April 04, 2017

Long Now Foundation in Colorado // Wild Boulder Citizen Science

25 minutes

The Long Now Foundation in Colorado (start time 5:02): People often measure “success” as fifteen minutes of fame, or a blockbuster financial quarter. This focus on short term results doesn’t always build the skills needed to solve long-term problems, such as reducing disease outbreaks or maintaining species diversity. So some visionaries have created a playfully serious way to think ahead, and those “ways” include projects here in Colorado. Shelley Schlender tells us about the Long Now Foundation who are developing programs to foster long term responsibility and long term thinking.

Wild Boulder program. Photo Copyright Wild Boulder.

Wild Boulder (start time 10:t28): Boulder is launching a new citizen science project. The project, called Wild Boulder, will allow people in Boulder to use their smartphones to record wildlife observations, including photos, and share this information with local land managers and open space experts. To find out how this program works, and how it will benefit the community, we spoke with Dave Sutherland and Melanie Hill. Dave Sutherland is an Interpretive Naturalist with theCity of Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parksprogram. Melanie Hill is Director of Communications for the WILD Foundation, which works to protect wilderness while balancing the needs of human communities.

Additional information:

Details about the public lecture about the GOLD Mission, April 5th at 7:30 pm at LASP’s Space Technology Building.

To get involved in the Wild Boulder program download the iNaturalist app.

Sources:

Breathing and the brain: Science journal article

Book buying, science, and politics: LA Times article and Nature journal article

Hosts: Shelley Schlender and Alejandro Soto

Producer: Alejandro Soto

Engineer: Shelley Schlender

Additional contributions: Beth Bennett and Susan Moran

Executive Producer:Susan Moran

Listen to the show: