The vastly different ways small towns between San Francisco and the Oregon border are managing their water supplies highlight how uneven California's brutal drought has been across the state — and even within a single county.
Amid a historic drought dessicating the US west, the aquifers beneath Mendocino's damp fog layer have rapidly declined, threatening to sink the region's tourism industry and the residents who rely on it.
Gov. Jerry Brown, alarmed by reports that climate change is dramatically increasing fire risk, on Thursday ordered an all-out attack by scientists, land managers, industry and the public on the dangerous conditions that helped spread last year's devastating wildfires.
