Today, environmental degradation has transcended physical crisis to become a profound psychological and existential challenge. Focusing on the Sojas-River (Qanlıçay) as a “landscape of suffering,” this study investigates how ecological grief—stemming from riverine decay—can be transitioned from a stagnant state to a dynamic one. The primary objective is to evaluate the mediating role of “authentic storytelling” within “last-chance tourism” frameworks in enhancing ethical responsibility and fostering regional social regeneration. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach, the study began with 18 semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders and experts, utilizing thematic analysis to identify dimensions of grief—specifically “physical grief,” “identity grief (solastalgia),” and “anticipatory grief”—which informed the development of a quasi-experimental intervention. This intervention was tested on 60 visitors (30 experimental, 30 control) and analyzed via independent t-tests and Cohen’s d in SPSS-26. Findings reveal that exposure to witness-based, authentic narratives significantly increased participants’ willingness to engage in regeneration by 68% (p < 0.001). Large effect sizes (d > 0.8) confirm that storytelling effectively converts suffering into awareness, transforming stagnant grief into “dynamic grief.” Consequently, the study posits that the Sojas-River serves not merely as a threshold landscape of decline, but as a “media-place” for ecological awakening. Ultimately, landscape regeneration necessitates shifting beyond engineering interventions toward the management of meaning and “supportive tourism,” effectively transmuting environmental loss into a vital artery of collective consciousness and ethical stewardship.