In The NOCO

The winter sport Nordic combined requires intense effort. Athletes launch themselves off towering ski jumps – then push their endurance in cross-country ski racing the same day.  But the women's Nordic combined team in Steamboat Springs got attention in recent years for a different kind of effort. They called for a chance to compete in the Winter Olympics.   Men have competed in the sport in the O...

Colorado recently reached a major clean energy milestone: In the first three months of this year, the majority of its electricity – 53 percent – came from renewable sources, like wind, solar and geothermal.   That's according to an article from the news website Big Pivots . And it marks a significant step toward Colorado's goal of getting to 100% emission-free electricity by the year 2050.   But d...

A discovery by paleontologists working in Colorado is giving scientists a slightly revised history of primates. That’s the group of mammals that includes apes – and humans.   Scientists working at Corral Bluffs near Colorado Springs recently discovered tiny teeth and bone fragments belonging to a species called Purgatorius .   Purgatorius was an early and distant cousin of humans. It thrived 65 mi...

Drive through some communities in Colorado, and your movements may be monitored by a network of cameras that track your license plate. Police say they use these cameras to respond to crime and track down suspects.  A company called Flock Safety operates dozens of these cameras in Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins. They’ve quietly photographed millions of cars over the last year.  And right now, the...

This year marks the 250th birthday of the United States – and it’s also the 150th anniversary of Colorado becoming a state.  But it was not an easy journey to get there.  In December 1875, a group of 39 elected delegates from the Colorado Territory gathered in a brick building in Denver . Their mission was to lay out a constitutional framework for the state of Colorado – on a very tight deadline. ...

Headlines and video images from across Colorado and the West this week illustrate a brutal reality: Wildfires are deadly – and so is the work of fighting them .  News of three casualties in the Snyder Fire west of Grand Junction drove home that sentiment earlier this week. Three wildland firefighters who to traveled to Colorado died fighting the blaze.   So today on In The NoCo, we’re looking at t...

If you ask a wildlife official – moose are relatively new arrivals to Colorado.  In the late 1970s, wildlife managers released two dozen moose captured in other states into Routt National Forest near Walden. Before that, moose may have occasionally wandered in and out of Colorado, but didn’t have a permanent home here, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s official moose webpage .  But a rese...

Colorado leaders have a unique plan to make cheaper prescription drugs available. It’s starting to move forward after seven years in development – but the chances of success are uncertain.   Governor Jared Polis says Americans are getting “ripped off” when it comes to prescription drug prices. And he's looking to Canada to help remedy the situation. The plan calls for importing drugs from Canada,...

Wilderness areas are designed partly to let people escape the sounds of civilization – to get away from noise like traffic.   But a handful of recent decisions by Trump administration officials could bring a more jarring sound into wilderness areas in Colorado and other western states: the sound of chainsaws ripping through timber.   That's something that was prohibited for decades. But officials...

Colorado's Western Slope is famous for the fruit that’s grown there. Cherries, apples, and peaches are a staple of farmers' markets.  But Colorado is also famous for wild, unpredictable weather. And this past April, a spring freeze devastated many of the western slopes' fruit orchards. Some growers saw total losses of this year's crops.   We wanted to know how fruit growers survive, and keep their...

Scientists have a new tool in the fight to eradicate a fish that’s been causing havoc in some of Colorado’s mountain streams.    Brook trout are a nonnative species introduced in the state more than a century ago. They breed prolifically and edge out many native fish species for food and other resources.  Over the decades, "brookies" have steadily pushed out Colorado's native cutthroat trout.   No...

  Since 1960, the National Repertory Orchestra has brought talented college-aged musicians to Colorado to practice the art of playing in an ensemble.   Each season, about 80 young musicians are selected to join the NRO in Breckenridge. They spend eight weeks rehearsing and performing in Summit County. Many of them go on to pursue careers in professional orchestras across the country.     To get a...

