Right of Natural Conquest

There were two kits sighted
fortuitously by an alert hiker,
splashing in the urban forest creek,
unconcerned with the interest of a
human. Where the young can be found
the adults will be concerned with
practicalities of existence.

Wildlife co-exists where it is
feasible in the near presence of
human settlement, and urban forests
represent their precinct, more than
it does a city dweller's. The creek
running through the damp, wooded
ravine is nature's own storm catchment
where the beavers, scoping for a new
home, assessed plentiful stands of
poplar, the lay of the land, and the
assurance of an ongoing water source.

The creek now no longer runs steadily
clear and modest in volume during
these summer days. It has become
bloated in a succession of stagnant
pools of still, standing water,
mud-filled and detritus-laden.

The industrious beavers have
demonstrated the nature of their
architectural environmental skills
and sensibilities. Theirs, proudly now
the turgid creek with its steadily rising
surface and collapsing banks; their
element, their possession by
right of natural conquest.