Editing Shasta County, California (section)

==Geography==
According to the [[U.S. Census Bureau]], the county has a total area of {{convert|3847|sqmi}}, of which {{convert|72|sqmi}} (1.9%) are covered by water.<ref name="GR1">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/geo/gazetteer-files.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=April 23, 2011|date=February 12, 2011|title=US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990}}</ref> Mountains line the county on the east, north, and west. The [[Sacramento River]] flows out of the mountains to the north, through the center of the county, and toward the Sacramento Valley to the south.

===Flora and fauna===
According to early California botanist and conservationist [[Willis Linn Jepson]], the biota of Shasta County was not explored in a scientific manner until just before 1900. Until the 1920s, the [[Southern Pacific Transportation Company|Southern Pacific]] Railroad Company owned vast tracts of natural grasslands, but during the 1920s, the railroad sold off much of its grassland holdings, leading to the rapid clearing of brush and large-scale conversion from habitat to agricultural uses.<ref>Mary C. Brinton, Victor Nee and Robert K. Merton (2001) ''The New Institutionalism in Sociology'', Stanford University Press  {{ISBN|0-8047-4276-6}}, 352 pages</ref> Shasta County has extensive forests, which cover over one half the land area with commercially productive forest systems.<ref>''Forest Survey Release'' (1952) By California Forest and Range Experiment Station, Berkeley, California, no. 13-3</ref> Common forest alliances include mixed-oak woodland and mixed conifer-oak woodland, as well as Douglas fir forest. Common trees found include white-bark pine,<ref>George Bishop Sudworth (1908) ''Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope'', United States Forest Service, published by the United States G.P.O., Washington DC</ref> [[California black oak]], and [[California buckeye]].<ref>C. Michael Hogan. 2008. ''Aesculus californica'', Globaltwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg {{cite web |url=http://www.globaltwitcher.com/artspec_info.asp?thingid=82383 |title=California Buckeye (Aesculus californica ) - photo/Images/Information - GlobalTwitcher.com |access-date=November 26, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121122190341/http://www.globaltwitcher.com/artspec_info.asp?thingid=82383 |archive-date=November 22, 2012 }}</ref>

===Adjacent counties===
* [[Siskiyou County, California|Siskiyou County]] – north
* [[Modoc County, California|Modoc County]] – northeast
* [[Lassen County, California|Lassen County]] – east
* [[Plumas County, California|Plumas County]] – southeast
* [[Tehama County, California|Tehama County]] – south
* [[Trinity County, California|Trinity County]] – west

===National protected areas===
* [[Shasta-Trinity National Forest]] (part)
* [[Whiskeytown National Recreation Area]] (part)