(upbeat music) - [Rick] Coming up next on NewsDepth why are these students speed eating at lunch?

We'll tell ya.

California's grand old sequoias are standing tall in the face of wildfires.

We head to Kenya to learn about protecting wild animals from poaching and we take a tour of our state house in this week's Know Ohio.

NewsDepth is now.

(upbeat music) It's wildfire season out west.

Hello everybody, I'm Rick Jackson, thank you for joining us.

The National Interagency Fire Center tells us that more than 5.5 million acres of land in the United States have already burned this year.

And seven of the eight largest fires are happening in California.

Take a look at these numbers from just this week.

The Dixie fire is by far the largest, burning more than 960,000 acres.

Wildfires are not uncommon this time of year.

But what is cause for concern is when they are beginning and ending.

They seem to be starting earlier in the year and ending later in the year.

And sometimes we even see that smoke drifting as far as Ohio.

The longer wildfire season has several causes according to the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, invasive plants that catch fire easily, late rains, long droughts.

Now not every living thing can evacuate when a wildfire strikes, trees and plants, they pretty much stay right where they're rooted.

Stephanie Elam shows us how the crisis is impacting one of California's most unique plants.

- [Stephanie] From their size... - General Sherman is 275 feet tall, holy cow.

- [Stephanie] To their longevity- - Now before the ancient Rome, before Christ, I mean, these trees were mature.

- [Stephanie] Much about giant sequoia trees is on a grand scale, with that distinctive red brown bark covering their thick trunks.

Sequoia trees can only be found in California, Sierra Nevada Mountains.

- This is a resilient tree, they are tough.

Almost nothing can kill them.

- [Stephanie] But climate change is changing that, shrinking the giant sequoia's footprint.

- The giant sequoia that was first weakened by drought was then subject to impacts by the bark beetle, which then further weakened the tree and potentially made it more susceptible to mortality from fire.

- [Stephanie] The stack tree is said to be the fifth largest tree in the entire world.

It's lived more than 3000 years.

And yet we're seeing that wildfire is threatening these giant sequoias more than ever before.

- The Castle Fire was a wake up call.

An estimated 7,500 to 10,600 trees were destroyed in that one fire alone.

- [Stephanie] Started by lightning in August, 2020, the Castle Fire was part of the Sequoia complex that burned more than 174,000 acres, scorching several Sequoia groves.

- It was devastating, heartbreaking.

Everything had been incinerated.

It was a field of the world's largest burned up toothpicks.

- [Stephanie] After decades of suppressing forest fire, other trees and brush have grown rapidly around the sequoias.

- The fires that used to burn every 5 to 10 years in the Sierra would just keep down the competition and reduce the fuel naturally.

- [Stephanie] On land owned by the Save The Redwoods League, we hiked out to see just how deadly the Castle Fire was here.

- For us to see 10 to 14% of the total of giant sequoias alive killed in one year in one fire is, there's nothing to compare that to.

- [Stephanie] Yet fire in and of itself is not the enemy of the giant sequoia.

- Their cones open up their seeds to start to germinate after a fire.

- [Stephanie] So near those lost giants where the fire wasn't too intense, small shoots of hope take root.

- What I see is a lot of these little baby giant sequoias that have sprouted up since the fire happened.

- [Stephanie] Without an urgent response to the climate crisis and increased forest maintenance, experts worry more of the once seemingly impervious sequoias will be lost.

- Thanks, Stephanie.

The USDA Forest Service estimates that human spark 90% of wildfires so what can we do to help prevent them?

For starters, don't play with matches or lighters.

If you're camping out or having a backyard bonfire, don't leave the fire unattended and make sure it's completely out before you leave.

And if it is a windy day, just hold off on the bonfires and sparklers altogether.

Now how about a spin around the globe to see some more of nature?

The coronavirus pandemic has put a pause on Kenya's safari tourism industry and the country's wildlife is paying a price.

Let's take a look at that country before checking the news.

Nairobi, the East African country of Kenya lies on the equator with a coast on the Indian ocean.

From 1920 through 1963, Kenya was under the control of the United Kingdom.

Now it's a republic with a president and three branches of government.

It is also home to about 53 million people.

Many of whom live in the capital city of Nairobi.

