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California is experiencing the worst drought in its history, and the effects are being felt nationwide. Thus water issues have taken center stage in much of our reporting and the nation's.As the New York Times says, "Water has long been a precious resource in California, the subject of battles pitting farmer against city-dweller and northern communities against southern ones; books and movies have been made about its scarcity and plunder. Water is central to the state’s identity and economy, and a symbol of how wealth and ingenuity have tamed nature ..."As we continue through a fourth year of extreme drought conditions, you'll find all of our reporting on the related issues (and that of NPR and other member stations) in this centralized place.

Year-Old Happy Camp Fire Still Smoldering

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/
This photo, from September 2014, shows supression activities at the site of the Happy Camp Complex fire, which burned more than 130,000 acres. Areas within the fire's perimeter are still smoldering this fire season.

It seems bears aren’t the only thing to hibernate over the winter – fires apparently can too.

Smoke is rising from the already charred landscape of the Happy Camp Complex – one of the biggest fires to rage in the North State last year. Burning more than 130,000 acres in the Klamath National Forest last August, the Happy Camp Complex was thought to be put out, but it’s now known that four small areas are still smoldering within the fire’s perimeter. Kerry Greene, public affairs officer for the Klamath National Forest, explains how it’s possible for a fire to burn that long.

“Once the firefighters have checked the spread of the fire it’s completely put out by snow and rain in the winter,” Greene said. “We didn’t get the snowpack or precipitation that we normally are accustomed to here and coupled with several years of drought conditions, as well as hot temperatures and dry weather, those smokes in the interior of the Happy Camp Complex have actually started to show up.”

Greene says most of isolated smoke spots are small and are coming from “snags” like dead burned trees that were able to trap latent heat. She said she expects more smoke to rise from the area, but residents shouldn’t worry as any fire should stay within containment lines.