Some archaeologists are calling for preserving human-made artifacts on Mars.

I don't see a difference between finding a, say, arrowhead in East Africa versus the Curiosity's helicopter broken blade that is now discarded on Mars.

It's Thursday, December 26th, and you're listening to Science Friday.

I'm CyFry producer Charles Bergquist.

We've left quite a bit behind in space, satellites, moonbuggies, Mars rovers, even human excrement.

Some people have dubbed this space jump, but what if future

archaeologists wanted to trace the chronology of space exploration through those items? Should they

be preserved? We'll get to that story in a bit, but first, we're going to take a look at how some

local communities are taking environmental matters into their own hands and getting results.

It's part of a newsletter series

called Tiny Nature Triumphs from our digital producer Emma Gomez, who has those stories.

Ever wonder if that friendly-looking plant in your yard is invasive? And once you find out,

what do you do next? Well, there are some programs across the country that aim to convince homeowners

to remove invasive species from their yards and gardens. In Hamilton County, Indiana, their trade-in

program allows homeowners to replace invasives with a native plant from the area for free.

Claire Lane is an urban conservationist at Hamilton County's Soil and Water Conservation District,

and she runs that program.

Welcome, Claire.

Hi.

So could you tell me something like roughly how many people's backyards in Indiana

have invasive plants or what does a scale of this look like?

There are so many invasives.

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