ABSTRACT
The quaint village of Nevada City, California, is an icon for the problem of growth and change in the wildland-urban interface of California. In the beginning a lively mining town, then a prosperous lumbering center, its charming historical downtown and Victorian homes are the county seat of one of the fastest growing regions in North America. Ecosystems are complex structures of biotic and abiotic element. The structure of an ecosystem can be described generally as the spatial distribution of plants, animals and soils. Of all human actions, those that impose land uses that modify soils and vegetation have the most fundamental impact on the structure and function of ecosystems. Timber harvesting comes to mind. As ecosystems and landscapes become more popular units of planning and management, decisions about land use and forests will be linked in a web that stretches across several scales of time and space.
