My Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story copies arrived September 25, 2023. Its 58 pages, with my observations, reflections, and many of my own photographs (130 images), tell the remarkable Earth stewardship tale of a dedicated family resurrecting abandoned strip-mined land to premium beef production and luxury off-grid lodging! The Dutton land is located in southeastern Ohio.

The small paperback displays nicely among my other three books. Its typeface is small; the tale compact; its color photographs densely chronicle the two years that I periodically visited the Duttons across the seasons. A centuries-long story requires deliberate verbal distillation, concerted historical research, and countless hours of fieldwork. I cannot say any of my labor of passion fell short of absolute joy.

Here are the appropriate credits and acknowledgments:

• Edit and design oversight by Brandi Waligura, Dutton Land & Cattle Marketing Manager and Designer
• Freelance editing by Keri Cahill
• Cover design by Chris Dutton, Dutton Land & Cattle
• Printed by Knepper Press

My greatest abiding fulfillment came from getting to know the Duttons, including John and Rita below, and the entire family of children and grandchildren. Theirs is an intergenerational embrace of land stewardship…a land legacy story rooted in the past…and reaching far into the future.

John and Rita’s Preface, which I had not seen in advance, lifted my soul and reminded me that this project mattered, perhaps unmatched in satisfaction by any professional endeavors across my career in industry and higher education:

When we purchased and settled here on the original property, our dream was simple: Raise a big family on a farm. We couldn’t have imagined the farm would be what it is today – a generational model of regenerative agriculture, with premium beef production and luxury off-grid lodging. In some ways, we still can’t believe it.

Steve’s book—and his entire creative process—allowed us to reflect on what we’ve created throughout our 40 years here. It is more than a testament to our commitment to land, and our place here in this corner of the world; it places in perspective the effect (profound or otherwise) that we have on our own landscapes as a society—in this case, rural Ohio. It takes work, and it takes time. It takes trials, and it takes errors. It takes good decisions, and it takes learning from bad. We’re proud of each just the same.

We’re grateful for Steve’s commitment to this story and guiding us through this project. His eagerness to dive into the history of land use in our region yielded a thorough and comprehensive “reference tool” for generations to come. Quite frankly, it was wonderful to see such incredible interest in perhaps a “too soon forgotten” piece of our past.

Much of what we’ve done here on the property—along with the businesses and projects that contribute to the farm—have been collaborative efforts with dear friends, and hardworking hands over the years. We consider so many of these folks our family, and we’re endlessly grateful to each of them.

Lastly, we want to thank our kids. Each of them participated in Steve’s research, and as noted, each of them has contributed their own efforts and skillset to the farm. But, much more importantly, we want to thank them for making our life, our journey, and yes, our land, so absolutely worth every minute. Together with our grandchildren, they are our true legacy.

My Recollections: Three Prior Posts

The entire landscape in both photos below saw the action of massive strip mining equipment that sequentially cleared the topsoil remaining after decades of abusive agriculture, removed the overburden, excavated and transported the underlying coal, reshaped and recontoured the land, redistributed the topsoil, and re-established vegetation. The photo below left shows the lake (a remnant of strip mining) that fronts one of the luxury cabins (AKA the Family Escape Cabin), and served as my home away from home when I visited the property. I actually learned something about the art and science of premium beef cattle (Akaushi breed) production (below right).

I provide below a portal to my three prior Great Blue Heron Posts chronicling the emergence of the Dutton Legacy Story. Because the Duttons self-published the book, we are not yet certain how to arrange for purchasing. I will advise in a future Post. Meantime, these three Posts will present the gist of this incredible land legacy story.

April 2019 Post

November 2020 Post

August 2021 Post

I don’t need to remind you that COVID turned our world upside down coincident with my May 2021 visit, resulting in an extended period between that visit and the September 2023 book publishing date.

A Sampling of My Favorite Photos

I traversed nearly every square foot of the property’s 1,100 acres. I have myriad “favorite places,” including that depicted in this highlight portfolio of special haunts. The family escape cabin below left faces the dawn lake photo shown above the three Posts. The thick forest above (and north) of the cabin regenerated on an unconsolidated spoils heap. Some trees reach 100 feet tall. Until I entered the equation, all individuals associated with the land assumed the trees had sprouted from seeds. However, I discovered rows of main canopy sweetgum trees where reclamation crews had hand planted seedlings. I’ve said often in my Posts that so much in Nature lies hidden in plain sight. My role, in part, was to serve as a Land Legacy sleuth. Each secret revealed served as reward for effort.

