Articles
Presidential Address: Water and the Geographic Imagination
by Nancy Lee Wilkinson, 9
Confounding Water Policy: Voter Representation and Choice in Tucson, Arizona
by Irisita Azary and Michael J. Cohen, 20
Abstract: The first, long-awaited deliveries of Colorado River water to Tucson, Arizona, in the early 1990s resulted in millions of dollars worth of damage to homes and generated thousands of claims and complaints. In 1995, voters decisively rejected decades of planning by local and state water agencies and approved a citizen-sponsored initiative that prohibited the city from delivering Colorado River water for 5 years. A challenge was defeated in 1997, but voters reversed themselves in 1999. Support for the prohibition of Central Arizona Project (CAP) water in 1995 was strongly correlated with those areas that received initial delivery of Colorado River water, which is particularly notable since close to 40 percent of those affected were ineligible to vote. The response of voters near a groundwater Superfund site, however, showed support for CAP.
Historical Evidence for the Upslope Retreat of Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) Forest in California’s Gold Country
by Khaled J. Bloom and Conrad J. Bahre, 46
Abstract: In the Gold Country foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada, patches of ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa) are scattered in a matrix of oak woodland and chaparral in a wide transition zone below the ponderosa pine forest of the higher slopes. A long-standing hypothesis regards these patches as relicts of a more extensive ponderosa pine forest that was destroyed by cutting, clearing, and burning after the Gold Rush of 1849. We have reviewed the historical evidence and found nothing to confirm this hypothesis. We conclude that the distribution of ponderosa pines along the west side of the Sierra Nevada has changed little, if any, since 1848.
Land Use, Riparian Vegetation, and Salmon: Historical Changes Along the Alsea and Yaquina Rivers of Oregon, 1952–1994
by Mark M. Van Steeter, 60
Abstract: Historically, the Alsea and Yaquina rivers in the Oregon Coast Range were densely vegetated with diverse riparian areas that supported large runs of salmon. Human disturbance of vegetation along the riparian and adjacent upland areas of these rivers through agriculture and logging has degraded freshwater habitats. This study used aerial photographs and a geographic information system (GIS) to examine changes in woody vegetation in the riparian corridor and adjacent uplands along approximately 50 kilometers of each river between 1952 and 1994. Results show that although there has been an increase in both the area of woody vegetation and average size of contiguous vegetated areas in most land ownership categories along both rivers, populations of coho salmon have declined.
Economic Development and Preservation: The Case of National Parks
by Lay James Gibson and Bryant Evans, 77
Abstract: Environmentalists sometimes overlook the economic consequences of crusades to preserve landscapes, whereas local development interests often assume that preservation spells doom for economic development efforts. A proposed Sonoran Desert National Park in southwest Arizona, especially if linked with one in northern Mexico, would likely generate significant economic benefit to local towns. National parks are important export-oriented industries whose role needs to be understood for effective strategic planning, particularly in the development of gateway communities.
Book Reviews
Roger W. Stump, Boundaries of Faith: Geographical Perspectives on Religious Fundamentalism, 95
Reviewed by Ralph K. Allen
Wanda Hurren, Line Dancing: An Atlas of Geography Curriculum and Poetic Possibilities, 98
Reviewed by Ralph K. Allen
Gary J. Hausladen, Editor, Western Places, American Myths, 101
Reviewed by James Craine
Report on the Sixty-fifth Annual Meeting, 108 (PDF, 28K)
APCG Distinguished Service Award, 110 (PDF, 232K)
APCG Student Paper Award Winners, 111 (PDF, 16K)
Resolutions of the Sixty-fifth Annual Meeting, 112 (PDF, 32K)
Editorial Notes, 115 (PDF, 32K)