At Friends of Casco Bay, we spend a lot of time thinking about the watershed — the rivers, streams, forests, and communities that shape the health of Casco Bay long before the water reaches the sea. For Valentine’s Day, our Communications Coordinator, Meghan Vigeant, imagined a love letter from Casco Bay to the watershed that sustains it.
My Dear Watershed,
Your winding rivers!
Your tender tributaries!
From Bethel to Bay, you flow.
You are my roots, my beginnings.
My branches reaching up into the mountains.
I love your quiet beaver pond splashes.
Your wild raging rapids.
How you freeze up in winter’s depth,
and let loose in spring’s thaw.
I’m not alone in my admiration.
All these towns and cities blooming at your banks.
You send me everything.
Snowmelt in spring.
Rainwater after storms.
Leaves in October.
Sometimes more than you mean to.
I’ve watched how you’ve changed over the years.
Felt the spikes of chemicals in your rivers,
the water souring off your fertile shores,
curdling in distress when you finally reached me at sea.
I remember the years you ran freely,
unencumbered by dams,
clear and unclouded, teaming
with salmon spawn and elvers.
Such days!
I have seen glimpses of this
lately,
your wild ways returning.
You are still
flowing
every day.
Constant
renewal.
I want to send you salmon runs
and ancient sturgeon leaping.
I want to pour my tides over your dams,
wash away the cluttered debris.
I hold you here in Casco Bay,
all of you,
your minerals and messes.
Gently we rock
our paddlers,
our fishermen,
our seals and swimmers.
We cradle our beginnings and endings together.
Every wave,
every flush of water
at our meeting mouths
seeding abundance in our eelgrass meadows,
our mud flats and seaweed forests.
Forever flowing, you and I.
We always have
and always will.
