3 of every drop of water used in the state. With the population of the Sierra Nevada estimated to triple by 2040, rural life, working landscapes, and community identities are bound to change. Let's talk about how to conserve the environment, economy and culture of the Sierra. And your place, too, wherever you live.

OH, THOSE GAS PRICES! (OR MAYBE THEY'LL SAVE THE SIERRA)

  Am I the only one nostalgic for $4.50 a gallon gas? Kind of feels like it, but by instinct I’m a contrarian about enough in

Goldman Awards Inspire and Support Grassroots Environmentalism

On April 14, I had the pleasure of attending the nineteenth annual Goldman Environmental Prize awards in San Francisco. An invitation-only crowd from around the

Sierra Nevada Conservancy Meets in Nevada City

At 6 p.m. on March 5 the Sierra Nevada Conservancy held a public input session at Miner's Foundry in Nevada City. The Conservancy (SNC) is

Rethinking Urban Sprawl and Community

In my December 2006 posting I speculated about the likely deleterious effects of the growing influx of newcomers on established community patterns in the Sierra.

Micro and Macro in the Sierra Nevada

At the atomic level, probably not much in the Sierra has changed over the last two hundred years. There is marginally less gold, of course,

Individualism and Community in the Modern Sierra

It's no longer news that the Sierra foothills and the Sierra itself have experienced significant waves of in-migration since the 1970s. At first the newcomers