The safari land is perfect for spotting elephants, lions, giraffes and cheetahs but recently those animals have been the target of poaching.

Poaching is the hunting of protected animals.

Reporter Scott McClain has the details on why there has been an increase in that crime, Scott.

- [Scott] The Savannah of Southern Kenya is a tough place to survive.

It's hot, dry and there's the constant threat of predators planning their next meal.

Lions, leopards and lately, a lot of humans too.

- Currently the situation is worse because most people have lost their jobs and now they're resorting to poaching.

- [Scott] Twice a day Donart Mwakio and his team of rangers from the sprawling Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary go hunting for poachers.

On this day they find a crudely, butchered Giraffe carcass killed by poachers in the last two weeks.

- It weight about one ton.

- [Scott] Down the dirt road, the footprints are much fresher.

It leads to a homemade snare fashion from the electric fence meant to keep poachers out.

They find two more traps.

The last one attached to the hoof of an eland, the largest antelope on earth.

New figures from the Kenya Wildlife Service show that seizures of bushmeat, mostly antelopes, zebras and dik-diks are on pace to hit a record high.

- The problem is not looking very good at the moment.

Poverty is something that was, that came through with COVID because jobs are lost.

- [Scott] People are desperate.

- [John] People are desperate, yes.

- They sit in the village morning to evening.

They don't have a cent, they don't have food.

- [Scott] Willie Mwadilo is the general manager of Taita Hills and the two hotels inside the sanctuary, that pre pandemic were almost always near capacity.

But in the past 18 months, he says they've scarcely top 20%.

People are asking you for jobs?

- Yes, so many people, so many people.

- [Scott] You don't have jobs to give them.

- I don't have jobs to give them.

- [Scott] In the village next to the sanctuary, poverty is the rule, not the exception.

Wildlife is the most precious resource but without tourism animals are worth a lot more dead.

This village was struggling even before the pandemic.

Only some of the houses are hooked up to electricity.

Nobody has indoor plumbing and the pandemic has made life just that much harder.

People here say they don't have enough to eat and so it's pretty hard to blame them for poaching.

Ibrahim Chombo takes any odd job he can to earn the $7 a day that ensures his wife and two small kids have enough to eat.

But since the pandemic took hold, his kids eat just once a day.

They become weak because there's nothing to eat.

They don't complain, they know when their parents get money, they will get to eat he says.

Chombo says he doesn't poach bushmeat but like many he buys it.

He can't afford beef, it's at least four times the price.

- Before corona they were so many customers.

- [Scott] The local butcher works on commission.

Pre-pandemic his display case would be filled with 20 or 25 kilograms of beef now there's just one.

Almost no one can afford it.

- The root of the problem is we now must look for alternative but first we must educate the people to tell them the problem of why bushmeat is not the alternative.

- [Scott] That perhaps is a tough sell, considering tourism has all but dried up.

- It has but a recent numbers are beginning to show that it's beginning to pick up.

- [Scott] Glimmer of light that cannot come soon enough.

- Thanks, Scott.

- Kind of like this thing we've got going about how we as humans can impact and protect the environment.

So let's stick with it for one more story, more and more customers in the US are turning to solar power for their electricity.

Solar power is the heat and light given off by the sun that can be transformed into electricity we can use.

It's a much cleaner and more sustainable source of power than say burning coal or natural gas.

President Joe Biden's administration is backing a move to make getting solar power easier than ever.

Jeremy Roth reports.

- [Jeremy] Solar power is heating up in America.

More businesses and homeowners than ever before are investing in solar panel systems.

Almost half of new electrical capacity in 2020 came from solar and the solar energy industries association says the US is expected to deploy three times as much solar capacity over the next decade as was installed by the end of the last.

Homeowners like Mitch Kapa of Atlanta are leading the charge as early adopters.

- For sure, like checking, you know, my power bill now versus before this whole panels were activated, you can see a clear difference.

Honestly, the biggest motivation is probably just more of an environmental aspect, just to do something, to put like, you know, my little drop in the bucket as far as what we can do.

- [Jeremy] An obvious challenge for homeowners is the upfront system costs.

But the real hurdle has been clearing the red tape since every state and local jurisdiction has its own requirements.

Investing in solar has included lots of paperwork and lots of waiting until now.

The US Department of Energy has debuted an online tool called Solar App.