Another reward came in form of discovering the rich biodiversity of life across the property, like the milkweed with seedpods and a monarch butterfly caterpillar on land so severely disturbed by the hand of man. Below right Chris Dutton is, with my assistance, marking trees by species on a future interpretive nature trail we were establishing across the spoils debris pile above the cabin. The red oak where Chris is standing may or may not have been planted by crews as a seedling…or as an acorn cached and subsequently neglected by a squirrel or jay.

I was glad that workers did not reclaim all evidence of strip mining. The high wall (below at left) illustrates the scale and violence of the operation. The coal seam is apparent about halfway up the face. As the hill continued to rise above the seam, the overburden depth rendered continuing the recovery uneconomical. I appreciated having this harsh example as reminder of what had been masked elsewhere by reclamation.

This 21-minute 1969 film, The Ravaged Earth, produced at Cleveland State University, opened eyes to the environmental consequences of strip mining:

The documentary led to more effective and comprehensive regulatory measures in Ohio and nationally. Those regulations helped ensure the rehabilitation of what is now the Dutton land.

I often saw whitetail deer, squirrels, groundhogs, hawks, ducks, and geese…and heard owls and coyotes. The property…this abused and decimated land in the eyes of some…is a rich sanctuary of abundant life and commercial beef production. Beaver had recently colonized a pond just upstream from the cabin.

The Land Legacy Story, I am convinced, is a tale meriting a much wider audience. In fact, I view the two-century (several millennia when we include the land’s Native American history) portfolio as globally significant, rich with lessons for stewarding the Earth through responsible and informed decision making.

Most Memorable Quotes

I’ll offer broadly and succinctly that embracing and practicing Earth stewardship is reward and fulfillment in and of itself. I discerned four distinct lessons from developing this Post:

• Nature knows disturbance — learn to harness her wisdom.
  
• Very few things are as they first appear.
  
• So much in Nature lies hidden within.
  
• Earth stewardship is a multi-generational commitment of passion and action.

Carl Sagan reminded us of our absolute dependence upon our Earth…our One Earth…when photos from beyond Earth orbit first appeared:

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

The Duttons understand and appreciate their role in tending this corner of our pale blue dot.

John and Rita may not have recognized their embrace of a land ethic, yet they are now acutely aware, I hope in some small way because of my discussions with them. I talked about mid-twentieth century conservation scholar and philosopher Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac): All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, or collectively the land. John and Rita know that their 1,100 acres is a diverse interconnected and interdependent community.

John Muir: Earth has no sorrow that she cannot heal.

Louis Bromfield, an Ohio-born novelist and playwright who devoted his life to rehabilitating the soil on his old worn-out farm (Malabar) near Mansfield, summarized a zeal and ethic embraced by the Dutton’s:

The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished… The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work.

The adventure at Dutton Land & Cattle is by no means finished! Some clearly identified and essential steps remain short-term. My hope is to participate to some extent in seeing them to fruition:

• Interpretive Nature Trail: I assisted Chris Dutton in laying out the trail, identifying tree species, and contemplating interpretive elements. I want to see the completed trail, assist with developing an interpretive brochure, and publish one of my photo essays on the trail.
• Permanent photo points: I hope to help the Duttons establish 20-25 permanent photo points for a long-term photo record, retaking photos in cardinal directions at special locations every 5-10 years over the long reach of time.
• Distribution of the book: The Dutton Legacy Story is globally significant. I plan to assist in finding a way to tell the tale far beyond locally.
• Developing PowerPoints: I want to create a series of 10, 30, and 50-minute PowerPoint packages for telling the Dutton Land & Cattle Legacy Story.
• I see the need for recording 10-12 short videos on-site to tell the Legacy Story.

There may be other needs…ones I can’t identify without returning to the property.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations, from a single Louis Bromfield quote (Pleasant Valley):

• The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here.
• The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it…
• To die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work.

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring Nature
• I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
• I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
• I don’t play golf!
• I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
• Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
• And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

This Post introduces my fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

I am pleased to offer the 19th of my new GBH Brief Form Posts to my website (Less than three minutes to read!). I tend to get a bit long-winded with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

Brief-Form Post on my August 20, 2023, Aerial Overflight of Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park!

On August 20, 2023, a friend took me aloft in his Cessna 182. We departed Pryor Regional Air Field, Decatur, Alabama at 7:00 AM under cloud-free but hazy skies, the threat/promise (depending upon perspective) of expanding heat index…arriving long after our return to the airfield. Our flight plan encompassed exploring the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and cruising the Tennessee River from Guntersville Dam downstream to Wheeler Dam (and Joe Wheeler State Park). I focus this Brief-Form Post on our aerial exploration of Joe Wheeler State Park.

I’ve enjoyed many on-the-ground hours at the Park, publishing 24 prior Posts focused on this State Park. Go to the Blog page of my website (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/), enter Joe Wheeler State Park in the search window, and read/explore the 24 Posts at your leisure.

