In The NoCo

It’s one of the first concepts you learned in science class: Trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. It’s part of why forests play such a critical role in reducing carbon in the atmosphere.  

Which is why a recent report on Colorado’s forests sounds a bit alarming. 

Researchers set out to gauge how many tons of carbon are taken in by Colorado’s nearly 23 million acres of forest – and also how much carbon is emitted by those forests.  

They found that forests in Colorado are actually releasing more carbon than they’re storing  – which is surprising if you think back to those early science lessons and expect a forest to have the opposite effect.  

Colorado Sun reporter Tracy Ross recently dug into the research. She joined Erin O’Toole to talk about why this is happening – and whether we should be worried.

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Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
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Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
 
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

The Trump administration announced recently it’s terminating hundreds of jobs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The announcement sparked protests, including one in Boulder in which NOAA supporters and employees took part. 

The threat of layoffs at NOAA also led our guest to write a defense of the work the organization does. 

Kari Bowen is an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado who works closely with, and has her work funded by, NOAA. Before working at CU, she spent 11 years as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA. 
 

Bowen argues that even if you don’t know what NOAA does, you might miss NOAA’s services if they’re slashed or privatized. She says NOAA, and the data from its weather satellites, are something many of us use every day.
 

Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org
Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!

Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Wildfires are an ever-present threat in Colorado. And those that grow and spread quickly are becoming more common – and more destructive.   

But there’s a piece of technology that could help spot a blaze in the earliest stages, before it spreads.  

Cameras equipped with artificial intelligence can detect plumes of smoke in the air – even in remote areas – and alert firefighters nearby. This makes AI cameras a valuable tool for the few fire departments that already use them.  

But the cameras are expensive. Each one costs about $50,000 dollars per year. And so far, Colorado lawmakers have been hesitant to fund wider use of the cameras.  

The Aspen Fire Department began using AI detection cameras in 2021, after a donor supplied money to buy them. There are now nine of these cameras in the surrounding Roaring Fork Valley – and Aspen Fire Chief Rick Balentine thinks Colorado firefighters should be using more of them.  

He recently testified at a hearing for the most recent bill state legislators are considering, which would help fund more of these cameras throughout the state.  

Rick joined Erin O’Toole to explain how the technology works, starting from the moment when a camera thinks it might have spotted a plume of smoke in the distance.

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 Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org
Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!
 
Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
 
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Crowds of sandhill crane admirers gather in Southern Colorado each spring to watch these birds – which have recovered after nearly being wiped out a century ago. 

The birds’ admirers are fascinated by the cranes’ calls, their mating behaviors, and the fact that the species has existed for 2.5 million years. 

Scott Weidensaul is a writer and ornithologist who has also found inspiration from the sandhill cranes. He is the keynote speaker at this year’s Monte Vista Crane Festival, in the San Luis Valley, which starts this Friday. Scott talked with Erin O’Toole about the role these birds play in our imagination, and why he has found them so inspiring. 

Thank you to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library for letting us share recordings from their sandhill crane audio archive.

Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org
Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!

Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Colorado has ambitious goals around renewable energy.  Governor Jared Polis is aiming for 100 percent of the energy in the state to come from renewable sources by the year 2040.   

But there’s an obstacle: Colorado doesn’t have enough power lines to deliver all that renewable energy from where it’s produced – often in rural parts of the state – to where it’s needed. A new study from the state’s Electric Transmission Authority found that Colorado needs at least $4.5 billion in transmission investment over the next decade or two, just to keep up with demand.  

Which is why clean energy advocates, and Gov. Polis, are intrigued by an unusual business model from a San Francisco-based company called SunTrain.  

The plan involves loading train cars with massive batteries filled with renewable energy. The trains would haul batteries from solar and wind farms in rural areas of Colorado to the cities and towns that need that electricity.  

SunTrain’s President Christopher Smith and CEO Jeff Anderson have been working with Xcel Energy to pilot their idea. They hope to demonstrate the concept in Pueblo in 2026.  

They spoke with Erin O’Toole about how “trainsmission” works, and how much of an impact it could have on Colorado’s energy landscape. 

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Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org
Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!
 
Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
 
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Democrats in Colorado control the governor’s office and both houses of the state legislature. Many of them openly oppose the Republican Trump administration’s actions to ramp up arrests and deportation of immigrants without legal status in the state. 
 
And those Democratic lawmakers have heard from many constituents in recent weeks who also oppose immigration raids. 
 
But more than a month after Trump took office and sweeps began in places like Denver and Aurora, Colorado Democrats still haven’t determined how they plan to push back. 

KUNC politics and legislature reporter Lucas Brady Woods spoke with Erin O’Toole to help explain what state legislators can – and can’t – do in the face of federal immigration enforcement.  

You can find more of KUNC's statehouse coverage from the Capitol News Alliance here.    

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Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org
Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!
 
Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
 
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.
 

Challenging anti-trans legislation – and   finding a way to laugh about it. 

That’s the idea behind a new national comedy tour created by a transgender comedian who lives in Gunbarrel, outside of Boulder.  

Ren Q Dawe is the organizer of the tour – called “Here  to Pee” – which launches this Saturday at Junkyard Social in Boulder. The comedians have stops planned in all 50 states. And some of the comedy, which is performed by trans comics, revolves around literal potty humor. That’s significant in an era when public bathrooms can be contentious spaces for trans folks.   

Ren joined Erin O’Toole to talk about why comedy is his way of standing up for his community.

Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org
Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!

Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

A piece of U.S. immigration law allows some people who have entered the country illegally to be detained and quickly deported – without typical legal proceedings and a hearing before an immigration judge.   

Until recently, this policy applied to people without legal status who had been in the country for less than two weeks, if they were detained near the U.S. border.  

But on the first day of his new term, President Trump dramatically expanded that policy, known as expedited removal. Now, immigrants without legal status who’ve been in the country for up to two years can be deported more quickly. And Trump’s revised version of the policy applies to the entire U.S. – not just the border region.  

This shift potentially affects thousands of noncitizens here in Colorado, at a moment when immigration officials have been ramping up raids in cities like Denver and Aurora.  

To better understand expedited removal, we reached out to Violeta Chapin, a professor of immigration law at the University of Colorado School of Law in Boulder, where she teaches the Immigration Defense Clinic. She spoke with Erin O’Toole about the potential impact of this policy change. 

Read a fact sheet and advice for members of the immigrant community from the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.

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Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org
Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!
 
Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
 
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.
 

Dozens of childcare and preschool centers in Colorado are run by companies backed by private equity funding.   

Private equity firms use investor money to buy companies with a goal of improving them and selling them for a profit. This kind of investment can help a small childcare business grow and make upgrades, which could be useful in a state like Colorado that has a childcare shortage.  

But many private equity firms have a reputation for cutting staff and raising prices. And that’s concerning to some Colorado lawmakers – especially since more public money is going to childcare and preschool after the state launched its universal pre-K program a few years ago.  

Several legislators at the state Capitol have introduced a bill that aims to establish some guardrails for private equity-backed centers. The proposed rules include requirements to notify parents about upcoming enrollment changes or staff layoffs. 

Journalist Ann Schimke has reported on this issue for Chalkbeat Colorado. She talked with Erin O’Toole about some of the concerns that led to the legislation.  

Chalkbeat found 170 childcare centers in Colorado run by chains that are owned or backed by private equity firms. You can read the reporting and see a list of those facilities here.

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Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org
Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!
 
Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
 
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

In 2018 the City of Boulder and Boulder County filed an unusual lawsuit: they sued Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy for contributing to climate change.  

Climate change, the lawsuit argued, has caused a plethora of problems like flooding, road damage, and an increase in wildfires. The city and county have spent millions of dollars reacting to these problems.  

And they wanted help paying for it.  

Since the case was filed, more communities around the country have followed Boulder’s lead and brought similar lawsuits against fossil fuel companies. 

Earlier this month, the Colorado Supreme Court held a hearing to determine the fate of this case.  

So, while we await a decision, we wondered: What are the odds of this lawsuit moving forward? And how might it affect other communities dealing with climate change?  

Erin O’Toole spoke with Colorado Sun reporter Parker Yamasaki, who’s been covering the case and the recent hearing, to learn more.

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Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org
Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!
 
Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
 
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.