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Preserving a Rural Sierra Nevada
Suburban sprawl is gobbling up the Sierra Nevada foothills. But some farmers and ranchers are working to
preserve the rural character of the Sierra Valley.
Part 1
Fri, Nov 10, 2006
 Listen
Locals in some remote areas of the Sierra Nevada have worked the land for generations and are proud of
their rural heritage. But loggers and ranchers worry about the future of livelihoods dependent on
forests and rangelands. Suburban sprawl is already gobbling up the Sierra foothills. And as development
races up the mountainside, it threatens not only the landscape and its resources, but also rural
residents and their ways of life.
[Photo: 97-year-old rancher Attilio Genasci, by Steve Fisch]
Part 2
Fri, Nov 24, 2006
Listen
Locals in some remote areas of the Sierra Nevada have worked the land for generations and are proud of
their rural heritage. But loggers and ranchers worry about the future of livelihoods dependent on
forests and rangelands. Suburban sprawl is already gobbling up the Sierra foothills. And as development
races up the mountainside, it threatens not only the landscape and its resources, but also rural
residents and their ways of life.
[Photo: Dave Bolster, owner of Bolster's Hilltop Ranch, by jesikah maria ross]
Part 3
Fri, Dec 8, 2006
Listen
For more than 100 years, cattle ranchers have used publicly owned land like national forests as low-cost
summer pasture for their herds. Because of growing environmental awareness of the resulting damage to
watersheds and water quality, the Forest Service that issues grazing permits has found itself in court
with environmental groups representing a public that is fed up with federal subsidy of the cattle
industry. Years of litigation have only succeeded in polarizing all parties, without producing a way
forward. Except in the northern Sierra, where a group of former adversaries protected a creek and
worked out their differences by "kicking dirt" together.
[Photo: Rancher Todd Swickard at Squaw Queen Creek in the Plumas National Forest, by Steve Fisch]
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