It's designed to streamline applications, standardized requirements and in some cases provide instant permit approvals for installations.

It's a key part in aiding the Biden administration's long-term climate change goals.

- The cost of delay are simply too high.

And the economics tell us that there's simply no reason to wait because solar power just makes sense.

- Thanks Jeremy, okay, now we wanna hear from you.

We all can play a role in taking care of our little parts of the planet.

Write to us and tell us how can you protect your local environment.

Now last week we asked you to tell us what historic figure you would honor by turning them into a statue.

Let's open up our inbox and see what you had to say.

Here's one from Nora from Silver Lake Elementary in Silver Lake.

The historical figure that I would turn into a statue is Amelia Earhart.

I would choose Amelia Earhart because she was a great pioneer and fought bravely against the boys who were telling her that she could not fly.

Also she has a great mystery.

Sophia from Cloverleaf Elementary in Seville sent us this letter.

I think Abraham Lincoln should be a statue because he freed the slaves and gave them a new chance to live.

He tried really hard to free them.

He also helped a lot in the civil war and he was commander in chief too.

The civil war was a challenging time for many lives and Abe tried to make it better.

Maria from Marion Local Schools in Maria Stein wrote, the historical figure that I would make into a statue is a firefighter because they save people's lives every day.

Firefighters are brave and I feel they would love having a statue in honor of them.

Angel from Pleasant Run Middle in Cincinnati wrote, I would make a statue of Harriet Tubman because she was the one who helped the slaves escape.

She was a very strong and independent woman.

She stood up to her master.

Also she helped people during the civil war.

Finally, Natalie from Maryland Elementary in Bexley wrote.

My answer to this week's question is Sacagawea because she was a major part of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

She helped them like a guide to explore the Western United States.

She also represents women's rights and independence.

I think that people should recognize all she did for us.

Great answers every one.

And Natalie, my answer was also Sacagawea, who's statue in Bismarck, South Dakota I just saw last month.

Good timing, great letter, thank you.

Now the story last week that got us talking about historic statues was set in Richmond, Virginia.

You remember the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue.

Well now Richmond has launched a new app that will bring to life some of their other statues through augmented reality.

Augmented reality is a technology that overlays computer generated images on top of the real world.

You might be familiar with it through Pokemon Go or those face filter apps that can make you look like NewsCat.

But in Richmond, they're using their new app, Monumental Conversations to share the untold stories of the city.

Desiree Montilla reports.

- [Desiree] On the steps of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture... (clapping and cheering) Richmond public school leaders unveiled Monumental Conversations, a tour using visual arts to tell stories and share history with augmented reality you can see right from your phone.

- It's about telling the full history of Richmond, the good, the bad and the ugly.

- [Desiree] Superintendent Jason Kamras joined dozens to welcome this app into the community with a mission.

- Elevating the voices of Richmond's residents who have historically been marginalized and been unheard at a systematic level, especially in places like Monument Avenue.

- [Desiree] People can walk to several places starting at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and take this tour.

Here's how it works.

First, you'll need your smartphone for this tour.

And while you're walking around Monument Avenue, keep an eye out for these monumental conversation stickers.

Once you find one of those stickers, open up your camera app, put it right over the sticker and scan the QR code at the bottom to open up the link to download the app.

Once you download the app, the other side of your camera lens is gonna show that augmented reality tour right down Monument Avenue.

- Being able to come to Monument Avenue, come to Arthur Ashe Boulevard and see and hear Richmond's real history right here before your eyes, it's really something special.

- [Desiree] A tool heart hopes will shine a spotlight on the untold stories within Richmond.

- It's not just telling the stories from the past that are more negative but actually being able to tell those stories of black resilience and be able to have them told from local residents right here in Richmond.

- Thanks, Desiree.

Well from Richmond, the capital of Virginia, let's turn to our own state Capitol.

We thought it might be fun to take you on a tour of our state house.

It's located right there in downtown Columbus.

Mary Fecteau is gonna be our guide in this week's Know Ohio, take a look.

(cheerful country music) - In Ohio the state house is where it all goes down.

Well, governmentally speaking that is.

The Ohio State House is one massive stone building in Columbus and inside lawmakers keep our state's government going.

The state house is so big that it took more than 20 years to construct.

