Join Tom and Darrin on this week’s Garden Guys as they travel to a mystery site in La Plata County to visit a local home-based grower. Discover the mystery of the San Marzano tomato and many other great gardening tips. What’s your pleasure (besides two cases of tomato sauce)?

New Mexico tribal leaders will head to Washington DC later this week to push members of Congress to extend protections from oil and gas development around Chaco Canyon.

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Each year, male brown tarantulas trek across part of Colorado to look for ladies. From mid-September to mid-October, they leave the safety of their burrows to go on journeys that will take interesting turns as they face rejection, predators and fatigue. 🕷️

The 109th anniversary of the National Park Service comes at a turbulent time for the agency. It's facing proposed budget cuts of up to $1 billion, as well as staffing shortages. Public lands advocates are hoping to draw attention to proposed cuts by visiting gateway towns in the West.

Fort Collins-based RLY ORY is a sister/sister/dad trio that plays originals and punk covers influenced by Green Day, The Ramones, and The Clash. Sisters Ophelia Youngberg, 11, and Mona Youngberg, 13, make up the band along with their father, Aaron. Listen to their recent KSUT Session:

Why are suicide rates among the oldest Coloradans three times higher than teenagers?

Garden Guys is back! After a pause for the drought, Tom and Darrin return to the airwaves to see how everyone’s garden has fared with the recent rains. They also talk bears, racoons, wind and weeds. Catch Garden Guys Saturdays at noon and on the KSUT website.

Advocacy groups are urging Colorado to launch a phased-in ban of lead-based hunting ammo. Lead bullets shatter upon impact, leaving tiny fragments in animal carcasses that scavengers feed on. Lead poisoning is the leading cause of death for critically endangered California condors.

As human-driven climate change makes winters shorter, ticks are spending less time hibernating and have more active months when they can hitch rides on animals and people. Sometimes the ticks carry themselves — and diseases — to new parts of the country.

KSUT lost a beloved member of its family this week with the passing of Susan Banes, known to listeners throughout the Four Corners as Susie B. Susie joined us in 2015 and hosted the Friday Afternoon Blend and Women Be Wise. We’ll be doing a series of on-air tributes to Susie in the coming days.

A new fire has broken out on the northeast end of the Forest Lakes subdivision north of Bayfield. The Blue Ridge Fire is 3-5 acres. Multiple structures are threatened and evacuation orders have been issued. Aerial support is responding. Evacuation info: experience.arcgis.com/experience/9...

On Indigenous lands in remote regions where cell service is spotty & highways are nonexistent, radio is a vital community lifeline But after the trumps canceled $9.4 billion in *previously allocated* funding, the future of tribal public media is up in the air “Stations are trying to figure it out”

Officials and experts monitoring a gasoline spill in southwestern Colorado say they are certain — almost — that the nearby Animas River is not at risk. Residents have their doubts. The Colorado Sun reports.

The Gold King mine spill happened ten years ago today. It wasn’t the first big, unexpected release of acidic drainage from mines near Silverton. Nor was it the last.

Over a career that spanned 70 years, Jimenez' playing came to define the Tex-Mex music and carried the tradition-drenched conjuto sound all over the world and across genres.

The mandolin virtuoso captivates with her deep storytelling and incredibly fast fingerpicking.

The Elkhorn Fire north of Durango continues to burn slowly, while the Rim Road Fire on Southern Ute lands is nearing containment. Here’s the latest update on our website:

"WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 1, 2025) – The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today that it will begin an orderly wind-down of its operations" cpb.org/pressroom/Co...

“This is different than ‘we’re just slowing the growth.’ This is ‘we don’t have the money to pay our bills.’ So we need to do something. Every day that goes by, this problem gets more difficult. Every day we wait means we have deeper cuts we will have to make.”

Here’s the latest update on the #ElkHornFire and #RimRoadFire, as of noon on Wednesday, July 30.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks recorded an album as a duo before joining Fleetwood Mac. It wasn't a hit in 1973. But after much anticipation, it's due to get its first reissue in September.

The Elkhorn and Rim Road fires started over the weekend and have forced evacuations.

We have three wildfires burning in La Plata County as of Sunday morning. Visit our Facebook page for the latest updates:

Recently, KSUT Director Tami Graham talked to Morning Edition host Jim Belcher to update listeners on where things stand for the station following the July 18 vote to rescind funding for public media. Listen to the interview or read the transcript:

KSUT Executive Director Tami Graham on the recent end to federal funding: “I see a scenario, absolutely, where federal funding will return. Will it be a completely different mix of what that funding looks like? Could it be completely restructured? Yes, and maybe that's not a bad thing…”

On her upcoming album, Hard Headed Woman, Margo Price is getting back to her country roots. She joined Kallao for a recent World Cafe session:

Hot, dry weather and abundant fuels created the perfect storm for lightning-caused fires on the Western Slope and in southeastern Utah. Drought forecasters are predicting little relief later this summer.

