Michigan Forest Life - April 10, 2026

5 days ago
2 min read

Forest Friends,

Today's rain has passed. Water in the small creek that meanders along the edge of the meadow in front of the Treehouse is full (Photo 1) - overflowing into a small thicket of tag alders. It is not nearly as full as when it really floods. The creek can take over much of the meadow if properly inspired.

Today, the creek flows clear and fast from the main Tag Alder swamp three hundred yards east of this bend in the stream. Upstream. Its distinctive tea color is evidence of tannins built up over many seasons, settled in puddles of the swamp and imprinted like a signature on the swamp water.

The swamp is a source. A depression fed by runoff and artesian bubbles. Its overflow trickles in the dry season and rushes at times like this, roughly following the stream bed - a ditch naturally cut into the wild earth by flowing for many decades on a path of least resistance. It finds a winding path through the meadow, then along this edge of the thicket, then through another depression before it drops into low river flats for two hundred yards and spills into the West Branch of the Clam River

Though the creek is full, I know its unseen banks undercut the ground surface. Exposing entanglements of roots, eroding pocket beneath sod of wild native grass, excavating fertile soil into the water while looking for a gravely wall to wash. Fish love this.

Spring rains cleanse the swamp. They flush out stale water accumulated over drier seasons. A fresh batch of water dilutes every pool. Every puddle. Silt settles to the bottom. It is an ancient ecosystem.

Can you find the Treehouse hidden in the trees of photo 2? I imagine the Tag Alder thicket looking over the creek to find the Treehouse as I look from the Treehouse over the creek to see the thicket. It is a charming thought.