The Snow-Covered Range
A simple yet fitting name adorns California’s most prominent mountains: Sierra Nevada, or “snow-capped mountain range” in Spanish. The Sierra snowpack is the driving force behind the range’s hydrology and ecology, and it serves as a crucial reservoir for much of the thirsty state in which it lies. “People think of gold as being key for California’s history, which of course it was,” said aquatic biologist John Melack, a distinguished professor at UC Santa Barbara, “but really, the gold is the Sierra Nevada snowpack. That’s what makes California what it is.” Melack and Disti...
Source: ucsb.edu