LANDER - Mother Nature has doused Wyoming's two major wildfires with rain and snow, reducing both to smolder through the underbrush, forest officials say.

They warn, however, that the return of hot, dry weather could once again reinvigorate the blazes, both of which have been churning through beetle-killed trees in western Wyoming for more than a month.

Neither fire has been extinguished, but both have cooled tremendously and should stay calm for at least the next few days, representatives with the Shoshone and the Bridger-Teton National forests said Tuesday.

And even though the Gunbarrel fire has cost the National Forest nearly $10.5 million so far, officials are saying it has been an economically valuable blaze - even cheap if one considers the ecological benefits.

Read more about it in Wednesday's Star-Tribune.