Articles

“I Too of the Wild Hills”: Experience, Meaning, and Place
by Tina Kennedy, 9 (Download PDF file, 11.9 MB)

The Changing Political Landscape of California, 1968 to 2000
by John Heppen, 25 (Download PDF file, 340 K)

This article explores the political geography of California by analyzing regional voting behavior and the nature of the population at the county level from 1968 to 2000. Most methods have recognized three political regions in California: Southern California, Northern California, and the Central Valley. The logic for these regions is based on primary settlement patterns and political cultures. Patterns of Republican vote for president from 1968 to 2000 and the percentage of white population from 1970 to 1998 show that the state may be moving toward two political regions: one consisting of a more racially varied and urban coast; the other a less racially diverse and more rural interior.

Old Traditions, New Lifestyles: The Emergence of a Cal-Ital Landscape
by Jennifer J. Helzer, 49 (Download PDF file, 3.3 MB)

Italian immigrants have long been associated with the development of northern California’s wine industry. Pioneering Italian-American grape growers and viticulturalists successfully adapted old-world winemaking traditions to new lands in many places in northern California. Historically, family-run wineries built their reputations on producing wines closely linked to Italian styles. The popularity of Mediterranean cuisines and cultures has revived interest in Italian grapes such as Sangiovese and Barbera and the production of wines from classic Italian varieties. Today’s northern California winescapes are dotted with Italian surnames that not only suggest traditional roots of pioneering viticulturalists, but also highlight the recent emergence of a new Cal-Ital landscape. Efforts to introduce consumers to Italian-style wines have led to the reinvention and cultural packaging of Italian ethnic landscape signatures and Italian immigrant heritage. My findings suggest that promotion of the Cal-Ital theme is shaping local and regional identity.

Phoenix: The Newest Latino Immigrant Gateway?
by Emily Skop and Cecilia Menjívar, 63 (Download PDF file, 504 K)

The increasing importance of Phoenix as a large urban conglomerate (it is the 6th largest U.S. city) located in a border state and as a receiver of native and immigrant newcomers both contribute to the growing Latino population in the city. The recent influx of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Cubans to the Phoenix metropolitan area has the potential to alter the sociocultural, political, and economic landscapes of this city, and begs the question of whether Phoenix is becoming the newest Latino immigrant gateway. Relying on qualitative, in-depth interviews with 60 recent arrivals over a 2-year period, this research introduces the immigrants and their geography: first, by focusing on patterns of immigration to the Phoenix metropolitan area; and then by describing the immigrants’ novel patterns of settlement and residential behavior in the city.

Water Supply and Climate Change in the Upper Deschutes Basin, Oregon
by M. L. Shelton and Roxane Fridirici, 77 (Download PDF file, 276 K)

Climate change is expected to alter the time and space characteristics of the global hydrologic cycle and to impact regional water supplies. The Upper Deschutes Basin is in one of Oregon’s fastest growing regions, and the increasing population is straining regional water resources. Surface water is fully allocated and increased groundwater use will require careful management to offset seasonal or long-term declines in aquifers or the depletion of stream flow. While altered temperature and precipitation accompanying global change are both concerns, the watershed is more sensitive to changes in precipitation than in temperature. Watershed climate simulation reveals a 25 percent increase in mean monthly runoff, and extremely high monthly runoff is four times more frequent. These changes indicate an increased risk of winter floods, greater spring and summer runoff, and a shift in the occurrence of the minimum runoff month to earlier in the year. Increased potential evapotranspiration, a decrease in the amount of precipitation stored as snow, and changes in the amount and timing of runoff will constrain water development options for humans, agriculture, and regional fisheries. Water restrictions will magnify water-use conflicts in the watershed and increase the risk of regional economic discord.

Flooding and Fragmentation: How Physical Features Structure Political Conflict Over Flood Control in California’s Pajaro Valley
by Keith Douglass Warner, 97 (Download PDF file, 304 K)

The Pajaro River on California’s Central Coast has flooded repeatedly over the past 40 years, causing millions of dollars of flood damages. The original levee system, expanded and rebuilt in 1949 by the U.S. Army, was designed based on insufficient hydrologic data, and local efforts to reconstruct it and maintain the flood channel have been tangled up in interjurisdictional discord. The chief political boundaries between the four counties in the watershed are based on physical features: the river itself and the mountains created by the San Andreas Fault. The four counties in the watershed all have different stakes in flood protection and different geographies of taxation, hobbling efforts to prevent further flooding. The unusual geography of the watershed resists efforts to structure an equitable taxation scheme, further illustrating the problem of managing rivers that serve as political boundaries. Efforts to build consensus about taxation schemes within the basin will likely be more successful if they focus on the ecosystem services provided to the upstream counties by flood control measures in the downstream counties.

Presidential Plenary Session
Geography’s Contribution to Resource Management
by Tina Kennedy, 119 (Download PDF file, 40 K)
Geography’s Covert Operation in Water Resource Management
by Nancy Lee Wilkinson, 121 (Download PDF file, 44 K)
Stewarding the Earth: Commentary on Resource and Environmental Geographies in the West
by Les Rowntree, 128 (Download PDF file, 68 K)
Famine and Famine Early Warning: Some Contributions by Geographers
by Charles F. Hutchinson, 139 (Download PDF file, 56 K)

Book Reviews

Peter Russell, Prince Henry ‘the Navigator’: A Life
rev. by William A. Koelsch, 145 (Download PDF file, 44 K)

Sonia P. Juvik and James O. Juvik (eds.), Atlas of Hawai‘i (third edition)
rev. by Antonia Hussey, 152 (Download PDF file, 28 K)

Martin Kenney (ed.), Understanding Silicon Valley: The Anatomy of an Entrepreneurial Region
rev. by Dennis J. Dingemans, 155 (Download PDF file, 32 K)

James G. Moore, Exploring the Highest Sierra
rev. by Michael Swift, 159 (Download PDF file, 32 K)

Ronald G. Knapp, China’s Old Dwellings
rev. by Antonia Hussey, 164 (Download PDF file, 32 K)

Reports

Report on the Sixty-third Annual Meeting, 168 ( Download PDF file, 28 K)
APCG Distinguished Service Award, 170 (Download PDF file, 636 K)
APCG Student Paper Award Winners, 172 (Download PDF file, 16 K)
Resolutions of the Sixty-third Annual Meeting, 173 (Download PDF file, 24 K)
Editorial Notes, 175 (Download PDF file, 32 K)
Abstracts of Papers Presented, 177 (Download PDF file, 148 K)