By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal

The mountain snowpack is fat but funding to unravel what it means for western communities and the environment is thin.

That’s the dynamic facing scientists who study climate, snow and water in California and Nevada.

They gathered this month for the fifth Great Basin Climate Forum at the Desert Research Institute in Reno to watch presentations about the drought-busting winter season.

They also talked about how hostility from President Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress could undermine scientific research into climate, water and fire behavior that shape the environment of the Western United States.

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