Life forces

Water and mountain are not separate entities. They become one ecological machine as precipitation lands from the sky. Some of what has been received may be stored up high, partly as ice, released downstream fast or slow, cold and oxygen-rich.

Time allows water to carve and sculpt the mountainsides in fluvial erosion, feeding the living, driving climate. Energy delivered in water from the heights scatters sediments and nutrients, sustains ecosystems, be they floodplains, wetlands or estuaries. Moist pockets and dry patches downstream serve different constituents, are served differently. Riparian corridors mostly remain unchanged for very long, unless transformed abruptly during events of excess. The consignments arrive in pulses that fit the seasons of freeze and thaw.

What lives accepts the sustenance. Gratefully? That comes later, to a few. Living itself is the tribute.