Hopeful headlines: Vultures rebound, coyotes pair up, echidnas reappear, hens multiply, and badgers will soon cross the road!
Hang on tight! Good news abounds, from Indonesia to New York City.
Earth Hope shares positive environmental news not as a balm for weary doomscrollers, but to demonstrate how progress is made and to inspire action. Our hope is that a curious, eager mind reads our articles and thinks, “I’ve been wanting to do something just like that.” Idea»hope»action. Go for it! Here are some examples of people who succeeded.
Europe: Bearded vulture rebounds after 100-year absence
Bearded vultures are making a comeback in Europe after near-extinction. The last bird in the Alps was shot in 1913. Now, thanks to reintroduction efforts by the Vulture Conservation Foundation that began in the 1980s, they’ve rebounded to about 460 birds in the Alps.
Meanwhile, on the Iberian Peninsula, a pair fledged a chick after spreading south from stable populations in the Pyrenees for the first time in 100 years.
“This breeding success in the Moncayo — a mountainous area shared between Castilla y León and Aragón — is particularly remarkable because it wasn’t the result of any release program or reintroduction initiative,” said the Vulture Conservation Foundation. “It happened on its own, as a result of natural movements by the species from the Pyrenees. For decades, conservationists have hoped to see the bearded vulture expand southward from its stronghold in the central Pyrenees. Now, that dream is becoming a reality.”
Up to 85 percent of a bearded vulture’s diet is bones! View more stunning photos and read about their return to the Alps at CNN:
Each year, as snow and ice melts from the peaks of the Alps, young bearded vultures take their first flights. Fending for themselves for the first time, they are looking for food — not live prey but the carcasses of ibex and mountain goats that died during the winter, their bodies preserved in the ice. … Bearded vultures are the only animal with a diet of almost all bone.
India: Women gardeners protect Kerala’s endangered rainforest plants
A team of women are preserving hundreds of species of orchids, ferns and succulents endemic to the Western Ghats and endangered by climate change, urbanization, mining and deforestation. The seven-acre private sanctuary is one of the only seedbanks for wild plants in the world.
From The Guardian:
Over the last few decades, the sanctuary has bought degraded land, tea and coffee plantations and other agricultural land adjoining the forest to rewild and allow to recover on its own. Situated at the edge of the reserve forest, tree dispersal happens naturally, allowing the forest to come back to life with little direct help.
India: Bamboo forest heals villages choked by toxic ash
From The Better India:
In Maharashtra’s Vidarbha, fly ash had turned fertile lands into grey, lifeless zones. But one scientist is leading a revolution using bamboo and eco-rejuvenation science to bring them back to life. This green transformation is not just saving the soil—it’s creating clean air, jobs, and fresh hope.
Indonesia: How sustained resistance is saving one of the Earth’s most critical rainforests from corporate greed
The Leuser Ecosystem on the island of Sumatra is one of the most biodiverse in the world, but demand for palm oil used in Western snacks and biodiesel—from companies like PepsiCo, Nestlé, Mondelēz, and General Mills—was causing massive deforestation. Communities and global organizations have been rallying to conserve this incredible rainforest, which is home to orangutans, rhinos, elephants, tigers and peatlands.
From Rainforest Action Network:
Recognizing that real change wouldn’t come from isolated pledges, RAN pivoted toward an ambitious new strategy: landscape-level conservation. The idea was to go beyond advocacy for individual companies to encourage collaboration on creating jurisdiction-wide initiatives that involved governments, smallholder farmers, regional civil society organizations, and local communities working together to protect forests, achieve responsible palm oil production, and improve livelihoods.
Indonesia: Echidna thought extinct is rediscovered 62 years later
Authors G. Morib, et al, writing in Nature:
We confirm the ‘rediscovery’ of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi), one of only five modern egg-laying mammals and, until now, one of the planet’s most enigmatic ‘lost species.’ Unrecorded for 62 years, we present the first scientific evidence of its survival to the present day. We highlight the importance of combining local Indigenous knowledge with camera-trapping to making the rediscovery, and we also discuss follow-up conservation actions to safeguard this Critically Endangered species.
UK: Endangered hens multiplied when predators were provided a distraction food
With only 500 left in the wild in Scotland, the ground-nesting capercaillie hen has received a helping hand from conservationists who’ve figured out that providing a diversionary meal, like a deer carcass, prevents predators from attacking nests. This is a handy discovery since the birds’ predators, pine martens, are also endangered.
The research was conducted by the University of Saint Andrews, which declared that “Capercaillie brood numbers soar with humane predator strategy”:
The new research also outlines how deer carrion was offered only during a focused eight-week window when capercaillie were nesting and chicks hatching, ensuring it reduced nest predation at the most critical time.
Diversionary feeding is now endorsed in the Cairngorms Capercaillie Emergency Action Plan with 18 independent land holdings deploying diversionary feeding to help capercaillies in 2025.
The capercaillie is the largest member of the grouse family and the largest forest game bird in Europe and Russia.
UK: A $15M crossing bridge for badgers breaks ground in Cornwall
From GoodNewsNetwork:
It’s designed to provide safe passage across the road for various wildlife species, including badgers, voles and other small animals, insects, and birds.
