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Prioritizing sites as potential Research Natural Areas to represent a set of target vegetation types is a complex planning problem in which competing objectives must be satisfied simultaneously, including suitability (i.e., choosing the most ecologically appropriate sites) and efficiency (i.e, covering the most types with the least sites). For a project funded by the U. S.

All those concerned with the Sierra Nevada agree that the magnitude and complexity of managing the region's resources for sustainable use demands new approaches to research, planning, and decision making. There is less agreement, however, on how to proceed, except that it must involve the major reform of educational systems (e.g., greater interdisciplinarity and emphasis on problem solving), scientific research (e.g., synthesis vs. reductionism), institutions (e.g., collaborative vs. organization-based planning), natural resource management (e.g., adaptive vs.