Your Ames Voice

Thursday, March 26, 2026

March 26, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Happy Thursday and may you live long and prosper!

We had a packed house at our co-sponsored event featuring Pulitzer-Prize winner and Storm Lake Times Pilot Editor Art Cullen. Every seat the library staff could find was filled with those eager to hear about Art’s book. Dr. Lisa Schulte Moore, the director of the Bioeconomy Institute at Iowa State University, led the Q&A discussion.

Thank you for showing up, and welcome to the several new subscribers we added from the event! 😀

In today's newsletter, we talk to Joel Sartore, who for 20 years has been working on the Photo Ark, a National Geographic project that aims to photograph all species living in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries. Tonight, he will speak on campus.

In other news, Ames is on the verge of opening its long-awaited Fitch Family Indoor Aquatic Center, but a dispute with a contractor is threatening to put a blemish on the project. The Cyclone men are heading to the Sweet 16.

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Co-Editors: Anthony Capps & Amber Mohmand
[email protected]

Help Us Hit the Big 1,000! 📣

The Ames Voice is closing in on a major milestone, and we’re asking for your help to push us over the finish line! We are officially on the hunt for our 1,000th subscriber.

Not only will subscribers get the best local news, stories and updates delivered straight to their inbox, but there is a tasty bonus on the line:

🎁 The Prize: Our 1,000th subscriber wins a $25 gift card to the Ames restaurant of their choice!

Whether they may be craving a classic burger, some local tacos or a cozy café treat and coffee, the next local classic treat could be on us.

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Top Story

Joel Sartore photographs Johnny, the serval (Leptailurus serval), at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo. | Photo: Cole Sartore

Joel Sartore: Documenting 18,000 species and counting for Photo Ark preservation

by Anthony Capps | Editor | Published on March 24, 2026

As a boy, Joel Sartore read about passenger pigeons, a once common North American bird that likely numbered in the billions but was purposely hunted to the point of extinction by 1914. He had a difficult time fathoming why people allowed such a thing to happen to the pigeon.

More than five decades later, Sartore, now a photographer for National Geographic and founder of the Photo Ark, is even farther from any comprehension.

“In fact, my understanding of that grows less with each year. I don’t understand why people don’t care,” he said. “The world would be so much better if we were a little bit kind and tolerant and thoughtful about nature especially.”

For the past 20 years, Sartore led the Photo Ark, a National Geographic project that aims to photograph all species living in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries.

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City of Ames

Ames City Council

City cuts costs, moves forward with $18 million recycling campus

by Bill Monroe | Staff Reporter

City leaders voted to move ahead with a major overhaul of Ames’ waste system after trimming nearly $1.6 million from an over-budget project, bringing the total construction cost for a new Resource Recovery and Recycling Campus (R3C) to about $18.1 million.

Civic Calendar

Thu (March 26): Ames Human Relations Commission, 5:30 p.m., Room 235 at City Hall (Ames)

Thu(March 26): Ames CSD Policy Meeting, noon, virtual

Tue: Board of Supervisors, 10 a.m., Administration Building (Nevada)

Tue: Planning and Zoning Commission, 7 p.m., Council Chambers at City Hall (Ames)

Sports

Men’s Basketball

Cyclones surge past Kentucky, return to Sweet 16 behind Lipsey’s 26

by Jared Larson | Staff Reporter

Behind a career-high 26 points from Ames native Tamin Lipsey, No. 2 seed Iowa State punched its ticket to a third Sweet 16 in five years with an 82-63 win over No. 7 seed Kentucky on Sunday at the Enterprise Center.

Community Voices

People of Ames

Ames Notables: Carole Sager Horowitz

by Ames History Museum | Contributor

Carole Sager Horowitz was a trailblazer in Ames, best known for producing and promoting theater and the arts throughout central Iowa. Carole’s initial love of theater was fostered by her mother, who took her to Broadway performances in Manhattan.