Caroline Llanes
Rural Climate ReporterCaroline Llanes is the rural climate reporter for Rocky Mountain Community Radio. She covers climate change in the rural Mountain West, energy development, outdoor recreation, public lands, and so much more. Her work has been featured on NPR and APM's Marketplace.
She was previously a general assignment reporter at Aspen Public Radio, covering everything from local governments to public lands, and before that, she worked on WBUR's Morning Edition in Boston. She got her start in public radio at Michigan Public in Ann Arbor, where she also got a B.A. in history from the University of Michigan.
When she's not working, she's probably watching football, women's basketball, or a British murder mystery. She lives in Glenwood Springs with her partner and their little dog (Poppy) and cat (Pepper), where they spend a lot of time hiking and skiing of both the downhill and cross-country varieties.
-
Rain Enhancement Technologies, a private company, is testing a different approach to cloud seeding at a couple of project sites in the Rocky Mountains. The method is known as ionization cloud seeding and doesn’t use silver iodide. -
Utah’s congressional delegation is using the Congressional Review Act to throw out the resource management plan for the nearly 2 million-acre landscape. Congress has not used the CRA to undo resource management plans before. -
The Supreme Court will decide whether Boulder and Boulder County can sue fossil fuels companies for damages caused by climate change. ExxonMobil and Suncor USA say states are pre-empted by federal law, but the Colorado Supreme Court disagreed. -
The seven states that rely on the Colorado River need to figure out who will take cuts to water usage as climate change worsens drought in the basin. The federal government needs to start an environmental review process in order to have any new operating guidelines in place by October. -
Below average snowfall this year is hurting the ski industry’s bottom line in the Rocky Mountains, as resorts work to get guests on the slope with less snow. CSU Professor Michael Childers says this should prompt long-term thinking about climate change and the ski industry. -
The annual Conservation in the West poll from Colorado College shows that Western voters are worried about water quality and wildfire, and want their elected officials to take action on protecting public lands. The poll shows variation among states and demographic groups. -
Less federal pressure, worsening drought, and more interstate tension loom over Colorado River talksThe federal government manages the biggest dams on the Colorado River, but it hasn’t been taking a forceful role in negotiations between the states on how to allocate increasingly scarce water in the basin. -
A lack of snow, compounded by warm temperatures, has plagued Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. That will impact how much water is available come spring runoff. -
The Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-tribal Coalition provided extensive feedback for the resource management plan finalized one year ago. That plan is now in jeopardy since federal auditors ruled that Congress could use an obscure law to revoke it. -
Federal auditors say that Congress could use an obscure law called the Congressional Review Act to throw out the Utah monument’s resource management plan, which sets which activities are or aren’t allowed on the 1.9 million acres.