Wildlife crossings not only save animals, they also save human lives and prevent billions of dollars in property damage, i.e. wrecked cars. Check out the crab bridge in my wildlife crossing story from last year:
China adds to national park ambitions
China is pursuing its goal of hosting the largest national park system in the world. In the past few years, the country has created parks to protect iconic species like giant pandas, leopards, tigers, and elephants. Now, it’s created a one million acre preserve in its southernmost province, Hainan.
National Geographic reports:
“This new national park has China’s most diverse, best preserved, and largest contiguous area of tropical rainforest,” Leong says. Within its lush expanse lives 33 percent of China’s reptile species, 38 percent of its bird species, 20 percent of its mammal species, and more than 3,500 plant species. Leong adds, “It is the only habitat for the Hainan gibbon and a treasure trove of tropical biodiversity.”
Australia: Quolls and possums, once locally extinct, thrive in national park
From The Guardian:
The Bounceback program and the Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangered Species (Fame) reintroduced the quolls in 2014 and the possums in 2015. They are now breeding in “safer havens” in the national park, areas where feral animals have been reduced.
New York City: Two coyotes, Romeo and Juliet, now prowl Central Park
First San Francisco, now Central Park: Coyotes are on the prowl in America’s big cities. For once, authorities are welcoming them back because they keep populations of rats, Canada geese and raccoons in check. Studies have shown that smaller birds are more abundant where coyotes roam, because they control predators like feral cats.
Birdwatchers recently noticed that Romeo, a male coyote first spotted in Central Park in 2019, had been joined by a mate—and of course her name is Juliet.
Please note: Smithsonian Magazine’s article on the pair cites New York authorities claiming that coyotes rarely harm pets, but that’s patently untrue. Coyotes will kill small dogs and pet owners should look into armored solutions before any tragedies occur (check out CoyoteVest.com). Let’s welcome and cherish wildlife and their role in our urban ecosystems while protecting pets! Coexistence is absolutely possible!
New York City: Pollinators buzz through rewilded urban parks
From Inside Climate News:
Tucked away in Brooklyn’s Calvert Vaux Park near Coney Island, one of the largest bee habitats in the city was once a rose garden, full of ornamental “knockout roses,” which are not native to the region.
Now, replanted with mountain mint, coneflowers and milkweed, a pollinator garden attracts a variety of bees and birds and other fertilizing animals, and enthralls locals.
Maine: Piping plovers prove a conservation success story
Once hunted for hat plumage, piping plovers have rebounded in Maine from just 10 nesting pairs in the 1980s to 174 this year, thanks to Audubon volunteers. News Center Maine reminds beachgoers to give the tiny, ground-nesting birds a wide berth, keep dogs and balls away from fenced enclosures. Their nests looks just like the sand and can be crushed underfoot.
Hawaii: Endangered forest crows have built a nest six months after release to the wild
Two of the five Hawaiian crows, or ʻAlalā, that were released on Maui six months ago have created a nest, a promising move for a species that has been considered extinct in the wild since 2002. A captive breeding program has kept them around but several attempts to reintroduce them to the Big Island failed. This is the first release on Maui, taking place on the slopes of the island’s inactive volcano, Haleakalā.
Hawaii: Protecting the ocean by restoring the land
An environmental group on Hawaii’s most populous island, Oahu, has removed 4 million pounds of algae, restored over 20 acres of nearshore habitat, constructed rain gardens to absorb and filter runoff, and will plant 4,000 heat-resilient corals as part of a pioneering reef restoration effort. Over the years, over 46,000 volunteers have helped the organization, Mālama Maunalua. The group takes its cues from ancient Hawaiian land management system called ahupua’a, roughly translated as “ridge to reef,” which acknowledged that what happens on land inherently affects the health of waterways and oceans. Read more from Honolulu Civil Beat.
Georgia: Sheep, bees thrive under a solar farm
Many are concerned that agricultural land is being lost to solar power. But farming and solar energy can coexist, writes Grist:
The county actually paused solar development a few years ago over these concerns, and asked Valdosta State University to look into the issue. The resulting study found that the financial benefits to taxpayers outweigh the downsides because farmland gets a tax break in Georgia. Farmers pay property taxes on just 40 percent of the value of their land, but the county can collect full property taxes on land used for solar.
Buried in good news: A few more headlines that caught my attention
BBC: How China made electric vehicles mainstream
Yale360: How restored wetlands can protect Europe from Russian invasion
The New York Times: Nevada is all in on solar power
Mongabay: Friendship benefits male and female mountain gorillas differently, study shows
Phys.org: Smaller islands offer crucial refuge for endangered mammals in Wallacea, Indonesia
Hartford Courant: A 181-year-old Connecticut dam has to go; removing it will be one of the state’s environmental success stories
About Earth Hope:
Earth Hope is a solutions-based journalism project that highlights environmental success stories to inspire action. I’m Amanda Royal, a former newspaper reporter and current eco-news junkie. Read more about this project and what inspired it. Visit earthhope.substack.com for more stories.
Your work always leaves me feeling buoyant when I read it. Thanks for gathering so many positive headlines in one place. It offsets the frustration and fear of the rest of the news. Also, I’m so stoked to hear about the A’lala beating on Haleakala. Yay!!
Another excellent curation, dear lady …