The northwest branch of the Chicago River was my watercourse as a boy (“Pilgrim at Shit Creek,” HCN, 7/22/13). It was also polluted, but it was all we had. We rafted it, wading mostly. Since then I’ve gone back in a canoe and found all manner of wildlife — from foxes, deer and coyotes to songbirds, ducks, geese, muskrats, beaver, and turtles — even on the banks downtown among the skyscrapers. Seek and ye shall find. The biosphere is the fabric of our lives.
Martin Weiss
Twin Lakes, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Seek nature and ye shall find.
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