ENVIRONMENT

On August 5th, the planet Mars will be invaded by an alien spacecraft – a robot probe from planet Earth! On Tuesday evening, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, also known as Curiosity, will arrive at Mars. 

It’s Labor Day. As people celebrate the last weekend of summer, KVNF’s Julia Kumari Drapkin and the iSeeChange project takes a look back at how the timing of flowers this season has affected backyard gardens, backcountry ecology, and even people’s back pockets.

iSeeChange is produced by Julia Kumari Drapkin and brought to you by KVNF and Localore, a national public media initiative. If you like what you hear, you can like the iSeeChange facebook page and participate in the conversation.

iSeeChange producer, Julia Kumari Drapkin, speaks with with local old timers Dallas and June Harding and others. Having lived and worked the land in the area for decades, they give us their observations on change in the area over time.

Last week, the Delta County Health department reported three additional cases of West Nile Virus among residents. That brings the total number of confirmed and suspect human cases of the virus in the county to 20–most of which have resulted in uncomplicated fever. Most of the reported cases have been in the Delta and North Fork areas, and on Saturday, the town of Hotchkiss sprayed to kill adult mosquitoes. For KVNF and the iSeeChange project, Julia Kumari Drapkin takes a closer look at why mosquitoes and West Nile Virus are thriving in a DROUGHT year and whether community efforts to spray late in the season will pay off.

Produced by Julia Kumari Drapkin, the iSeeChange project at KVNF is part of Localore, a nationwide production of AIR designed to accelerate transformation and extend public service media to all Americans.   KVNF was selected as one of  only 10 Localore stations across the country—learn more at airmediaworks.org. Localore is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Wyncote Foundation, the John T. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Interactive storytelling partner Zeega co-produced TheAlmanac.org with iSeeChange.