Tale of the Wild Run

There once was a tributary of a raging river.  The freshwaters streamed downhill from an unadulterated watershed, crashed over a waterfall, and then snaked further downward as a wild run before colliding headstrong into the raging river.

Children liked to escape the summer heat and play in the cool waters of the wild run, throwing rocks to find crawfish and salamanders underneath.  It was fun to splash around beneath the shade of the trees.

Teens liked to break away to kayak and canoe... and party away from the prying eyes of their reproachful parents.

Adults liked to take respite from their busi-ness to relax beside the waters.

Animals took refuge in all the niche habitats.

Well, one day some developers decided they wanted to make some money by chopping down trees and building more houses.  You know how that goes.

But the wild run was too wild.  The strong currents would reshape its course every season.  This was fine until now, since the wild run ran inside a preserve.  But the developers wanted to chop down trees and build more houses inside the preserve.  You know how that goes.

So the developers used the magic of lawyers and powerful friends who ran the government to allow them to chop down trees and build more houses inside the preserve.  But before they could chop down the trees and build more houses inside the preserve, they first had to dam that damn wild run.

So they did.

And that shut it up.

The wild run was no longer wild.

It was a lame run now.

But it shut it up too much.  The current slowed to a crawl.  Debris started collecting everywhere.  Scum was foaming and forming.  The children didn't want to stick their hands in the water to throw rocks and look for crawfish and salamanders.  The teens couldn't float down the run.  The adults didn't like the look or smell.  Many of the animals found their habitats stressed.

So they petitioned to undam the damnned dam.  They lost time after time, because they did not have the magic of lawyers or powerful friends who ran the government.

The beavers saw how unfair this was.  The humans were always mucking everything up, putting dams where they shouldn't be, building them incorrectly.  So they got busy tearing that damn dam apart.  The human developers, when they got wind of it, tried shooting the beavers, but they fought back, biting the human developers and chasing them away!

When the damn dam finally broke, it unleashed a righteous torrent that swept up over the banks, flooding the banks and the nearby houses that were developed on the preserve where there used to be trees.  The wild run wasn't too sad about it, because, well, they shouldn't have done that.  They should have known better.  Everyone knows you shouldn't use the magic of lawyers and powerful friends who run the government to chop down trees inside a preserve to build more houses to make more money.  Everyone knows that.

Of course debris still flowed through the river.  You cannot prevent that.  It is impossible to prevent that, and insane to imagine that you might.  But if you allow the river to run wild, the debris will not sit and collect.

After the damn dam broke, there was still a lot of silt clogging the run that prevented it from flowing fully.  But in time the wild run would return to its natural, wild state for the enjoyment of all.