But with each successive generation, we have less species richness, and we lose knowledge about our natural heritage.
Our standards shift. How long before we congratulate ourselves on water quality improvement but no longer notice the absence of kokopu because we never knew a time when they lived there?
We are facing not only loss of biodiversity but loss of inter-generational transfer of knowledge, and that sense of delight when discovering our own backyard.
How is it that, in its quest from sea to stream, the koaro manages the incredible feat of climbing waterfalls with its fins? Many a whitebait fisher will be familiar with the koaro's penchant for climbing right out of the bucket.
As the koaro noses about searching for food among detritus, larvae of our endemic freshwater mussel, kakahi, may attach to the fish's gills, fins or snout, hitching a ride upstream on the fish until they are ready to drop to the river bed.
We don't normally think of shellfish when we think of rivers or lakes, but the kakahi has long been a feature of the Whanganui River. Now few and far between, this mysterious mussel once formed extensive beds shallowly buried like pipi (not attached to rocks like other marine mussels) and could live up to 50 years. They were so abundant, kaumatua recall harvesting them by the canoe load.
Put a handful of kakahi in a bucket of silty water and they will clean it within hours. Kakahi are the most powerful filtering fresh-water mussel in the world.
Then there are the wondrous macroinvertebrates, miniscule river residents including insects, worms and snails that feed fish and keep ecosystems running. More than meets the eye, the Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI) is one of the best measures of ecological health.
To find the MCI, a freshwater scientist takes a scoopful of water and measures how many species there are, and how many of the most sensitive creatures are present.
Tracking macroinvertebrates is also a feature of citizen science - testimony to the thousands of Kiwis without PhDs contributing to scientific research and protecting our waterways.
After years of work from Government-appointed expert panels, scientists are still debating whether nutrient bottom lines really are an effective measure of ecosystem health. But after several months of consultation, we have finally arrived at the Government's long-awaited water reform package.
Will freshwater reform do justice for our waterways and all the life they contain? Or is it watered-down policy with no real muscle?
To make every dollar of this package work hard, we must shift our emphasis from bottom lines, to real environmental progress in the water.
Scientists can't be everywhere, and there is no guarantee of future funding, but volunteers are neither motivated nor restricted by money. And neither, for that matter, are the kakahi.
Anne-Elise Smithson is an environmentalist who has campaigned for protection of urban streams in Auckland
