Water quite literally shapes our world. The mile-thick ice of the last great glacial advance 13,000 years ago left us the capes and islands along the New England coastline and crimped our inland vistas into the folds of the furrows carved out by the moving ice sheet. The great warm-up freed all that water and hastened its flow from high ground to the lowlands, carving watercourses that move in perpetual motion, with an assist from H2O’s third state of being — vapor. And so water has also shaped our lives, making us, at various times, explorers and traders up and down rivers, mill workers, bridge builders, industrialists, fly fishermen, and even water skiers. And because of its abundance in this part of the world, our essential link to water, especially potable water, is second nature to us. We take it for granted.

But now, a small band of local volunteers passionately dedicated to just one small trickle of that great and complex water system — Newtown’s Deep Brook — has sounded a warning that our first nature to grow, develop, and expedite our way through even the most abundant of natural resources has brought us to a critical point. It’s time to pay attention to water, and particularly to Deep Brook.

Deep Brook is just one of ten habitats in the state where the trout population is self-sustaining. A representative of Trout Unlimited, one of the associated environmental groups working to stabilize the banks of this rare watercourse and to protect it from excess runoff and contamination, emphasized this week, however, that “it’s not about the fish.” (See story below.) Even those who have no interest in sport fishing or the beauty of nature should be interested in the well-being of these fish for the same reason coal miners are interested in canaries. The health of these trout is a leading indicator for the health of the brook, the health of the watershed above it, the health of the water-purifying aquifer below it, and, in the end, our own health.

Those working so hard to preserve Deep Brook in its current pristine state are making a stand not just for trout, but for all of us. They need our support, not just in their work along the banks of the brook, but also in demanding local land use practices that guard against runoff, erosion, and contamination from aggressive land development. If we do not become more conscious of how we live in relation to our water resources, the shape our world takes next may not be quite so accommodating to either trout or humans.