At the time, it was second in size only to the US Capitol building in Washington, DC.

Both buildings were built in the Greek revival style, a tribute to the ancient Greeks who are considered the inventors of democracy.

Nathan Kelly was one of the architects on the job and he thought that such an important building should look impressive on the outside and on the inside.

So we added lots of ornate details to the rooms.

The statehouse commissioners in charge of construction thought he was going a little overboard, especially with how expensive his flourishes were.

So they fired him.

Nevertheless in 1861, when the building was finally finished, it included some of his special features like the 120 foot tall rotunda.

A rotunda is around room with a dome ceiling, inside at the top of the rotunda is the Great Seal of Ohio.

Other cool rooms in the state house include the map room.

The floor here displays the 88 counties in Ohio and is made out of five different types of marble.

Then we have the Senate chamber, which has 33 seats and the house chamber, which has 99 seats.

It is here the lawmakers make well walk.

Let's look a little closer at the house chamber, pretty fancy, huh?

Once again, that's thanks to Nathan Kelly.

He wanted to add balconies so the public could feel they were floating above their elected officials.

The commissioners weren't convinced that the balcony was strong enough though.

So they made Kelly add iron support brackets, Fancy pants Kelly didn't like the look of the iron so he had it painted to look like wood.

Also inside the state house is the governor's office.

Does it look a little old?

Well that's on purpose.

It is kept in the same style as it was from 1861.

This is what it looked like when Abraham Lincoln visited.

Lincoln came here to talk with Ohio governor, William Dennison Jr. about the impending civil war.

It was on his trip to our state house that Lincoln learned he was confirmed President of the United States.

Elections are in November but it took to February to count all the votes back then.

It might look like the state house has just about everything it needs but it was actually planned without heating.

That's a big problem for our cold winters.

To solve it Kelly came up with a creative solution.

He puts steam pipes in the basement to heat the air there.

Then he added air ducts to the rooms above.

He figured since hot air rises, the rooms above would become toasty from the hot air below.

Plus he added ventilation stacks that sucked the unheated air out from the tops of the rooms.

Oddly enough, these air ducts were called air sewers.

Doesn't sound pleasant but they did the trick until the bathrooms were installed and got the air sewers mixed with the actual sewers.

It caused quite a stink and made many of the lawmakers sick with what they nicknamed state house malaria.

It wasn't until 1884 that they solved the mystery stench and cleaned it up.

Luckily, we've been left with a beautiful building where our elected lawmakers can get to work without plugging their noses.

- Thanks Mary, state house malaria?

Eh, it made me lose my appetite for lunch.

Luckily, I'm not at this next school in California.

They're all about precision timing when it comes to lunch.

Now to make sure their students are safe from catching COVID-19 Mattie Washburn Elementary is limiting their lunch time to just 14 minutes.

Okay, yes, it's an odd amount of time but apparently they have reasons, Wayne Friedman explains.

- [Wayne] For all the ways that COVID has changed our lives, here's one you may not have seen coming.

A rush for the daily school lunch.

- Good job, spread yourselves out.

- [Wayne] That is Susan Yakich.

The principal at Mattie Washburn Elementary School in Windsor, where as the kids grab lunch they also prepare for a race against time.

It's an adaptation prompted by a day last month when two COVID exposures forced them to close down an entire grade level.

- It just seemed irresponsible for us to not address it.

That's a lot of students out and it's very difficult to learn from home.

- [Wayne] So beginning yesterday from the time students sit down until they leave, they now get a grand total of 14 minutes in which to remove their masks and eat.

So you might wonder why 14 minutes, seems like an odd number but actually there's a reason for it because state guidelines mandate full quarantines after an exposure at 15 minutes.

14 minutes gives them one minute to spare.

- By doing this for 14 minutes, we can accurately say to the Department of Public Health, we know our students have not been unmasked and within six feet close contact for more than 15 minutes.

- [Wayne] By then the district had already determined that lunchtime poses the greatest of infection.

They still treat it that way.

Every child has an assigned seat as noted by pieces of tape so they know who sits next to who.

Since doing that alone quarantine rates have dropped from those 317 kids on that one day last month to just seven students today.

Peter Sullivan runs COVID mitigation for the district.

- We can go from a full quarantine to a modified quarantine, keeping our kids in school.

