 * Critical Findings ASSESSMENT * The Feather River Coordinated Resource Management (CRM) Group * Coalition for Unified Recreation in the Eastern Sierra
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Drivers of Change
Several forces influence present and future ecosystem conditions in the Sierra Nevada. Human Settlement and Development Scales and Patterns Expanding urban, exurban, commercial, and recreational development directly and indirectly affect ecosystem status and health and cause institutional change. Population growth and development bring more people into the region, increasing not only the demand for services but also the diversity of values and issues influencing the management of the range. Absence of Market Capitalization of Resource Use and Environmental Risk Outside of markets in selected natural resources, such as timber, that emerge as commodities, markets for ecosystem resources have been relatively undeveloped and have drawn capital investment in the natural systems from which they arise. Several factors have contributed to this situation. First, many attributes of the ecosystem are simply not valued in a manner that motivates investment. Second, restrictions on exchange prevent value formation for aspects of the ecosystem that generate economic benefit. Third, localities lack the capacity to capture economic surpluses they generate and to then invest these surpluses for ecosystem health and social well-being. Fourth, the creation of markets for values and benefits that heretofore had been allocated by right or administrative arrangementwater is the preeminent exampleupsets many existing arrangements and creates the need for different types of institutions. Governmental Coordination Current institutional arrangements provide a weak basis for ecosystem management. Jurisdictions and ownerships do not conform to ecosystems, and overlapping jurisdictions do not deliver public programs efficiently. Appropriations to some major federal agencies have supported production of timber and other commodities, while supplying substantially smaller amounts for administration of nonconsumptive uses. Interagency and intergovernmental cooperation may overcome these structural problems, which in many arenas led to gridlock. Although intergovernmental coordination blurs lines of authority and blunts institutional prerogatives, this trade-off may be necessary to pursue ecological approaches to management and to maximize the effectiveness of agency expenditures. Grassroots Activism and Sustained Participation in Regional Environmental Affairs Individuals with extensive knowledge about the Sierra Nevada who reside within the region and elsewhere are important sources of knowledge and energy. Grassroots and local activism creates new avenues of influence that compete with current institutions for legitimacy and authority. Local activism and involvement provide:
 
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