Meditations at the Power Plant (3)

 EVOLUTION

Queen Anne's Lace flower, opening

Early in nature's reclamation of the Power Plant site, wind-blown seeds of Queen Anne's Lace pioneered the return of vegetation to this forlorn terrain.

Common Blue Mud-dauber Wasp (left)
Silky Field Ant (right)
Cuckoo Wasps (top and bottom)

Insects followed to feed on their nectar and pollen. The sensory abilities and mobility of these animals distinguish them from plant life, in what may be seen as an evolutionary advance. Even small insects are remarkably sophisticated in their skills and determination.

The Silky Field Ant
(detail from photo above)

Plants are the foundation of life, though they lack the musculature and neural developments of animals. But all animals are dependent on the ability of plants to create organic life from the sun's energy, certain elements, and water.

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth
feeding on Pickerelweed

When a pond formed beside the Power Plant site tremendous varieties of plants were able to colonize it and attract animals into the niche, including this highly developed insect, a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird lent its name to the lookalike moth with remarkable hovering endurance. Perhaps they had to develop similar body proportions to make this feat possible. As a feathered warm-blooded vertebrate the bird has a much longer lifespan potential than the cold-blooded insect living within an exoskeleton.

Green Heron in the Pickerelweed

The pond's developing ecosystem offers an increasing variety of food and habitat to carnivorous birds like this Green Heron hunting for tadpoles, minnows, and insects.

Merlin, a small falcon

A Merlin surveys the arena around the Power Plant for prey with the large bulging eyes of a high-speed raptor on the wing. Its species has taken the power and agility of flight to a consummate level.

A Blanding's Turtle and a Painted Turtle

Turtles, having evolved protective shells mainly from the bony material of their ribs, don't need to rely on speed but often seek safety in water. They are reptiles born on land with scaly skin, distinct from amphibians born in the water with mucous-coated skins to keep from drying out when they emerge from the aqueous environment. Being cold-blooded, they have developed hibernating strategies to keep from freezing in cold climates like ours. Evolutionary evidence shows that birds have descended from ancient reptiles, their feathers deriving from specialized scales.

White-tailed Deer

Mammals lead wary lives. They generally hear, see, and smell you approaching the Power Plant before you are aware of them.

A young Coyote 

Rocky grout piles surrounding the former Power Plant present good denning locations for coyotes and foxes. Youthful curiosity occasionally brings them into contact with people.

Raccoon kits

Raccoons are among the most clever and adept of wild creatures, climbing trees with ease. Their long-fingered paws approach the maneuverability of our hands but they lack opposable thumbs to match human dexterity. Their shrewdness at times seems not far behind our own.

Surfacing granite blocks with a pneumatic hammer
(detail of photograph below)

Our species' shrewdness, dexterity, and tenacity drove the industry that so radically altered the landscape of Halibut Point.

Granite inspectors and workers at the Power Plant
Charles Cleaves photo, 1909
Courtesy of the Sandy Bay Historical Society

To accomplish it people converged in patterns shaped not just by physical but by social evolution. Aspiring immigrants bore the brunt of the arduous labor. Well-dressed supervisors organized the industry. Capital investors masterminded its integration to the burgeoning economy.

The trail today to the Power Plant

Evolution in its longest earthly timeline accounts for the geologic processes that create and decompose granite.  The stone originates in a superheated molten state near the planet's core, crystallizes below the crust, surfaces in the formation of continents, then erodes and eventually is subducted back to the interior in a vast recycling operation.

By this scale the colossal quarrying industry at Halibut Point is a highly accelerated but miniscule adjunct to the natural forces of granite decomposition. And so it is with the Power Plant, created, dismantled, and overgrown by shifting timelines.