Pacific Rainforest Wildlife Guardians
Mountain stream drinking water sources crawl and cling with water bugs from microscopic to 4 inches long including beautiful Dragonfly’s of iridescent blue or green. Spending nearly the first year of life under water among rocks, many metamorphoses into magnificent air born bugs filling the air with their fluttering wings and plump bodies by the thousands to renew their cycle of life from the air as their wings fall off or by laying eggs on leaves or getting caught in spider webs awaiting fall rains.
Leaves bearing bug eggs fall onto creek bed rocks in autumn or into water that floats them to rest above the riffles where most bugs call home. These gathering clusters of leaves with the next generation of water bugs, dam up pools, giving them depth in the driest part of the year. Preserving life’s abundance in shallow pools, leaves give cover to all from hungry predators.
Rocky shoals draped with golden leaves on water, black with tannin, are an awesomely beautiful transition of the seasons [just beginning in the picture above]. Black tannin, millions of tiny leaf particles, provide in-water shade, protects water exposed to solar radiation from heat like sunglasses shed Sun’s rays.
Even fresh water Mussels or Clams can be found hundreds of miles from the sea, high in mountain creek gravels, living relics from before the first animals slithered up onto land. Coral, too, can be found. It is thought from fossil data, that mountains were in valleys and valleys on top of mountains in many places, before Earth’s crust churned into the shape it is today. When water covered most of Earth, mountains were only beginning to rise.
So envision vessels of creation in these mountain streams and springs. Aquatic riparian habitat is central to most wildlife ecosystems though uplands are essential habitat to many life form groups, too.
Photos by David Middleton
Even forest song birds thrive on berries growing in wet places. All life forms must live in their own balance together. All are inseparable. None are dispensable, including you.