Going To The Well

When I am working in my garden many times I feel the vibration or hum of all the plants and animals working together, each at their tasks. It's a kind of cosmic song that always puts things in perspective for me. I like to think that it is a microcosm of the entire planet. building and destroying, mending and creating, flowing and quaking. We are part of an infinite fabric, every thread an essential part of the whole. When we expand our human footprint we must be very very careful. No one really know which species are dispensible. We know we must have the pollinators, but what about fish? Do we really need redwoods or beavers? How important are the birds? And then there are the composters and garbage technicians like ants, sowbugs and cockroaches. Do we need those? Who are we to put a value on all the unique species that share our habitat? It's never as simple as just draining a wetland to build homes or create new agricultural areas. There are long term effects to every decision we make. Migratory birds, amphibians, fish and aquatic plants and animals need ground water and open wetlands to complete their life cycles. Beavers help raise the water table and create aquatic habitat. Bats and frogs feed on the ensuing insects. It is a perfect system.

In this painting, Going To The Well, I have featured the threatened Oregon Spotted Frog. This highly aquatic frog was previously abundant in the Willamette Valley and other wetlands of western Oregon and throughout the state. Now only small isolated populations remain on Forest Service lands mostly in the eastern Cascades and some in the Klamath Basin. 78% of their former range has been lost. They are also vulnerable to non-native predators such as bullfrogs and sport fish, and non-native canary grass has affected the viability of much of their habitat.

I often wonder what the underwater world must be like. It is separated and apart from our human experience for the most part. The closest I have ever been to it was snorkeling a reef in Belize. But the cool darker waters of a rich pond or slough is another thing entirely. It is a secret world filled with moving plants and animals. As a child I took water samples from a nearby pond and I was amazed to see that even the water itself was filled with one celled organisms. No matter how biologists investigate and explore, it is still a powerful place of magic and mystery to me. I like it that way.