Drought relief in America’s West may be short-lived.
DENVER, the United States, July 1 (Xinhua) — The hopes and prayers of water resource officials across America’s West are vanishing in smoke as record wildfires and dry weather are contradicting predictions of drought relief.
Last week of June, from South Dakota to California, officials said the recent spate of wildfires across the West indicate the drought had not been quenched.
"The state’s reservoirs are fuller than their long term average," the University of California Davis Center for Watershed Sciences said in April.
"We don’t believe the drought is over."
Indeed, organizations like the California Department of Water Resources cautioned last week, "although this year may be wet, dry conditions could return…we must be prepared for either flood or drought in any year."
All or parts of these states are experiencing severe or extreme drought conditions.
Perdue, 70, was raised on a farm in Georgia and became governor in 2003, giving Republicans their first control of Georgia politics in 100 years.
"Without alternative forage options like grazing CRP lands, livestock producers are faced with the economically devastating potential of herd liquidation," Perdue said in a statement.
In California, former San Francisco mayor Feinstein said the increase in fires, despite the winter’s heavy rains, were due to the recent severe heat wave that had dried out vegetation.