FRESNO, Calif. — California Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to the state’s drought emergency Friday after powerful storms quenched the state following four extraordinarily dry years that drained reservoirs and wells, devastated forests and farmland and forced millions of people to slash their water use.

The turnaround has been stark. After years of brown fields and cracked earth, monster storms blanketed California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains this winter with deep snow that flows into the network of rivers and streams that supply much of the state’s water.

Deep, springtime snow covers the Sierra Nevada Mountains, providing much needed water for the hydroelectric dam at Lake Spaulding in California. Associated Press/Rich Pedroncelli

** ADVANCE FOR SUNDAY July 13** A wild horse roams on the beach without regard to campers at Assateague Island National Seashore, Md., Tuesday, July 1, 2008, More than 5,000 permits are sold each year to allow driving on the beach. (AP Photo/Kristen Wyatt)

Front lawns revived to bright green in neighborhoods throughout the state and rivers that had become dry beds of sand and gravel are now charged with water swelling up in their banks.

Still, lifting the order is a largely symbolic measure that doesn’t remove most of the restrictions. Officials insisted they’re holding onto some conservation rules for the 40 million residents of the nation’s most populous state.

California uses more water each year than nature makes available, and one wet winter won’t change the long-term outlook, environmentalists say.