Magic and Wonder in the Canopy and Crowns on Beaverdam Swamp Old Growth Forest

I’ve mentioned often that I’m blessed to live within 10 miles of northern Alabama’s world-class 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. On Saturday morning, September 19, 2026, I slipped south to the Beaverdam Creek Swamp Boardwalk, a National Natural Landmark water tupelo forest along Beaverdam Creek. The second of four photo essays from that brief visit, I focus this one on the intricate and fascinating structure of crowns and canopies in this complex, tiered, interconnected swamp forest ecosystem.

Consider an acre of Beaverdam Swamp forest. Each acre is 43,560 square feet. The towering main canopy averages at least 110 feet high. That’s 4.7 million cubic feet per acre. Assume that the above-ground biomass in the photograph below depicts roughly an acre. The image represents just one of millions (billions?) of permutations, combinations, and possibilities for how the forest could have grown and arranged its trunks, branches, twigs, and leaves over 200+ years. The result derives from chaos. Nature is infinitely chaotic. Starting anew, what are the chances of repeating this exact forest structure… a mirror image? The same as finding two identical snowflakes?

 

So, my photo essay Conclusion Number One from a brief Saturday morning saunter: Chaos rules the natural world:

I find beauty in the continual shaping of chaos, which clearly embodies the primordial power of nature’s performance. (Iris van Herpen)

Yet, chaos is not without order. Nature operates powerfully within her own limits.

Nature never breaks her own laws. (Leonardo da Vinci)

Each molecule of growth and every increment of death result from a cause.

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

I puzzled over the unaltered canopy image below on the left, with its stem orientation leaning vertically toward infinity. I’m sure there is a technical term for that effect. I wondered whether editing out the lean would improve the photograph. There it is on the right. I don’t like its suggestion of vertical alignment and order.  I reject the edit. I’ll stick with what I see as the natural image, chaos.

 

My Conclusion Number Two: Image simplicity, with no editing and no imposed order, rules my interpretation of Nature. Nature is what it is.

I recorded this 61-second video along the boardwalk.

 

Were I more adept at editing my iPhone videos, I believe I could have eliminated the I-565 traffic noise. However, on my saunter through the swamp, the sound accompanied me. It is what it is. I choose to be real in my essay depictions of Nature.

Conclusion Number Three: Our wildness exists within a populated region.

I don’t need to add narrative reminding you of the swamp forest complexity. Instead, I ask you to contemplate the complexity above and below the ground surface. At least two-thirds of a forest’s carbon turnover occurs in the forest soil as fine root development and mortality and mycorrhizal growth and death. Conclusion Number Four: Forest complexity and dynamics reach into the soil.

 

I couldn’t help myself. I yielded to my disgust with the so-called civilized humans who behave poorly in Nature, tossing trash wherever they wander. Here is my 60-second video of McDonald’s cup desecration. If you carry it in… take it out, damnit!!

 

I’ve walked the boardwalk when the leafy forest floor gives way to overflowing water. I will return when seasonal rains reappear.

 

By mid-September, early autumn had already dropped fading foliage on the boardwalk and forest floor. It was a perfect morning for friends to shuffle through the crispy leaves. I wonder how many visitors that day mused on the forest canopy’s three-dimensional complexity? My forest ecologist’s mind encourages and enables me to see Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe hidden in plain sight.

 

The upland forest logically transitions to the tupelo swamp at the beginning of the boardwalk.

 

The overhead canopy provides full shade… at least for the moment. Soon, bare branches will prevail.

 

The canopy opens at the boardwalk terminus, above Beaverdam Creek.

 

Every walk in the woods generates new conclusions not evident at the outset. In fact, I had little idea of where I might pursue a narrative theme until I organized my photographs and videos. John Muir observed:

In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.

I attended my grandson’s Auburn University Honors College induction several weeks ago. A keynote speaker addressed four interdependent verbs necessary for achieving success in college, life, family, and business: read, speak, write, and think. My ongoing photo essaying and teaching encourage me to employ all four. Blessedly, this is my golf!

 

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

• In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.  (John Muir)
• Our northern Alabama wildness exists within a populated region.  (Steve Jones)
• Chaos rules the natural world, constrained only by Nature’s Laws. (Steve Jones)

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:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

• People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
• They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature-Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) 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. All four of my books compile personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. They 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.

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