On my many jaunts though nature, whether on a hike in the Colorado mountains or a walk to work in central Missouri, I am often reminded of that famous line from Jurassic Park: "Life will find a way." Perhaps it is a pine, sprouting from the crevice of a boulder, or a stand of sea oats, covering the dunes of a Florida beach. This week, it has been the greening of our street gutters, as persistent warm, humid weather and storm runoff have triggered a bloom of green algae.
Spores and seeds of bacteria, algae, fungi and a wide variety of plants are ubiquitous in nature, awaiting the right conditions for their germination and growth. Depending upon the local ecology, some may wait but a few days while others are dormant for years; many, if not most, will never germinate. The driving force behind all forms of life, including humans, is the will to survive and to propagate our species. This universal imperative explains, among other behaviors, the copious production of spores and seeds by plants, the fierce protection of offspring by birds and mammals and the promiscuous tendencies of the human male.
Slimy, green gutters may be an eyesore to many fastidious suburbanites but they reflect nature's ability to recover from human intervention. If warm, moist conditions persisted and street sweepers became extinct, the algae would thrive, eventually trapping sediment, building a layer of soil and establishing the platform for a microhabitat, hosting a variety of small plants and animals. Decades hence, trees, having taken root in the expanding, rich soil, would tower above our abandoned streets. Life will, indeed, find a way.
