In Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests, George Gruell examines the woodlands through repeat photography: rephotographing sites depicted in historical photographs to compare past vegetation to present. The book asks readers to study the evidence, then take an active part in current debates over prescribed fire, fuel buildup, logging, and the management of our national forests.

From the time it was sighted by Spanish explorers in the eighteenth century through the creation of the John Muir trail, the building of the Hetch Hetchy Dam, and the founding of the Sierra Club, the great snowy range of California has provided fulfillment to generations of trappers, immigrants, engineers, naturalists, and tourists. Now a mountaineering classic, this pioneering book was the first to synthesize into a single, riveting narrative all of the varied aspects of human endeavor related to the history of the Sierra Nevada. Thoroughly illustrated with photographs, drawings, and maps, the book continues to be indispensable for any lover of the high country.

The Sierra Nevada, California’s iconic mountain range, harbors thousands of remote high-elevations lakes from which water flows to sustain agriculture and cities. As climate and air quality in the region change, so do the watershed processes upon which these lakes depend. In order to understand the future of California’s ecology and natural resources, we need an integrated account of the environmental processes that underlie these aquatic systems. Synthesizing over three decades of research on the lakes and watersheds of the Sierra Nevada, this book develops an integrated account of the hydrological and biogeochemical systems that sustain them. With a focus on Emerald Lake in Sequoia National Park, the book marshals long-term limnological and ecological data to provide a detailed and synthetic account, while also highlighting the vulnerability of Sierra lakes to changes in climate and atmospheric deposition. In so doing, it lays the scientific foundations for predicting and understanding how the lakes and watersheds will respond.

The literary Sierra Nevada as seen by writers from Muir to Twain to Stegner and Snyder. Over 50 inspired pieces from Indian tale to modern story.

Reproduction of the original: Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada by Clarence King