The demand for reliable, high-quality data and information with which to make the important decisions regarding the natural resources of California remains unabated.
One of the results of the Resources Agency's Sierra Summit in 1991 was a consensus call for cooperative collection and management of information that could be put to use to benefit the Sierra bioregion.
In the years since then, the State's unprecedented Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) program in southern California and the historic State-Federal partnership in the San Francisco Bay-Delta have made great strides in constructively re-orienting wildlife conservation in California toward broad ecosystems. Yet, these important endeavors have been hampered by a lack of sound, easily accessible data and information relating to the biodiversity of their respective ecosystems.
Soon, the critical role of data and information in ecosystem management will again be evident - in the release of the Federally-funded Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project (SNEP). An extensive assessment of the bioregion's resources - from the trends in watershed systems, air quality, and health and availability of old-growth timber - the report includes input from many diverse individuals and groups, including county supervisors, the California Cattlemen's Association, the California Forestry Association, The Wilderness Society, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., League to Save Lake Tahoe, Quincy Library Group, TuCARE of Tuolumne County, and CURES of Mono County.
While the SNEP report will be disseminated through the conventional means (including a public workshop on June 28-29 in Placerville), it will also benefit from the new information technologies that are changing resource management in California. The SNEP report will be available through CERES, the State's on-line natural resources system, at http://ceres.ca.gov, or at its own Web site at http://www.gis.ucdavis.edu/htdocs/snep.d/snep.html.
Thus, through access to the World Wide Web - perhaps at home, in an office, or at a public library - millions of Californians will be able to access directly and use this information resource. The rural nature of much of the mountain range - and the great distances involved between many of its residents and information centers - makes the Sierra well suited to benefit from this terrifically increased access to information.
Soon CERES will begin placing on-line the General Plans of California's counties and cities. While it will take over a year to complete this task, the great utility of this type of information offers an additional example of the potential that the Internet holds for improved resource management and protection.
Government can help provide Californians with information, the most basic tool necessary for sound, long-term decision-making and ecosystem management. From there, it's up to people - communities, watershed groups, industries, public agencies, and others - to decide how this information resource can best be applied. With good information, and people willing to use it, we can overcome the challenges in the Sierra Nevada and our other bioregions, and live in more prosperous and sustainable ways.
Douglas P. Wheeler is California's Secretary for Resources