Draft Power Plants, SNEP Study Area. It should be recalled that these areas would not be homogeneous continuous stands of old trees. The SNEP significant areas project was primarily an inventory effort to map and compile information about features in the Sierra Nevada that have special ecological, geological, and cultural significance. The project did not attempt to be exhaustive but rather to contribute to the list of areas already known for the Sierra Nevada. By inventorying these areas and their special attributes, SNEP highlighted their existence, general condition, and potential management needs.
Significant areas make up a heterogeneous class.
Definitions of significance are arbitrary and relative to geographic scale, to biodiversity values, and to human values. Previous and ongoing efforts exist in the Sierra Nevada to identify natural and significant areas. SNEP's work adds to, and does not replace, these efforts. Because of the nature of significant areas, the SNEP significant areas mapping effort does not try to be exhaustive. SNEP focused more on locating special features of the Sierra Nevada and less on mapping areas that contain them.