California's crown jewel, the Sierra Nevada, is expected to undergo three-fold population growth within 50 years. In some pockets of the Sierra and its foothills, the air is among the state's dirtiest, a development that promises to worsen. Two-thirds of the natural water systems are degraded. Strip malls and subdivisions sprout like chickweed, wildlife is in decline and overgrazing continues to push rangelands into unsustainable oblivion. It may sound like the Los Angeles of yesteryear.
People aspire for the study to be various things.
What I think it has to be, fundamentally, is a tool that the region's counties use to plan their future, and to make long-term decisions about resource use. The plight of the Sierra Nevada, unfortunately, is not unique. Now the Coachella Valley to the south has boomed, the Morongo Basin to the north is developing, and air pollution coming in from the urbanized inland empire is an increasing threat to the park. Hopefully we'll realize that what we do in one region is directly tied to and will impact other regions. What's different now, however, is that these concerns are resonating through many of the state's final frontiers.