Striking a balance that preserves the rich diversity of natural life in the besieged Sierra Nevada and meets future human needs is the goal of a new two-year, $7 million UC Davis-based project. UC Davis researchers, along with 11 other western scholars, have begun to examine the biological, physical and socioeconomic environments of the famous California-Nevada mountain range to assess ways to protect it from overuse by people. "Nobody has done what we have been asked to do," says Deborah Elliott-Fisk, science team leader and associate professor of geography at UC Davis. "Never have humans been studied as part of the ecological system at this scale." UC Davis will be the hub of data analysis for the federally funded research, known as the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project. The effort is being administered under a cooperative agreement between UC and the U.S. Forest Service.