Eastern Sierra Economic Assessment

The Sierra Business Council and the Sonoran Institute are finalizing a comprehensive economic assessment of economic trends and opportunities for the Eastern Sierra, which will describe five industry clusters for the region and strategies to realize the opportunities around those clusters.

Over five million acres of wildlands exist within Inyo and Mono Counties. The local and regional economy depends, to a large extent, on a quality of life connected to environmental amenities flowing from protected public lands. In the last 50 years, the economic value of the non-extractive uses of the public lands has dwarfed the economic value derived from extractive industries. Tourism activities, including skiing, hiking, birding, camping, fishing, and second-home construction driven by repeat visitors have become primary economic drivers in the region. The local economy has become very dependent on tourism and recreation.

During the recession of 2007-2009, the local economy suffered from a decrease in tourist spending and 2nd home construction, even as new interest in renewable energy loomed, and a $100 million grant for establishing Digital 395 broadband was awarded to the region. The time was right for taking a look at how to best plan for economic recovery and to achieve economic diversity at the same time. The goal was to identify potential economic development opportunities in emerging areas as well as to enhance the established avenues of revenue.

In order to encourage the protection of recreation based economies and the other ecosystem services that lead to additional derived values from the region, and help advise processes to adjust use of resources to protect natural values, it was necessary to identify economic opportunities in the region that can divert activity away from the unsustainable use of resources and toward new economies. Potential economic drivers have been identified to steer economic development away from traditional extractive uses of the land and allow for changes in technology, transportation and energy resources. Such drivers include: recreational access and development, cultural and heritage tourism, arts and creative class activities, regional food systems and value added agriculture, expansion of broadband networks, energy efficiency and conservation, water efficiency and conservation, appropriately sited renewable energy production and transmission, transportation related industries and others.

Over the last 15 to 20 years, cluster analysis has emerged as a new way of looking at economic development, integrating regional differences in development and economic specialization. An increasing number of rural regions in the United States have modified their economic development strategies to focus and capitalize on the business and industry clusters where they have, or would like to have, a competitive advantage.  In adopting a cluster strategy, states and regions hope to maximize their competitive advantage in existing industries and to build new strengths in the emerging industries that will replace older, declining sectors.  The eastern Sierra is particularly appropriate for the application of a cluster strategy because of the emergence of new industries based around broadband and renewable energy development.

This project identified five rural cluster opportunities most likely to succeed in the eastern Sierra and provides detail on the associated infrastructure, community assets leveraged, engagements, and interventions necessary to implement those clusters.

Project Objectives

• Regional economic characterization – This component would consist of a detailed characterization of the current eastern Sierra economy and trends that have affected its development within recent decades. Included in this would be a review of all major sectors of the regional economy–extractive and non-extractive industries, the service economy, and the knowledge and amenity portions.
• Comprehensive economic strategy – This component would involve a determination of the region’s principal economic strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges, based upon the regional economic characterization and trends and stakeholder engagement.

Project Process

• Sierra Business Council (SBC) will convened an Advisory Board made up of local stakeholders and leaders, conducted interviews, and worked to develop widespread support for the project and goals.
• SBC researched indicators to use as measurement, selected case studies to update, and researched trends in specific areas of economic growth potential.
• The Sonoran Institute (SI) collected, reviewed, and interpreted all available socio-economic data required for the assessment.
• SBC reached out to local government decision-makers to incorporate their needs in the economic analysis.
• SBC is the publisher for the Eastern Sierra Economic Assessment

For more information contact project manager and Eastern Sierra Field Representative, Vickie Taton.