ABSTRACT
Environmental policy provides an example of policy success in California. Rich in both environmental resources and environmental problems, California has long battled environmental challenges. From its pristine coastal redwood forests in the north to the warm sandy beaches of the south, from the Sequoias in the Sierra Nevada to the desolate beauty of Joshua Tree, Mojave, and Death Valley, from the ruggedness of the Channel Islands to the windswept Monterey Peninsula, from the muddy Sacramento Delta to the fertility of the Central Valley, California overflows in natural beauty and biological diversity. Yet at the same time, California’s vast industrial and agricultural infrastructure, its massive urban areas and encroaching sprawl, its densely populated coastline, its military bases, and its transportation corridors, all present significant environmental challenges that the state is only now coming to terms with. California’s environmental dilemma is, at its core, a contest over scarce resources.
