The Return of the Elk

“An elk may graze within sight of a house built more than a century ago. An old orchard may stand at the edge of a field where a bull gathers his harem in autumn. The forest presses against places once kept open by people, while elk now help write another history across the same ground.”

“The strange thing about losing a species is that the landscape remains. Streams continue through the same valleys. Oaks leaf out. Autumn still moves down the ridges. Absence becomes difficult to see.”