See It Before It's Gone...

 As I was driving along Highway 405 in Renton today, I made way for a 4x4 to merge into my lane. One side of the truck was all covered in mud, like it had just splashed through a huge mud puddle. I figured the driver had taken it off-roading somewhere. Being an overgrown child myself, my first thought was wee-hah! but my second thought was i wonder if he ran over any tortoises... or trashed a beaver dam... or heedlessly damaged the environment he was blasting through too fast to even notice it?
I know. Total buzzkill. But I live across the street from this great little park that's built on the site of a natural spring and the home of these cool little frogs... at least it's supposed to be. Years ago, the state took the dirt it had scraped up when expanding I-5 and dumped it all in the land around the spring, burying it and wiping out the frogs and god knows what else lived in the woods and waters there. A few years back, an effort was made to reclaim the land. Fill dirt was excavated, the spring freed up, plants replaced. They even attempted to restart the frog colony. There's plaques and signs detailing the history. So where are the frogs?

Last night, my housemate came running in, shouting"The Frogs! I just heard the Frogs!". I ran outside, but got nothing but silence. I must have missed it. I hope I did. I would be a shame if they never came back here to sing in the fading light of dusk.We've lost too many species to our own callousness and shortsightedness, pushing them off land that was not ours to take. There's a book I like called "Planetary", about a bunch of archaeologists that go around unearthing mysteries and monsters, in order to learn from them and preserve them. Their motto is "It's a strange world... Let's keep it that way.". Believe me, I'd like to live in a world where there are Bigfoots and Mothmen and Nessies. It would be a very cool place to live. But right now, I'd be happy with a few more frogs.




      "See It Before It's Gone"
              available here