A new stage production in Longmont and Boulder examines the displacement of Black residents.  In the 1950s, thousands of Black families in Indianapolis were pushed out when their neighborhood was destroyed to make way for the expansion of a university.    That area, known as Indiana Avenue, had been a thriving community, with Black-owned businesses, churches and newspapers.  A new play, 13 Fires ,...

This might be the end for text messages from the school lunchroom and Instagram pics from the hallways. At least if students follow the rules.   Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, announced last week it's banning cell phones, smart watches and other devices during the school day. Previously, different schools in DPS had different policies on when or if to allow kids to use...

The city of Longmont last week took an unusual step toward limiting the impact of data centers on the community and its energy grid.  Data centers are built to support the growing tech and artificial intelligence sections. And they consume huge amounts of electricity and water, which makes them especially controversial in an arid state like Colorado.  The Longmont city council voted to restrict th...

Federal wildlife officials asked the public earlier this year for feedback on how Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program was going. It’s been two and a half years since Colorado wildlife managers began releasing wolves into the wild.  And one of the responses from the public contained a stunning admission.   The owner of one of the largest ranches in Colorado said — in writing — that a worker on t...

Fifty years ago, two men came to the Boulder County courthouse seeking a license to get married.  Marriage equality was not the law of the land in 1975. But Clela Rorex, the newly elected Boulder County clerk, could find nothing in Colorado state law that would prevent her from issuing a marriage license to a same-sex couple. So, she did. And she issued five more in the next few weeks before she w...

A few years back, federal regulators gave an ultimatum to negotiators from the seven states that rely on Colorado River water. It boiled down to find a path forward, or we'll figure one out for you.   It was a big ask. The agreement over how to share river water was a century old and overdue for an update. Severe drought strained the river and its reservoirs. Cities in the region, from Denver to L...

In 2004, Tom Mowle was a political science professor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.   It was early in the Iraq war. The U.S had invaded just the year before. A top general asked for help understanding the landscape in Iraq, and Tom volunteered.  A few weeks later, Tom left his desk job and flew to Baghdad. He had no idea what he was getting into. He lost colleagues throughout the wa...

Scientists in Boulder at the National Center for Atmospheric Research study everything from storms to wildfires to drought.  But recently, the Trump administration has worked to dismantle NCAR – and to hand over its supercomputer, a core piece of NCAR’s technology. The powerful supercomputer helps study weather and climate.   The administration wants the University of Wyoming to manage the superco...

People in Colorado have found themselves in the middle of some nasty encounters with moose in recent weeks.    A moose attacked a woman last weekend in Steamboat Springs. The woman was airlifted to the hospital with serious injuries. Wildlife officials say the moose was likely trying to protect its two calves. And that incident came on the heels of other moose encounters that left people injured n...

Summertime in Colorado often means the air we breathe is a little compromised.   There are ozone alert days, when the nastier components in the air along the Front Range make the air feel a little thicker. And there are those hazy wildfire days when smoke irritates your lungs and stings your eyes.   Our guest today says we shouldn’t overlook the importance of indoor air quality. Delphine Farmer is...

The soldiers who trained in Colorado for alpine combat in World War II helped turn the tide of the war. And later, many of them changed outdoor recreation in Colorado as we know it.   The U.S. Army built Camp Hale in the high country near Leadville. Thousands of soldiers there trained for skiing, rock climbing and other elements of high-altitude combat.      But the story of Camp Hale and the 10th...

During World War II, the U.S. Army built a unique training ground in the mountains outside Leadville.    At Camp Hale, soldiers in what would become the 10th Mountain Division trained for combat in extreme alpine conditions. And that led to key victories for Allied forces in the mountains of Europe. After the war, some of the soldiers returned to Colorado and helped launch the state’s ski industry...

Mental health challenges for young people in Colorado — and what to do about them.   First, some good news: Colorado has seen improvements in some of the most alarming trends for youth mental health. Incidents of suicide by young people have fallen by more than half from their peak level in 2020.   But some nagging — and serious — issues remain when it comes to kids and their mental wellbeing. Doc...