Well-Being in Forest- Dependent Communities, Part II: A Social Assessment Focus

This chapter assesses the current state of community well-being throughout the Sierra Nevada through the analysis of a combination of socioeconomic and community capacity measures. Aggregations of census block groups were used as the primary analysis unit. One hundred and eighty “community” aggregations were identified across the study area, delineated within six regions. Information on community capacity was derived through a series of nineteen local expert workshops. A case study of community capacity was conducted in Plumas County to examine the congruence of expert capacity assessment with community self-assessments. Socioeconomic data were developed from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing. A socioeconomic scale was developed from a diverse set of census measures to characterize the socioeconomic status of aggregations and to highlight similarities and variation across the Sierra Nevada. Aggregations were also characterized geographically by their spatial relationships to population centers, transportation corridors, and areas dominated by public lands, and a scale of relative isolation was developed from these spatial variables. The relationships among socioeconomic factors, community capacity, and aggregation location and proximity to other geographic features are explored. Community capacity and socioeconomic status are found to be relatively independent, suggesting that they represent different dimensions of well-being that are not strongly related to each other. They are examined together in the discussion of wellbeing of the 180 aggregations.