Originally broadcast 02/12/2014
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The Squaw Creek Watershed Authority and what’s being done to monitor water quality in central Iowa was the topic of discussion on this past Wednesday’s Local Talk show. Co-hosts Susan Franzen and Tom Beell talked with Jerry Keys of the Story County Conservation Center and Pat Conrad of the EOR Water Ecology Community about the watershed, which extends north into Webster County and includes much of Boone and Story Counties. (A map of the watershed is to the left) Also on the program, Penny Brown Huber, executive director of Prairie Rivers of Iowa, told how her group is working to make more people aware of the watershed and how they can help take care of it. Wednesday’s program also included a report by reporter Kay Puttock on the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), which is cosponsoring a Trivia Contest Fundraiser next month with KHOI.

Originally broadcast 02/05/2014
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Today we visited two of the last events to take place at the historic Champlain Building on the corner of Welch and Lincoln Way, built by A.L.Champlain in 1908. It has recently been sold by the Champlain family to Kingland Systems which plans to demolish it in the spring of 2014. We attended a tour of the building for members of the Ames Historical Society days before the public auction on Monday, February 3. From Champlain's granddaughter, Lynn Lloyd, we learned the history of the building and its relationship to Iowa State and the larger Ames community.

Local Talk program originally broadcast 01/31/2014
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Two projects aimed at encouraging young people to read were featured on KHOI’s Local Talk show Friday, Jan. 31.

Co-hosts Susan Franzen and Tom Beell talked with the president and vice president of Raising Readers , Carol Elbert and Carolyn Jons, who described the wide variety of activities their group’s volunteers undertake to instill a love of reading in children.

Also appearing on the program Friday was Linda Olson, organizer of Project Smyles at the Ames Public Library. Project Smyles encourages youngsters to take advantage of the library’s rich collection of books, CDs and DVDs. Staff members conduct story times for children’s groups and in other ways help children develop appreciate the joy and value of reading. Like Raising Readers, Project Smyles is funded by grants and private donations. Earlier in the program, Paul Schlarbaum talked with Steve Dinsmore about the unusual sounds of Iowa’s owls. And then Pete Seeger, who died Monday (Jan. 27), was remembered with his performance of Alligator Hedgehog and Leather Wing Bat from his album, Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Fishes.

Heart of Iowa program originally broadcast 01/28/2014
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Jeremy Kerr of the University of Ottawa, a consultant for the Canadian government about species at risk of extinction, describes his work mapping change on a macro scale. Dr. Kerr argues that this kind of science is becoming more relevant in the context of climate change. His particular research interest is butterflies, and his lab recently launched the website "ebutterfly," where ordinary citizens can contribute to ecological science by logging in data about butterfly sightings. Kerr's lecture was this year's Paul L. Errington Memorial Lecture at ISU. Errington was an Iowa State College scientist whose 1957 book, Of Men and Marshes, is in the same class of work as Aldo QCLeopold's Sand County Almanac.