You are now in California and the U.S. category.

Mountain meadows are starting to get some respect. For over a century, meadows were the first alpine environments targeted for development, grazing and farming, because they tend to be flat and packed with rich soil and nutritious plants. But we’re starting to understand that meadows have a much more important role to play for society at large. Meadows, it turns out, are water banks. As winter snows melt, the runoff flows into meadows, where deep organic soil holds the moisture like a sponge and then releases it slowly.

An agreement amending the longstanding treaty between the U.S. and Mexico on management of the Colorado River will continue the practice of water shortage sharing, but also fund new conservation and environmental programs, and aim to reduce the risk of ruinous drought. The two nations are tentatively scheduled to execute the agreement—Minute 323, an amendment to a 1944 water treaty—on Sept. 26 in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez. Minute 323 will govern water flows in the Colorado River and other water management issues by extending an existing binational agreement, Minute 319, which was set to expire at the end of 2017.

Think of it as a water bailout, easing Arizona’s Colorado River woes and the legal-environmental water conflicts plaguing many rural communities. Think of it as a boon for Indian tribes looking to make better and more lucrative use of their river water.  Or, think of it as an enabler of growth and sprawl from Sierra Vista to Prescott and points beyond. All these descriptions could apply to a complex plan to send tribal water from the Colorado River into Arizona’s heartland to support existing residents and future development.

Here we go again? Following a mild and short-lived La Niña episode in 2016/2017, the climatic phenomenon stands a 55 to 60 percent chance of developing once again this fall and winter. That’s the most recent forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Based on observations of what’s happening in the Pacific Ocean, and modeling to predict what may be coming, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has issued a La Niña watch, indicating that conditions are favorable for its development.