How can you not love this story? An ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to be extinct for 60 years, is spotted deep in an Arkansas swamp. Naturalists keep the sighting secret for a year while they work to confirm the sighting. And—good heavens—Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, who’s generally more interested in pillaging the environment than protecting it, announces that the government is going to contribute ten million bucks to preserving land for the bird.

We will always need wonder and mystery in life, and a story like this helps make us feel that, as much as we’ve trashed the planet, perhaps there’s still hope left. Here’s my favorite quote:

<<"Frank Gill, former president of the National Audubon Society, said of the news, "You get so depressed by the state of things, to suddenly have this happen in your backyard" is wonderful, "just the thought that there are places in the world still—deep wilderness—harboring a secret like this.">>

Well said, Mr. Gill.