This week’s good news story comes from Yahoo News ‘The Cool Down. Many thanks to Noelle Granger for sending this story to me.

Creature hunted nearly to extinction makes stunning comeback: ‘It’s thriving’

In a remarkable win for both people and the planet, the Eurasian beaver — once hunted to near extinction in France — is making a triumphant comeback.

A single beaver family that arrived in the tiny hamlet of Montlahuc in 2020 has transformed a dry, sun-scorched pasture into a thriving wetland, showing how one small species can help fight the negative impacts of a warming world and revive local communities.

Montlahuc, a village of just 40 residents in the Drôme region, had suffered years of worsening drought that left meadows parched and local farmers struggling. But within three years of the beavers’ arrival, a once-barren field now holds more than 2,000 square meters of standing water.

Birds, insects, and lush green vegetation have returned, inspiring residents to rethink how they manage their land.

“We used to graze this land only once a year,” local farmer Marc-Antoine Forconi told Futura. “Now, it’s thriving.”

Beavers are often called “nature’s engineers” for good reason. Using their powerful teeth and instinctive building skills, they construct dams and channels that slow water flow and store moisture in the soil. This natural water management supports healthier ecosystems, creates habitats for other wildlife, and provides a low-cost, low-maintenance way to help landscapes withstand drought.

Inspired by their furry neighbors, Montlahuc farmers have even built their own small dams to retain water — though, as Forconi joked, “The beavers outperformed us.”

Once reduced to only about 100 individuals in the early 20th century, Eurasian beavers are now protected and number between 20,000 and 25,000 in France, according to Futura. The species’ return highlights how protecting wildlife can lead to unexpected climate solutions, echoing other success stories, such as the resurgence of gray wolves in Yellowstone or the rewilding of bison in Europe.

This quiet resurgence is more than a feel-good story. It’s a reminder that working with nature, rather than against it, can create healthier landscapes and a more resilient future for communities everywhere.

The good news in this story is that nature has once again demonstrated that good practices and effective land management can help reverse environmental damage. Today’s JohnKu talks about taking that lesson to heart. I hope you have a delightful weekend.

Lesson by John W. Howell © 2025

Nature keeps saying,

Take care of the land and it . . .

Will take care of you.

AP Photo

Today’s good news story comes from the Associated Press

Little legs, big dreams: More than 100 teams compete in Lithuania’s international Corgi race

By  LIUDAS DAPKUS

Updated 7:46 PM CDT, August 24, 2025

“This is so much fun and great emotion for the entire family, something bright that many people are craving for these days,” said retired teacher Janina Stoniene, who attended the race with her three grandchildren. The children said they admired the costume challenge as dogs were dressed in eye-catching outfits like Batman, a princess, or an airplane.

A corgi named Amigo, sporting a factory-themed costume complete with two tiny chimneys and “Fur Factory” lettering, was named the proud winner of that contest.

Another called Mango, whose owners are from Lithuania, was the champion of the solo race.

“So this is a mango, like a fruit mango, and we are participating (for the) second time in Corgi Race 2025,” said Ignas Klimaika, a proud corgi lover from Vilnius. “Last year, we didn’t manage to end the race perfectly. We had a really good training. We had trained every day, but this year we decided we just go without training, just to participate, just to enjoy all the lots of corgis,” he said.

A corgi dog participates in a fashion show during the international event Corgi Race Vilnius 2025 in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Saturday, August 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

But this year, Mango won the racing competition, while his owners screamed and waved to try to inspire him to triumph.

“He knows what he did and he’s really proud of himself,” said Ignas, who is already planning for 2026.

Here is a link to a video of the event
https://apnews.com/video/lithuanian-capital-becomes-centre-of-the-corgi-universe-with-host-of-corgi-contests-9964ad598f17454890307ecc6aefc3af

The good news here is that folks from around the world have a common interest. Today’s JohnKu discusses the commonalities in the human race.

Sharing by John W. Howell © 2025

We all have interests,

It warms the heart when they’re shared . . .

Aids understanding.

Today’s Good News story comes from Yahoo News. Thanks to Noelle Granger for sending it to me.

Companies announce game-changing plan to harvest drinking water from the ocean floor — here’s how it works

Three companies are leveraging modern technology to reshape the future of commercial desalination, making the process cleaner, smarter, and more cost-effective, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Safe drinking water helps prevent the transmission of preventable diseases like “cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio,” per the World Health Organization.  Yet, more than four billion people in 135 low- and middle-income countries worldwide lack that, according to a 2024 study published in the journal Science.

