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BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

ABSTRACT. Since 1960 California's Sierra Nevada counties have ranked among the regions with the strongest relative population growth in the state. Reassessment of peripheral areas has been the main force driving population and settlement growth in the central Sierra Nevada of California and Nevada, termed “amenity migration” or “counterurbanization.” This study analyzes the impacts of amenity migrants—“urban refugees”—on socioeconomic conditions in high‐mountain regions. We define these regions as the “High Sierra,” comprising zones at elevations more than 1,800 meters above sea level. People who migrate to the High Sierra tend to be white and well educated, with considerable household earnings. Unlike the population in the foothills, these migrants are not senior citizens. Their demand for periodic or permanent residences has caused housing prices to increase enormously. As a result, a majority of homes are now priced well beyond the reach of local salaries, which may lead to potential conflict between locals and newcomers. The massive settlement expansion in high‐mountain areas requires a new approach to land‐use planning, one that takes functional regions into account. Therefore, it is expedient to reassess existing jurisdictional boundaries.

Even recent academic studies consider the Italian Alps (with the exception of South Tyrol) still a huge outmigration and depopulation area. The present contribution, however, shows the new and remarkable phenomenon of in-migration. The study highlights the west-east difference in regard to the significance of the newcomers for the current structural change in peripheral Alpine regions: ensuing from the demographic turnaround in the French Alps starting in the mid-1980s, the process of amenity migration spread across the Italian Alps. The present study seeks to analyze its outcomes through a comparison of the Alpine border areas between Italy and Slovenia. The eastern part of the Friulian mountain region, particularly the border areas toward Slovenia, suffered the heaviest population losses in the Alps between WWII and 1990. It is therefore not surprising that here traditional spatial structures still continue to exist and in contrast to other demographic problem areas in the Italian Alps, e.g. the Cottian Alps, the population development has remained largely negative, though in the meantime the phenomenon of amenity migration has reached these Friulian communities. The west-east proliferation of amenity migration has also extended onto the Slovenian side, but its effects are less apparent due to the weaker depopulation processes during the period of the Yugoslavian regime. Regardless, the overall demographic reversal proclaims itself unmistakably and the resettlement of the once completely abandoned villages is a significant indicator for this tendency. Zusammenfassung: Selbst in neueren Studien werden die italienischen Alpen (abgesehen von Südtirol) noch immer als riesiges Abwanderungs-und Entvölkerungsgebiet dargestellt. Vorliegender Beitrag soll jedoch auf den neuen und überraschenden Prozess der Zuwanderung aufmerksam machen und anhand der Amenity Migration den von den französischen Alpen ausgehenden neuen demographischen Trend in den italienischen Alpen aufzeigen. Diese Entwicklung wird schließlich im friulanisch-slowenischen Grenzgebiet näher verdeutlicht. Der östliche Teil der Friulanischen Alpen, vor allem der Grenzraum zu Slowenien, hatte zwischen dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und 1990 die stärksten Bevölkerungseinbußen der Alpen hinzunehmen, was sogar zur Entstehung von Ghost towns führte. Obwohl die Amenity Migration inzwischen auch dieses ostfriulanische Gebiet erreicht hat, ist es daher nicht verwunderlich, dass hier im Gegensatz zu anderen demographischen Problemregionen (z.B. die Cottischen Alpen) traditionelle Raumstrukturen stärker nachwirken und die Bevölkerungsentwicklung weiterhin noch rückläufig bleibt. Der West-Ost gerichtete Ausbreitungsvorgang der Amenity Migration hat ebenso die Gebiete jenseits der italienischen Grenze erfasst, doch treten dort die Auswirkungen im Vergleich zu Friaul nicht so offensichtlich zutage, zumal die Entvölkerungsprozesse während der jugoslawischen Periode geringer waren. Die gegenwärtige Wiederbesiedelung der Ghost towns-zu beiden Seiten der Grenze-ist jedoch ein deutli...

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