Alva Review-Courier -

HOMESTAKE CREEK, Colo. (AP) — A hundred miles from Colorado's Front Range house-building boom, field scientist Delia Malone dug her fingers into spongy high-mountain wetlands at the edge of the Holy Cross Wilderness.

She found, about 15 inches underground, partially decayed roots, twigs and the cold moisture of a fen. These structures form over thousands of years and store water that seeps down from melting snow.

Malone has been digging about 20 holes a day, surveying fens for the U.S. Forest Service, to better understand nature's water-storage systems — which sustain vegetation and stream flo...