I snapped this photo at 8:17 AM over the south end of Wheeler Dam looking to the northside lock, and the forested Park shoreline stretching northeast from the dam. Out of sight, a portion of the Park (southside cabins and the Multiple Use Trail) lies directly beneath me. Wilson Lake lies below the Wheeler dam, to the left of the dam and bridge.

From this aerial vantage point a couple of miles east of the bridge crossing the dam, the Tennessee River (and Wheeler Lake) stretches eastward. First Creek empties into the Lake from the left. Nearly all of the forest surrounding the First Creek embayment is central to Joe Wheeler State Park. I have spent hours exploring trails and woodland within the field of vision from 2,000 feet altitude. I marvel that such an aerially-compressed view can account for at least half of the Joe Wheeler State Park Posts I have authored.

I recorded this 0:39 video at 8:19 AM, capturing the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of a very special place on the eastern edge of the First Creek embayment at Joe Wheeler State Park.

The view to the left includes the Lodge, part of the marina, a section of the golf course, the wastewater treatment facility, and the Day Use  picnic, beach, and recreation area along the inlet east of the Lodge (closeup below right).

Before departing the Park, we banked over that adjoining inlet, capturing a view of the Day Use area and campground.

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Sometimes, Today, I borrow a distinct reflection from John Muir, one of the truly great minds of conservation and environmental antiquity:

• When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

NOTE: I place 3-5 short videos (15 seconds to three minutes) on my Steve Jones Great Blue Heron YouTube channel weekly. All relate to Nature-Inspired Life and Living. I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE! It’s FREE. Having more subscribers helps me spread my message of Informed and Responsible Earth Stewardship…locally and globally!

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I arrived at Oak Mountain State Park on schedule at 9:00 AM June 8, 2023, intent upon touring the 1,600-acre Belcher property addition, visiting historic Camp Tranquility, and orienting Chris to hazard tree control measures at the Park. I focus this Post on the miscellaneous Nature treasures we encountered while touring the Belcher property.

I remind you that June 8 preceded my cardiologist-imposed stress test by a week. I was not the least bit concerned. After all, I am a former marathon runner with a superb heart! Boy, was I in for a shock…but that’s a longer tale that I have now chronicled elsewhere, including in some of these Posts.

Plant Observations

Longleaf pine occupies some of the Belcher upland, in this image standing above an understory of sourwood, one of my favorite subordinate canopy species in our northern Alabama forests.

Sourwood honey is renowned for its rich flavor and deep sweetness. Our patch was in full flower.

Nearby we encountered an intermediate canopy hickory sporting a grotesque burl, satisfying my long-time fascination with tree form curiosities and oddities. I wondered what triggered this rampant and seeming random growth. The tree’s fate is likely sealed, subject to breakage and structural failure.

I don’t recall encountering a fly poison plant in prior ventures, much less a speciment in magnificent flower. An online Shenandoah National Park source provided detailed descriptive and narrative information:

Fly poison is a perennial plant with wide, grass-like basal leaves. Flowers are initially white in color but later becoming green or red. The 3-petaled flowers (plus 3 sepals) are clustered in a dense raceme on top of a 1-3 foot tall leafless stalk. Fly poison is one of the first herbaceous species to emerge in early spring. It is typically found in dry to moist woods, meadows, and open fields. It is common throughout the Eastern United States, from New York south to Florida and as far west as Oklahoma and Missouri. Although all parts of the plant contain toxins, the bulbs are the most toxic. The Cherokee used the plant topically to stop itching. They also used the root to poison crows. Exploiting the bulb’s toxicity, early American settlers ground the bulb into a paste and mixed it with sugar or honey to attract and kill flies.

We saw only this single specimen. What good fortune to find both sourwood and fly poison blooming.

We were likewise fortunate to find both white (bottle brush) buckeye and oakleaf hydrangea in flower.

An NC State University online source describes sparkleberry, our next find, as:

a small, deciduous to evergreen shrub or tree that may grow 10 to 20 feet tall. It can be found in rocky woodlands, sandy woodlands, and on cliffs. The leaves are alternate with a smooth or finely toothed margin. The bark is shredded and patchy with reds, browns, and grays present. In early summer, small, white, bell-shaped flowers mature. In the fall, this plant has excellent color. The tall shrub produces a black fruit that matures in the fall and is a good food source for wildlife.

Vaccinium arboreum (also known as farkleberry) is the only tree form of the blueberry genus. Don’t you just love the whimsical moniker of sparkle/farkle-berry!?

