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 the development of especially large – or “hyperscale” – data centers that would consume more than 5 percent of the city’s available power. That’s about 70 megawatts, or enough energy to power roughly 30,000 homes.  

At the moment, there are no data centers proposed for Longmont that fit that description. So we reached out to Matthew Popkin, the city council member who proposed the ordinance, to talk about the idea behind the measure. He spoke with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner. 

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 their ranch had recently killed a female wolf to defend livestock on the property, according to The Colorado Sun.  

That's a serious admission. Killing a wolf is illegal in Colorado, and can come with fines or jail time. Ranchers are required to try other methods to protect their livestock before using a lethal option.  

So what does the death of this wolf — and the rancher’s admission about it — say about the status of Colorado’s wolf reintroduction project? 

Tracy Ross covered the story for the Colorado Sun, which is a partner of KUNC News. She talked with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner about what she found out. 

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 was ordered to stop. 

It was a historic moment in the movement for LGBTQ rights, and her actions made her a hero -- and a target of backlash. 

Mardi Moore is the CEO of Rocky Mountain Equality, an LGBTQ advocacy group based in Boulder. She was a friend and colleague of Clela, who died in 2022 at the age of 78. 

In The NoCo’s Erin O'Toole spoke with Mardi in 2025 to learn more about Clela Rorex and that day she made history back in 1975. We’re listening back to that conversation today. 

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 Los Angeles, had grown dramatically over the decades.   

So negotiators from various states talked for years without agreeing how to divvy up the river going forward. And now federal officials are moving forward with their vow to take control. Last week at a conference in Boulder they announced they plan to call the shots for the next decade.  

So, with reservoirs in the Colorado River basin at alarmingly low levels, will this new arrangement help or create more disagreements? And will this be a turning point for the river? 

Alex Hager has covered the Colorado River for KUNC News as well as KJZZ, who are our partners in the Mountain West News Bureau. He spoke with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner about what the decision means for the 40 million people across the Southwest who rely on the river. 

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 war and lived on a base that was frequently under fire.   

He revisited those experiences in his new book. It’s called Chaos in the Green Zone: My Time as an Iraq War Strategist. Tom spent more than a decade working on the memoir. 

He spoke with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner about his account of what went wrong in the Iraq War, and what lessons military leaders might apply as the conflict with Iran continues. 

Read an excerpt from the book.

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 supercomputer. It’s currently managed by a group of more than 100 universities that oversee it at NCAR’s headquarters in Boulder. Last week, a federal judge paused that transfer.  

Colorado Sun reporter Michael Booth talked with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner about the judge’s reasoning, why the supercomputer was on the table and how the uncertainty around NCAR’s future has taken a serious toll on the staff. 

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 near Fairplay and Grand Lake, the Denver Post reported. 

Around this time last year, In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole talked about this with Bridget O'Rourke – who’s a public information officer with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. And we’re revisiting that interview today. They spoke after several moose encounters that happened in summer 2025. Here’s Bridget offering Erin some advice on how to be safe around moose -- and explaining what makes them dangerous 

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 a professor of chemistry at Colorado State University who says the air inside our homes is one of the biggest influences on our health – whether it's fine particulates from cooking, or fumes from bathroom cleaners.  

Delphine shared some tips with Erin O’Toole on how to spruce up the air inside your home and what to watch for as you do it. 

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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
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 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 Mountain Division didn’t end there. After the war, many of those veterans became trailblazers in the outdoor sports world. Some became athletes; others started ski resorts or recreation companies, while others helped invent or redesign outdoor gear.   

A new History Colorado exhibit now open in Leadville highlights the soldiers of Camp Hale, and the post-war contributions that the soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division made to Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy and culture. 

Sydney Mauck is History Colorado's Anschutz Military Collections specialist.  She spoke with Erin O’Toole about Camp Hale’s enduring legacy. 

If you enjoyed this conversation, check out Part 1 of the discussion about the soldiers who trained at Camp Hale. 

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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
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.

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.  

A new History Colorado exhibit called Winter Warriors explores the legacy of Camp Hale and its impact on surrounding communities. It’s on display at the Healey House Museum in Leadville.   

With Colorado celebrating 150 years of statehood this year, we wanted to learn more about this fascinating piece of the state’s history. So we reached out to Sydney Mauck, History Colorado's Anschutz Military Collections specialist.  

She talked with Erin O'Toole about the U.S. Army’s first, and only, winter warfare division – and the pivotal role of these "soldiers on skis" in World War II. 

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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
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.