Taylor Zarifis plucks live leaves off of sagebrush to demonstrate how to collect samples to measure fuel moisture levels. (Madelyn Beck / Mountain West News Bureau)

The world of wildland firefighting has a lot of wonky lingo, but one key phrase is "fuel moisture" - and no, we're not talking about oil and gas. It refers to how much water is in certain plants that could fuel a wildfire.

The Mountain West News Bureau's Madelyn Beck explained how scientists measure it and why it's so important.