Nell London

“Tree Line” is familiar to people in Colorado. That’s the altitude that trees won’t grow above in the mountains. There are also global tree lines. As you near the North and South poles, trees yield to extreme conditions. We now know precisely where that is in the Southern hemisphere because scientists have identified the world’s southernmost tree. Brian Buma trekked to that tree. He’s an associate professor of integrative biology at the University of Colorado Denver.

A trio of Colorado mountain climbers plan to make the first all-Black expedition to Mountain Everest next spring. They’re led by Phil Henderson of Cortez.

NASA missions often rocket toward a singular target: a neighboring planet or a distant moon. The Lucy spacecraft, however, is going on a grand tour–eight destinations over eight billion miles. If all goes as planned, Lucy launches Saturday, October 16. The spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin in Littleton. Richard Lipe is the program manager.

As summer turns to fall, high temperatures in parts of Colorado remain in the 80s. So when will the weather make you crave apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte? And what can we expect this winter? Paul Schlatter with the National Weather Service offers an outlook. And as the fall colors change, Pat Woodard shares his take on Colorado’s underappreciated Gambel oak for EnCompass Magazine.

A small Catholic church in the San Luis Valley is building a monumental project: A giant labyrinth made from adobe to encourage prayer and honor the region’s unique heritage. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the oldest parish in Colorado. It’s in Conejos, near Antonito.

“Whiskey’s for drinking, water’s for fighting” goes the old saying in the West. Well there’s a new fight in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. An investment company wants to pump water out of the underground aquifer and pipe it to fast-growing Denver suburbs 200 miles away.

The San Luis Valley produces more fresh potatoes than anywhere in the U.S. other than Idaho. And farmers here are welcoming a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Mexico. It cleared the way for them to sell potatoes in there. But they’re also skeptical, because the court decision is just the latest round in a trade dispute that has dragged on nearly two decades.

In Rocky Mountain National Park, they’ve discovered a new plant species. The Wishbone Moonwort is small and fern-like. Among the botanical sleuths, crawling on their hands and knees to find this, was Steve Popovich, a Forest Service botanist who recently retired.

“Simultaneously inspiring and terrifying.” That’s how University of Colorado Boulder professor Marcus Holzinger describes the traffic, and the trash, in space right now. He testified this month about the danger this poses and possible solutions at the first Space and Science Subcommittee chaired by Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper.

People with dementia have been hit hard in the pandemic. In Colorado, deaths among this population are up nearly a quarter. The toll on caregivers is incalculable. Amelia Schafer, head of the Colorado Alzheimer’s Association, joins us along with Jay Kephart of Denver, who cares for her husband at home.

Two astronauts from Colorado will help launch the next missions to the Moon, missions that include sending the first WOMAN to walk on the Moon by 2024. Matthew Dominick from Wheat Ridge and Jessica Watkins from Lafayette are part of the newly announced Artemis team. Ryan spoke with them in January when they graduated as NASA’s newest class of astronauts.