In the Rockies today, British Columbia is the hot spot in the West for wildfires, and water is again on the agenda in Nevada and Utah, as well as in Montana and Arizona.
The wildfire season across much of the West has been mild this year, but not so in British Columbia, where thousands of residents were evacuated Saturday evening from a wildfire's path and more than 800 firefighters are on the fire lines across the province.
In other parts of the West, water is getting all the attention.
As Nevada and Utah near an accord on groundwater in the Snake Valley aquifer that underlies those states' shared border, ranchers and farmers in the counties on both sides of that border are concerned that their needs will take second billing to Las Vegas'.
And in Arizona, where growing rural communities are facing dwindling water supplies, those towns are looking for long-term, secure supplies and may find that the Colorado River may be their only option.
And in Montana, the federal government and the Crow Nation are close to settling that tribe's historic water claims.
