The Circle of Life

We should all be pretty familiar with the Hydrological Cycle by now. We learned about it in grade school science, how water leaves the ocean, travels across the sky, falls to earth, and runs back to the ocean once more.

The Columbia River is one of those paths that waters use to find their way back to the big blue, it's basin is like a large net, which is probably a bad analogy for catching water. Really, a basin is more of a funnel that captures waters of many sources and channels it out to a single exit point. Rain, snow melt, and springs collect along the surface into creeks, steams, and brooks. These small flows are the tributaries that eventually turn into rivers with the power to destroy mountains and flood cities.

Yet destruction is not all that rivers bring. In fact, without this cycle of water there would be no life on earth (there would probably be some in the ocean, but the diversity would likely be less). I am often struck by how much nature mirrors life itself (which isn't to say that life isn't natural). The Hydrological system is almost a perfect clone of the Circulatory system in animals. Water replaces blood, of course, and the ocean acts as the heart. Tides and the seasons are the beating that pumps life into the earth. The clouds are open arteries. Rain is the capillaries. And rivers, as our primary concern, are the veins that return the blood to the heart.

And you don't even have to just take my word for it. Here is a map of the Columbia River and many of its tributaries. Next, is an image of a human retina, the veins prominently shown. For me, I see the same random fractals. Our retinal vein pattern is as unique as our fingerprint, just as every river's basin is.

Side tracked once again, I do not deliver on my promised subject from last time. I could go on to explain about it, but what was supposed to be an introductory statement became the entire focus. Next time I will return with back to back to back subjects to complete the tale of my home basin: My weekend adventure, my city's wilderness plan, and my photo project. Until then...

Happy hunting,

Brett