- [Wayne] It's a simple solution to a complex problem by working within this system.

A new definition for power lunching in elementary school.

- Thank you, Wayne.

For this week's poll, we wanna know how long do you get for lunch?

Head online to choose from these options.

Less than 20 minutes, 20 to 30 minutes and over 30 minutes.

Some good news when it comes to kids and COVID is that drug makers are getting closer to a vaccine for children aged 5 to 11.

Pfizer, whose vaccine is approved for anyone 12 and up says its latest trial of the COVID-19 vaccine for younger children went well.

They say their vaccine is safe and generated a robust protection against the virus.

And these are the first such results released for US COVID 19 vaccine in this age group.

So far though, the data hasn't been reviewed by their scientist or published.

The vaccine also needs to get approved by the US Food and Drug administration for emergency use before children may have a shot.

Of course we'll be following this story right along with you but back to the polls.

Last week, we asked you to vote on how you get to school.

52% of you said you take the bus, just over 1% of you said you are at home or taking classes online.

Nice to see though that most of you are back to in-person classes.

I like that, we're getting to know a lot more about you through our poll.

Well, one student we are happy to know tons about is this week's NewsDepth A+ winner.

Let's go to Normandy High School Junior, Chris Nowak is who we're gonna talk to.

Chris gathered donations for 115 teenagers who were aging out of the foster care system.

It's a project near and dear to him because Chris spent time in foster care himself before being adopted.

He wanted to come up with a way to help other kids still in foster care.

Chris said when a foster teen turns 18 and has to leave foster care, they often don't have much to take with them.

Chris said once he found that out, it really broke my heart and I just wanted to help them.

So for his Eagle Scout project, he created a website that lets people donate money for life essentials like toiletries, towels, pans, maybe a suitcase.

Then Chris and others packaged the items together into a fresh start kit.

This way the foster youth have their own items to start off with and to make their transition out of foster care smoother according to Chris.

He and his mom, Crystal raised, get this, $21,000.

That's enough money to make kits for 115 foster youth who are aging out of the system.

It's also more than double the amount Chris was hoping for.

Normandy High principal, Rachel Urban said it was amazing to see how many helping hands came together under Chris's organization to get the life kits packed and sent on their way.

Principal Urban also said it was a huge operation and Chris deserves a lot of credit for what was accomplished.

She's proud to have Chris at Normandy High and says he's emerged as a student leader at the school.

Chris said it made him feel proud to be able to help other kids and to raise awareness about the foster care system among his friends and his community.

He also credits his mom for having a big impact on him and giving him the empathy that he has now.

So Chris Nowak, we are thrilled to award you this week's NewsDepth A+ for leading the successful fundraiser for foster care kids who are aging out of the system.

You've got a big heart and it showed through this project.

Well done.

Okay, it's your favorite time of the show.

I know, I'm second fiddle here because NewsCat's ready, let's see what she's got pawed up for this week's Petting Zoo.

(jungle music) (cat meows) - [Narrator] Hey there cat, napping already?

Come on, it's week three, time to work.

Okay, look at those paws go, much better.

Hmm, what's she found?

It's a story about some brown bear brothers chowing down on giant veggies from the state fair.

Wow, it's like they really liked the cabbage and the cauliflower.

- The bears don't get to attend the Alaska State Fair but there's a portion of the Alaska State Fair that comes to them.

- To see the full story, click the Petting Zoo Button on our website.

- Thank you NewsCat.

Now here's that reminder again about our newsletter for teachers and parents too, we know some of you are watching.

Each week we email you a preview of the show and the resources to use right along with it.

You can find the sign up on the NewsDepth homepage and to say thank you we'll send the new NewsCat poster your way, the cat, not me, the cat.

That's for the hundreds of you signed up, don't worry, you get one too.

Now while you're signing up, why not drop us a line because we always wanna hear from you, teachers and students.

And there are plenty of ways to stay in touch.

You can write to us, we're at 1375 Euclid Avenue.

That's right in the middle of downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code is 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org or you can tweet us.

Our handle is @newsdepthohio, all one word.

Plus you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit subscribe if you're old enough so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thanks for joining us, I'm Rick Jackson.

We'll see you right back here next week.

(upbeat music) - [Child] NewsDepth is made possible by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

(upbeat music)