Access to fresh drinking water is shrinking as global water usage increases, driven by industries like agriculture and new technology like artificial intelligence.

Desalination appears to be the most logical solution since 97% of the Earth’s water is found in the ocean.

However, traditional commercial desalination methods like thermal desalination and reverse osmosis are highly energy-intensive and expensive.

Seawater reverse osmosis requires significant energy to pressurize water that passes through a semi-permeable membrane. This membrane filters out salt and impurities, allowing only water molecules to pass through. This process creates a concentrated brine byproduct that can harm aquatic life when deposited back into the ocean.

Thermal desalination leverages heat energy to remove salt from the water. The process involves heating the water to produce steam, which naturally separates from the salt and minerals, and turns back into fresh water when the steam has cooled. Thermal desalination also requires a lot of energy to heat water at scale.

Dirty fossil fuels power these methods, and they remain expensive compared to alternative methods of harvesting freshwater.

Flocean, Waterise, and OceanWell are three water desalination companies that are thinking outside the box.

Instead of wasting energy to pressurize the water to pass through filter membranes, could the desalination process harness the ocean’s natural water pressure to do the same thing?

By using deep-sea technology, including deep-sea robots and undersea power cables, and submerging the filter membrane to a depth of at least 400 meters, or 1312 feet, the water pressure at that depth will naturally flow through the desalination membrane. According to The Wall Street Journal, this deep-water desalination process can save up to 40% on energy usage.

In addition to the benefits of working at that depth, the harmful brine byproduct the process creates can be dispersed quickly back into the ocean, minimizing harm to aquatic life.

These companies are seeking government contracts that will help further develop and make more accessible this cleaner, desalination process.

Currently, Flocean is supplying ultra-pure water to a local Norwegian company to make premium-craft cocktail ice. The company also has a contract with Mongstad, an oil refinery facility, to produce approximately 264,000 gallons of desalinated water per day, expected to be launched by the second half of 2026.

Waterise has entered a contract with Jordan Phosphates Mines, a mining company based in Jordan, agreeing to supply 6.6 million gallons of desalinated water per day from the Gulf of Aqaba, south of Jordan.

Most commenters seemed intrigued and hopeful about this new desalination process. However, others questioned the logistics behind the process.

“But they still need to pump that fresh water from the depths to wherever it’s going on land so it’s hard to see where significant energy savings comes from,” one commenter pointed out.

The good news in this story is that companies are exploring various alternatives to traditional desalination techniques. Today’s JohnKu discusses various approaches to problem-solving. I hope you have a peaceful weekend.

Outside the Box by John W. Howell © 2025

Conformity can,

Hamper the quest for knowledge. . .

Knowledge solves problems.

Today’s heartwarming animal rescue story comes from The Good News Network.

Wisconsin residents called in by the dozen: “There’s a bear in my yard,” they said.

However, wildlife authorities were taken aback by the next detail: “It has a jar on its head!”

The Winnie the Pooh wannabe was a 2-year-old female black bear who had obviously followed her nose about 18 inches too far. Feasting on cheese balls, pretzels, or something else that’s sold in those massive plastic snack jugs, the animal couldn’t extract its head after it had finished.

“My immediate neighbor was like, ‘hey, just heads up, here is what’s heading towards your house,’” said Jayme Morey, coordinator for the Chequamegon Humane Association in Ashland, Wisconsin.

Used to spreading the word about missing dogs and cats, this emergency was rather different. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources had been tracking the bear for a week, as Morey’s call wasn’t the only one they had received.

They were finally able to find it, tranquilize it, and remove the jug from its head. Clearly skinny, the bear had been trapped for at least 11 days based on the record of sightings by locals. It could still get water by dunking its head and slurping up what entered through the sides of the jug.

“We’ve seen this come up from time to time, often with a bear, occasionally a deer,” Randy Johnson, a large carnivore specialist with the Wisconsin DNR, told CBS News. “The good news is this is the time of year when food is the most abundant in the woods, and she’s got two months to kind of get back into healthy shape going into winter.”

Indeed, the bear was just 70 pounds when rescued—about the same as some of the largest dog breeds. A bear of that age at that time of year should weigh over 150, Johnson said.

He said she had a good shot of surviving, and after her release, she jogged to a berry patch and started chowing down.

The good news in this story is that concerned citizens spoke up about the bear’s plight. Today’s JohnKu talks about staying vigilant. I hope you have a super weekend.

Report It by John W. Howell © 2025

If something looks odd,

Don’t think it will go away . . .

Call an official.