 * Critical Findings SETTLEMENT IN THE SIERRA * Deforestation in the Mid-1800s Resource Use: Changing Needs Through Time * Social and Economic Analysis Community Well-Being in the Sierra Management Scenarios and Strategies
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Settlement in the Sierra
The Sierra Nevada is highly heterogeneous in terms of human settlement. Some parts
of it are remote and inaccessible, while others are within easy commuting distance
of rapidly growing metropolitan regions. Adjacent to the regions western boundary
lies the Central Valley, where there are at least six rapidly growing urban centers, each
with a 1990 population greater than 100,000. In contrast, the northern and eastern
boundaries abut the sparsely populated high desert of the Great Basin. These areas
are often isolated for months every year as winter snows either close or constrain travel
on the mountain passes linking these rural areas to the rest of California. There
are thirty-two counties (twenty-seven in California and five in Nevada) with all
or part of their territory within the SNEP study region, but only twenty-two (eighteen in California
and four in Nevada) of these counties include portions of the SNEP core area. Only
ten counties (all in California) lie entirely within the boundaries of the region
(figure 2.1).  FIGURE 2.1 (ACTUAL VIEW 23K) Sierra Nevada counties in California and Nevada. (From volume II, chapter 11.) Within 100 miles of the western foothills lie major metropolitan centers such as Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Major urban centers near the eastern flank of the Sierra are Reno and Carson City, both near Lake Tahoe. Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 50 connect the Reno, Carson City, and Greater Lake Tahoe Basin regions to the Sacramento metropolitan area and the rest of northern California. This complex road network links the Sierra Nevada to social and economic activity throughout California and the world. It allows recreational visitors to access the wonders of the Sierra Nevada and provides avenues for the export of natural resources extracted in the range. The transportation network is therefore a primary determinant of the pattern of human settlement in the Sierra Nevada. It has determined the number of residents in the Sierra Nevada and their location over time. It also determines and reflects the relationship between humans and the resources of the Sierra Nevada. Human beings have lived in and utilized the natural resources of the Sierra Nevada for millennia. Over the last ten thousand years and until the early part of the nineteenth century, Native Americans were sustained in the Sierra Nevada by hunting and fishing, gathering, tool quarrying, and trade. Population estimates for the Native Americans vary considerably, but in late prehistoric times (ca. a.d. 13001800), close to 100,000 from roughly thirteen tribes inhabited the region. Native American population densities were similar to current settlement patterns, highest below 4,000 feet on the west side of the range. Warfare, starvation, and the devastating epidemics of the 1830s dramatically reduced populations of native people. Only four ships dropped anchor in San Francisco Bay in 1848, the same year that James Marshall discovered gold at Sutters Mill near Coloma and the South Fork of the American River. The next year brought nearly seven hundred ships through the Golden Gate. Most of their passengers disembarked in the ports of northern California and promptly set out for the gold fields of the Sierra Nevada foothills. The region has been intensely inhabited ever since, and the patterns of settlement reflect the geography of both natural and human resources. The pattern of towns, roads, waterways, and related infrastructure established by the forty-niners continues to constitute the framework within which a new wave of migration has swept over the Sierra Nevada during the past three decades. Settlement patterns and resource utilization have historically reflected the export value of Sierra Nevada resources as commodities. Mining of Mother Lode gold deposits resulted in extensive settlement and intensive ecosystem change along a foothill belt just below the mixed conifer zone. In some areas settlement and ecosystem change extended into the ponderosa pineblack oak type, while other areas had concentrated activity only in the foothill grassland below. The new residents placed significant demands on nearby resources for timber, water, and agricultural production. Early mining activity led to significant timber harvesting and water diversions in higher-elevation areas that laid down the skeletal framework for todays hydrologic system. New demands were placed on higher-elevation resources by the Comstock Lode of Nevada and the building of the Central Pacific Railroad. An estimated 150,000175,000 people moved into the Sierra Nevada from 1848 to 1860, with up to one-third being foreign-born. These new residents further displaced the Native Californians, reducing their already diminished population by 75% between 1852 (the peak year of gold production in California) and 1860. Only 4,919 Native Americans were counted in the 1860 census. Chinese residents increased dramatically during this period, however, from around 6% of the total population (9,005) in 1852 to 18% (26,161 residents) by 1860. These census figures probably understate the peak numbers of Chinese residents considerably, because thousands of Chinese laborers helped to construct the Central Pacific Railroad across the Sierra Nevada during the 1860s (but were not necessarily present or accounted for in the census figures for 1860 or 1870). Following