An online Missouri Department of Conservation source describes sensitive briar as:

a trailing or creeping perennial of dry areas, entirely covered by hooked barbs. Flowers in ball-shaped heads on long stalks arising from leaf axils; florets many, funnel-shaped, pink to rose-colored, with yellow-tipped stamens protruding. Blooms May–September. Leaves alternate, double-compound, with 13–15 primary divisions that are again divided into 8–16 tiny leaflets (called pinnules). These small leaflets are sensitive to touch and can fold and close like those of the related mimosa tree. Fruit a slender, very prickly pod to 3½ inches long, splitting lengthwise into four parts when mature.

Sensitive briar is a species of Mimosa. Interestingly, our very own invasive mimosa tree (Persian silk tree) is not a member of the Mimosa genus! However, the sweetbriar leaf looks very much like the Persian silk tree foliage. How’s that for serving to confuse us Nature enthusiasts?

Our incredible longleaf pine forests, which covered 92 million southeastern US acres at European settlement, begins life in appearance as a wanna-be tree, spending as many as 3-7 years in what we foresters term its “grass stage.”

An online Longleaf Alliance resource describes this early stage:

This unique stage of a longleaf pine’s life history resembles a clump of grass more than a tree, hence the name “grass stage.” The young trees will not grow in height; instead, grass stage longleaf focus their growth underground to develop an impressive root system. During the grass stage, a thick cluster of needles protects the growing tip (bud) while the tree remains at ground level. If a fire occurs, the needles may burn but the tip of the bud remains protected. New needles quickly replace those that were burned off. During the grass stage, longleaf pine seedlings are very resistant to fire damage. The grass stage may last anywhere from one to seven years depending on the degree of competition with other plants for resources. Rare instances of 20 years have been documented.

Nature’s ways are complex, but her mysteries are never without cause. Five hundred years ago, da Vinci observed:

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.

I admit to remaining to this day about uncertain in distinguishing between poison oak (left) and fragrant sumac (right). Side by side, no problem (below), yet when I am out and about and see one, I simply elect to avoid touching either! We positively identified poison oak on the Belcher tract. The fragrant sumac photo I borrowed from a previous hike elsewhere.

Our Belcher plant explorations occured by chance and I offer the portfolio in no particular order.

Wildlife Observations

I’ll shift from the plant to the animal kingdom. Near the picnic shelter at Lake Demopolis, I inquired about the bankside burrows, located just 100 feet from the shoreline. I had no clue. Our Park Naturalist hosts, without hesitation, informed us that these are nesting burrows for resident belted kingfishers! An Audubon.org website notes:

The best places to see Belted Kingfishers are along sandy banks, where they are busy digging nesting burrows. These stocky, short-legged birds use their front claws—with two forward-pointing toes fused together for added strength—and their strong bills to dig holes. The holes typically reach three to six feet into the sandy bank, but some nesting holes can extend 15 feet.

Now I know the source of these burrows, another lesson learned from a pleasant day exploring the Belcher addition to Oak Mountain State Park.

As we departed Belcher Lake, ascending the road on its west shore, we rose eye-to-eye with a great blue heron perched ~25 above the water level. The bird tolerated us long enough to capture several images.

Another curiosity caught our attention — a geometrically-patterned collection of bream beds. What are bream? The online FisheriesBlog.com offers a partial description:

Bream vs. sunfish. In the US, bream (pronounced brim) is a common name that encompasses several of the larger Lepomis sunfishes. These usually include Bluegill and Redear Sunfish. Anglers often call the same species different names based on their life forms: large colorful males can be called bream, while smaller individuals of the same species are dismissed as perch, sun perch, or some other misnomer. This is particularly common in the Southern US, where many state management agencies manage all sunfish with the same regulations as simply bream.

The distinction is rich with local lore and accepted practice. Now, what are bream beds? Okay, I’ll give you my take. Bream females use the power of their tails to clear a small area of pond bottom on which to lay eggs, often doing so in aggregations of five to a hundred or more…all the better for watchful and protective males to guard the area from egg and fry predators.

I recorded this 0:21 bream bed video along the shoreline of Belcher Lake.

We completed our 2-3 hour orientation of the Belcher addition without wandering more than a few hundred feet from the road, a necessity given our goal of achieving multiple objectives on our single day visit. We accept every encountered treasure as a gift. I’m especially grateful for what amounted to my last Great Blue Heron Nature sauntering prior to emergency triple bypass surgery. I’m completing this narrative on August 17, 2023, a little more than eight weeks since surgery. My return to the woods is iminent…and I am thrilled!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Nature rewards even a 2-3 hour roadside exploration with multiple treasures.
• There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment. (Leonardo da Vinci)
• In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks. (Muir)

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring in Nature
• I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
• I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
• I don’t play golf!
• I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
• Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
• And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.