By a partisan 216-213 vote, the House approved President Trump's request to pull back $8B in foreign aid and all $1.1B set aside for NPR, PBS and their stations for the next 2 yrs. Congress has now unraveled its role in public media stretching back more than a half-century. 1/2

A mandate to sell millions of acres of federal land for housing development did not make it into Trump’s mega tax bill signed earlier this month. That’s after a wide range of opponents, including environmentalists, hunters, business leaders and others fiercely rallied against the proposal.

The Senate has approved the Trump administration's $9 billion rescission package aimed at clawing back money already allocated for public radio and television — a major step toward winding down nearly six decades of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The Senate votes today to claw back previously appropriated funding for public media. How can you help? 1: Call your Senators and urge them to protect public media. 2: Support KSUT with a one-time or recurring donation. Here’s how: www.ksut.org/announcement...

The historic Grand Canyon Lodge on the Grand Canyon's North Rim has been destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire. In this story, Arizona Highways editor Robert Stieve talks about a nostalgic tradition at the lodge and its history.

In recent weeks, destructive and deadly flash floods have hit several parts of the country, including the Mountain West. A New York Times analysis found the National Weather Service has vacant senior leadership positions at many offices overseeing areas vulnerable to flash floods.

Even while some legislators try horse trading to preserve funding for rural stations as the Senate votes on clawing back previously approved funding for public media, a poll surfaces showing a majority of Americans support federal funding for public radio. https://loom.ly/ttdMSjs

A wildfire destroyed a landmark hotel at Grand Canyon National Park. Now, Gov. Katie Hobbs is calling for a federal investigation, saying the response wasn’t aggressive enough. KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered Monday with the latest details. buff.ly/QZdS6Pg

A man who once ran for sheriff in Archuleta County has been charged with arson for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail into the Archuleta County Clerk’s office. William Wayne Bryant, 71, appears to have targeted the room where the county’s Dominion voting machines are stored.

The Associated Press reports that Grand Canyon National Park officials say the historic lodge on the North Rim has been destroyed by the fast-moving Dragon Fire.

The Senate is expected to vote this week on H.R. 4, the Rescissions Act of 2025, which was passed by the House on June 21. The bill claws back $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds local public media stations like KSUT. Here’s how you can help:

A New report maps a “severe” shortage of local journalists in the U.S.: www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/new-... I looked at the details for @niemanlab.org The report "finds that more than 1,000 counties — one out of three in the nation — do not have the equivalent of even one full-time local journalist."

The alt-rock icon performs music from her debut solo album, Nobody Loves You More.

The Senate votes soon on whether to eliminate $1.1 billion in already-approved funding for public media. If enacted, it could force rural stations off the air entirely. Contact your senators today: 🔗 protectmypublicmedia.org/rsc-calls/

Rising singer/songwriter Taylor Rae performed a KSUT Session recently. Taylor dropped by while doing a radio promotional tour of stations in the Mountain West region. Listen to her interview and a few songs she performed live in our studios:

The zebra mussel veliger found near New Castle is the furthest upstream this species has been detected on the Colorado River.

Check out our KSUT Session with the Durango’s High Country Hustle. They dropped by the studios to talk and play a few tunes. They also play today’s Durango 4th of July Street Dance, presented by KSUT. The party begins at 5 p.m. today in the Durango Transit Center parking lot. 🎇

The 4th of July, statistically, is one of the heaviest days of the year for wildfire starts. And this year the holiday comes amid heightened risk for major blazes.

Among the stories in this week’s Rocky Mountain Community Radio Regional Roundup: ➡️ Extreme heat is taking a significant toll on rural communities. ➡️ Colorado researchers take part in a major national study on hail. Listen now:

High Country Hustle plays a KSUT Session tomorrow, just after 2 pm. They’re also playing KSUT’s presentation of the Durango 4th of July Street Dance from 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday in the Durango Transit Center parking lot.

📣 As early as the week of July 7, the Senate could consider legislation that threatens the future of local public media stations nationwide. Senators have the power to change it. Tell yours: Remove the proposal to defund public media: bit.ly/4l2Lx3C #ProtectMyPublicMedia