After the costs of war on human life come the effects on everything people have built and grown. In Gaza, a ravaged infrastructure will need replacing. In Ukraine, despoiled croplands will require painstaking regeneration.

Howard LaFranchi, who wrote about the Ukrainian military’s agency in getting grain flowing again to global markets, reports today on the resilience of nature and villagers a year after the destruction of a Soviet-era dam.

Predictions were apocalyptic. Industrial sludge had flowed. The toxic aftermath can’t be ignored, but residents who stayed now nurture new growth. They rejoice that a toxic bloom didn’t materialize.

Some villages are dying, one man told Howard. “But we will do what we can to keep ours alive.”