In The NOCO

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...

Colorado has played a leading role in many films. The state’s western landscapes can be seen in movies like The Hateful Eight and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade .    Then there’s the famous scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in which Paul Newman and Robert Redford leap off the edge of a cliff into the rushing river below. That scene was filmed near Durango, above the Animas River.   ...

With the summer travel season here, it’s a very busy time at Denver International Airport . But it's also noisy at the airport.  And that can be tougher for travelers than you might realize.  Research suggests that exposure to noise can trigger stress in a traveler’s brain and body, which doesn’t help people already tense from trying to get through those crowded security lines.  Which is why last...

More Colorado ranchers are using satellite technology to manage their livestock across vast, rugged landscapes — without having to put up miles of physical fence.   Virtual fencing uses GPS-enabled collars to allow ranchers to guide their cattle and keep them within invisible boundaries, using a mobile phone or computer.   Ranchers who use virtual fencing say it’s relatively cheap and helps them k...

Some uninvited guests are coming for a visit.   The warm, dry weather in recent months led many insects to emerge early this spring . And for your plants, that’s bad news – because plants are especially vulnerable to damage when moisture is scarce.   So, as Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, today’s guest will introduce you to some of the bugs who are coming for your plants...

A small nuclear reactor proposed by the Pentagon may be a reality soon in Aurora.   The proposed microreactor would power Buckley Space Force Base and give the site a steady source of electricity.    But it would look different – and operate at a smaller scale – than the nuclear reactors built a few decades ago. Rather than a large energy plant with cooling towers that jut into the sky, this small...

For decades, Warren Miller was synonymous with a very Colorado genre of film.  In Miller’s films, skiers glide across pristine winter terrain and hurtle down near-vertical slopes. Over the decades, Miller and his film crews turned those images into dozens of feature-length documentaries that celebrated the thrill of a day on the mountain – and also captured the poetry of skiing.   Miller died in 2...

Listeners of a certain age: Do you remember how great Colorado’s craft beer scene used to be?  The late 1990s and early 2000s saw hundreds of small breweries and taprooms spring up in communities across the state. But in the last five years, around 140 breweries, taprooms and brewpubs have closed -- including 40 that shuttered in 2025 alone.   And while that still leaves more than 400 breweries ac...

After this tough winter and dry spring we've been having, the trees around your home may be taking things especially hard.     In fact, some of the strain that your trees feel when there's a lack of moisture runs so deeply that it may not even be visible to you until a few years from now. So, it’s important to protect your trees from drought conditions now to prevent damage and illness later.    T...

Fireflies lighting up the sky on a summer night can feel magical – especially if you happen to catch them as they light up at the same time.  Which brings up one of the mysteries of the insect world: How do fireflies shine their lights in sync with one another?  A pair of computer science researchers with the University of Colorado Boulder set out to better understand how fireflies do this – and w...

In the second Trump administration, we've seen deportations surge, along with some very visible operations by ICE agents — nationally and in Colorado.   One argument — maybe an assumption — for deportations goes something like this: They will help American workers. Arresting and deporting workers who are in the country without legal status clears up space on the payroll for jobs that can go to Ame...

When someone decides they need help with a drug or alcohol addiction, or to leave an unsafe living situation, one obstacle they often face is this: While I’m getting help, who will take care of my pets?   For many people, the bond with a dog or cat is a lifeline. But most in-patient treatment programs or domestic violence shelters can’t allow animals – which can force people to have to choose betw...

Unless you have nothing but cacti in your yard, your plants and garden are going to need extra help this summer.     In addition to the heat, your plants will have to cope with less moisture than usual. While this week’s snowstorm brought a bit of relief, it won’t be enough to compensate for a very dry winter. So, our guest today offers tips to help – and explains the science behind keeping plants...

The promise of the weather phenomenon known as El Niño.   Don’t let this week’s spring snowstorm fool you: Mountain snowpack across Colorado's high country is dismal, and much of the state is in a persistent drought. Which means less water in reservoirs and dry conditions that are ripe for wildfire this summer.   But there’s one potential bright spot: Forecasters are predicting an especially stron...

These days, artificial intelligence does a lot for us. AI gives us personalized shopping recommendations. It writes emails for us. It helps us run businesses.  And all those tasks require lightning-fast computing and huge amounts of data. Which is why tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are building massive data centers around the country.  Some state lawmakers have proposed incentives...