a slight post-gold-rush decline, the population of the Sierra Nevada continued to grow, albeit slowly over the next century, not quite doubling from 150,000 residents in 1860 to around 250,000275,000 residents by 1960. The ethnic composition of these residents became considerably less diverse, however, as Chinese residents dropped precipitously as a fraction of the population from about 12% in 1880 (20,642 residents) to less than 1% (3,347 residents) by 1920. Since then, the Sierra Nevada population has been overwhelmingly white. This pattern has persisted despite increasing ethnic and racial heterogeneity in the rest of Californias population during the same period. In 1990, the Sierra Nevada was 92% white, compared with 69% for the state of California as a whole. Construction of Interstate 80 and U.S. 50 have increased accessibility and changed patterns of resource utilization in Nevada, Placer, and El Dorado Counties. This area has become the focal point for the rapid population growth that more than doubled the Sierra population from about 300,000 people in 1970 to around 650,000 in 1990 (plate 2.1). More than one-third of the current Sierran population lives in this area. Figure 2.3 shows 1990 census population totals for six Sierra regions. These regions differ from hydrologic and other geographic regions and are based on transportation corridors, commute patterns, economies, community identification, and other information collected from local resident experts.  FIGURE 2.3 (ACTUAL VIEW 23K) Sierra Nevada population in 1990 by region. (From volume II, chapter 13.) Current human settlement is not equally distributed across the Sierra, nor is it equally distributed across regions, a pattern that has significant implications for future land conversion and ecosystem impacts. Almost 70% of the total Sierra population is located in the west-side foothill zone. About two-fifths of all Sierra Nevada residents live on a total of roughly 89 square miles at an average housing density of at least 640 units per square mile (1 acre per unit). This land area constitutes less than 0.3% of the 32,000 total square miles of the Sierra Nevada. Approximately three-fifths of the residents live on about 298 square miles with at least 160 units per square mile (4 acres per unit) on a land area that constitutes just less than 1% of the total Sierran land base. Four-fifths of all residents live on about 1,471 square miles with at least 20 units per square mile (32 acres per unit). These residents occupy 5.4% of the total Sierran land base, or nearly 14% of all private land (including industrial timberlands). Up to 10% of the entire Sierra Nevada (3,905 square miles) may have been affected by human settlement in 1990, however, at an average density of at least 1 housing unit per 128 acres. New residents are increasingly drawn by the amenity values of Sierra Nevada resources. Retirees, commuters, and ex-urban migrants are all coming to the Sierra Nevada at the same time that employment is declining in the traditional resource extraction industries, changing the social, economic, and ecological fabric of the area. The Sierra Nevada now has a very different age structure and ethnicity than the rest of California. There are more older residents and fewer in their twenties, as high school graduates leave the area for employment and school opportunities elsewhere. The new migrants are in general more educated and wealthier than existing residents. The new residents are also decreasingly dependent on resource extraction and increasingly bring outside sources of income into the region, altering the nature of the relationship between residents and resources. Our analysis of future population projections suggests that numerous communities are likely to go through a similar transformation over the next fifty years (plate 2.2). Rapid population growth in Californias metropolitan areas is forecast to increase the size of many Central Valley cities, which are within commuting range of many western Sierra Nevada foothill areas. The more isolated northern Sierra and eastern Sierra are forecast to have much slower growth, largely because they are beyond the reach of metropolitan commuting. These more distant areas are therefore likely to remain less economically or socially diversified, making them more likely to be affected by changes in land and resource management policy that directly affect resource extraction or recreation and tourism. The entire Sierra Nevada is forecast to grow to somewhere between 1.5 million and 2.4 million residents by the year 2040, with the most likely forecast 1.82.0 million people (figure 2.4). Most of that growth will not be associated with the traditional resource extraction industries that dominated the social, economic, and ecological geography of the Sierra Nevada for its first century following the gold rush. This growth will have a profound effect on both the characteristics of Sierra Nevada residents and their relationship to its resources. The total land area converted to human settlement to accommodate 19902040 growth will depend upon the spatial pattern and average density of settlement, which will in turn depend upon the complex interaction of public policy, infrastructure, and land economics. The large expanse of federal land in the Sierra Nevada will limit this growth in some areas while concentrating it in others.  FIGURE 2.4 Distribution of Sierra Nevada population projected from 2040. (From volume II, chapter 11.)  Development in the Sierra foothills: Glenbrook Basin between Grass Valley and Nevada City in Nevada County. (Photo by Timothy P. Duane.) 
 
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