A few days ago, torrential rain melted a foot of snow and swelled the Mill River to heights not seen since Hurricane Irene. In places, the river rose above its banks and ran across roads into farm fields. A dead giant sycamore on the bank of the river succumbed to deluge, tipping across the stream forming a silver bridge, walled by a massive rootball.
Looking at the massive fallen tree, and the way the water pooled in the hole where the roots had been and how easily the trunk might trap future debris traveling downriver against its massive span, I thought of how rivers shape trees, and trees in turn shape rivers. I should not neglect to mention another river engineer, the beaver, had also had a paw and tooth involved in the placement of the tree. The base of the dead sycamore had been chewed near all-the-way-around.
In a walk through the neighborhood, I came across a local author who has written about the Mill River. I told him about the tree. It’s where it should be, he said. I took this to mean that fallen trees belong in the river too, and should not be removed. They provide habitat for river creatures. And they have their say about the flow of the river.
http://fntrails.org/wp-content/uploads/GreatTreeBikeTour2020/Brochure-TreeTour-9×12-V2-2020.pdf