What a wonderful story of this property that was virtually hidden for so many years. Thanks to the Richardson family it will stay protected. This property has the largest tree in Sonoma County. It stands 239 ft tall, has a diameter of 19 feet, and is 1,640 years old. Watch and feel the awe.

From the Good News Network by McKinley Corbley

This 730-acre patch of private land has been a well-kept secret for almost a century. Soon, however, it will be turned into a national park for the masses to enjoy.

The Harold Richardson Redwood Reserve, which is home to the oldest and tallest redwood trees in the area, was recently bought out by the Save The Redwoods League…

An inspiring story of women getting after it.

From MSN News by Terri Peters

The stars aligned earlier this month when five female firefighters at Palm Beach Gardens Fire and Rescue in South Florida made history as the first all-female fire crew in the department’s 57-year existence. The women, who range in age from 29 to 53, have nearly 80 years of firefighting and EMT experience between them, but they had never worked a shift together until Sept. 18, when each was scheduled to work at the same station.

Now, their story has gone viral, inspiring other women to work hard to reach their goals.

“That day, every rank was filled with a female, which was awesome, I’m not going…

A nice thought from Reasons To Be Cheerful by ERIC KREBS for your Sunday read. You can also watch a video of when two politicians thought the same way. READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE. 

The message often heard in America is that liberals want to do something about climate change and conservatives do not. But what if it’s not that simple?

If you look at the polls, most Americans — on the left and the right — think that climate change is a serious problem we need to deal with. But the structure of the political system, the influence of money in politics and the warping effect of polarization have bifurcated the issue along party lines, making it nearly…

From the Good News Network by Andy Corbley

The world’s second largest coral reef in the world has just been taken off of the endangered places list.

After being danger-listed in 2009, the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (BBRRS) was removed from the UNESCO World Heritage Center list of “World Heritage in Danger” last month.

The decision was made by the World Heritage Committee during their 42nd annual meeting, held in Manama, Bahrain.

Welcome to another week in Backyard Bend. This story reflects the reasons we included ‘Positive News’ in the BYB platform. We hope you choose to look for POSITIVE media and situations in life.

From Envision Kindness. READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE. 

A lot happens every day all over the world. So we rely on the Internet, newspapers and television to let us know about what’s going on in the world. Media outlets are businesses, however, which rely on pulling in large audiences to be profitable. In order to do so, they tend to focus on sensational content, stories and images that turn heads and keep people coming back for more. “If it bleeds, it leads.” Unfortunately, sensational stories tend to…

From the Irish Examiner by Sean O’Riordan

In 1847 when the Choctaw nation heard of the starving Irish they responded by contributing $170 (about $4,400 today) to send food aid to Ireland.

This show of solidarity came despite the great hardships being faced by the Choctaw people themselves. They were also living in starvation and poverty having been driven by white settlers from the southern states to the more barren Oklahoma in what became known as “The Trail of Tears”. Thousands died on the trek.

Native American Choctaw and Irish cultures will come together on Sunday, June 18 for the official dedication of the Kindred Spirits sculpture in Midleton, Co Cork, which commemorates a donation made by the Choctaw.

The…

Happy Sunday Backyard Bend. We hope you are enjoying this beautiful fall weekend in Central Oregon. Here is a positive story from Reasons To Be Cheerful’s ‘We Are Not Divided Series’.

Watch the video interview and see how these two realized they could work together despite their different views. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

It’s a friendship that, to many people, might seem hard to comprehend: she’s a gay rights activist who worked to legalize same-sex marriage, and he’s an evangelical Christian who worked to prevent it. Yet Sheila Kloefkorn and Glenn Stanton found a way to reconcile these differences and form a friendship that suggests there’s no ideological divide that can’t be bridged. Earlier in We Are Not Divided,…

From the Good News Network by McKinley Corbley

In a historic milestone for oceanic conservation, the much-anticipated Ocean Cleanup initiative that was created by a Dutch teenager has successfully set sail and is now undergoing its final round of tests before it begins tidying up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The ingenious vessel that has been designed to tackle the massive trash island left San Francisco Bay on September 9th and began testing on September 19th.

The vessel, which has been dubbed System 001 (or “Wilson”), traveled 350 nautical miles away from the coast to fulfill its 5-item checklist before taking on the garbage patch.

According to the Ocean Cleanup organization, one of the tests has already been successfully checked off…

This timely series is from One Tree Planted and is relevant to Oregon, as well as, California.

Episode 03: On The line First responders and firefighters are on the front lines of dealing with the forest fires in California.

Organizations like CalFire control the spread of fires and evacuate people away from danger. In this episode we’ll speak with CalFire’s Amy Head to learn how the fires have changed and become more severe over the years from a combination of factors including drought, fire suppression, and climate change. Amy shares her experience of having to evacuate when her own home was in the path of the Kincade fire in Sonoma County.

From the Good News Network.

Adidas has spent the last four years curbing ocean pollution by recycling plastic beach waste into shoes – and because their customers have been so eager for the product, the company is kicking it up a notch.

Adidas produced more than five million pairs of recycled plastic waste shoes in 2018, and they plan to incorporate the waste into at least 11 million this year.

The upcycled plastic waste is made into a yarn which has since become a key component of the upper material of Adidas footwear. In addition to shoes, the company has also used it to make the first ever football jerseys made from recycled materials.

The sporting goods manufacturer first started making…