At Good Good Good, we stand by our no-fluff approach to good news: we celebrate real good news, not feel good news. So, while we love them, you won’t find many adorable animal stories in our Goodnewsletter.

There’s just one exception: there is some truly incredible good news to be celebrated when it comes to saving endangered species, discovering new ones, protecting wildlife, and animal conservation. There’s so much of it — we’re dedicating this entire newsletter to it!

Endangered species

Texas saw a new record number of endangered sea turtle nests on its coastline

As of mid-June, biologists in Texas have documented 383 Kemp’s ridley turtle nests — breaking the previous record of 353 set in 2017. Last year, there were only 340. Nesting season is still underway, so that number could end up being even higher.

Most of the world’s Kemp’s ridley turtles nest on a beach in Mexico, but Texas has become an important nesting ground thanks to joint conservation efforts.

Decades of collaboration, patience, and the involvement of “thousands of people” volunteering to help have helped raise the number of nests.

Why is this good news? The Kemp’s ridley is the smallest and most endangered sea turtle on the planet. The commitment of both Texas and Mexico, along with local coastal communities, to aid their recovery demonstrates the importance of dedicated conservation efforts.

→ Read more​

More Good News

​Horses on a Kentucky farm are helping men live sober, train for jobs, and reunite with their families. After struggling with addiction himself, Frank Taylor’s idea for the Stable Recovery program was born out of a need for help on his family’s 1,100-acre farm that has foaled and raised some of racing’s biggest stars in the heart of Kentucky horse country.

​Scientists discovered a new butterfly species that’s been “shaped by 40,000 years of evolutionary solitude.” The important discovery was given the common name of “curiously isolated hairstreak,” and there was “no evidence of contemporary or recent gene flow” between another hairstreak species, indicating that it had evolved in isolation.

​In a groundbreaking partnership, Florida’s Miccosukee Tribe is working to protect environmentally significant lands for wildlife. The tribe says it has a “moral obligation” to protect the same lands that provided refuge for them almost two centuries ago during the Seminole wars, when the federal government tried to banish them to Indian lands in what would become Oklahoma.

​After more than 500 years of absence, the beaver is back in Portugal. This significant step in river rewilding in the country, the beaver’s return follows around two decades of the species recovering in neighboring Spain.

​In a major win for global bird conservation, three chicks from one of the rarest bird species in the world hatched in Brazil. Experts at Ohio’s Toledo Zoo played an integral role in planning protection and recovery efforts of the blue-eyed ground dove after a recent count showed that only 11 adults remained in the wild.

​Endangered fish saved from the Palisades fire were returned to their Malibu home. With the impacts of the fires threatening to kill off the fish, scientists and citizen volunteers rescued 760 northern tidewater gobies from Topanga Lagoon, an unassuming biodiversity hotspot located off the Pacific Coast Highway that drains into the Santa Monica Bay.

People doing good

Jamaica’s ‘crocodile guardian’ has spent four decades fighting to save the island’s last remaining crocs

Jamaica’s American crocodile population long dominated mangroves and coastal lagoons on the island. More recently, its numbers have ben decimated due to illegal hunting, habitat loss, plastic pollution, and killings based on lingering fears among locals.

Known as the “Crocodile Guardian” on the island, Lawrence Henriques is on a mission to change that and has been working to save the feared predator for four decades.

He runs the Holland Bay Crocodile Sanctuary, a grassroots conservation project located on the edge of what he says is one of Jamaica’s last viable crocodile habitats.

→ Read more​

More Good bits

⭐️ A 5-star island paradise doubles as a sea turtle rescue.​

🦟 Never thought we’d be excited about a massive mosquito release.​

🐦 Bird-friendly glass really does successfully save birds.​

🐢 There could be an endangered species right in your backyard.​

🐋 There’s a massive ocean animal database fueling research.​

What’s good?

These dedicated Goodnewsletters always remind me of all the good people are doing all over the world to care for animals.

Which good news story inspired you most today?

Hit “reply” and let me know!

— Megan