Green Mountain Nature Preserve: Spring UAH OLLI Hike through the Halloween Forest
Fellow retired foresters Chris Stuhlinger, Brian Bradley, and I co-led a University of Alabama in Huntsville, OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) Nature Hike on April 13, 2025. Our group of 25 covered a little over two miles on what I’ve dubbed the Halloween Forest Trail on the North Alabama Land Trust’s Green Mountain Nature Preserve […]
Rainbow Mountain Loop–Refuting the 55-Year Claim of a Static Forest!
I intended this to be one of my brief-form posts, but I recorded too many short videos to meet my less-than-five-minutes-to-read criterion! A colleague interested in our northern Alabama human and natural history recently observed that the forests on Madison, Alabama’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve have not changed over the 55 years he has visited […]
Intergenerational Spring Saunter at Alabama’s Monte Sano State Park!
Alabama grandsons Jack (17 years) and Sam (11) accompanied me on April 19, 2025, as we traversed the Sinks and Wells Memorial Trails at Alabama’s Monte Sano State Park near Huntsville. Seven months beyond my second total knee replacement surgery and 21 months since my triple bypass, there’s little I will not attempt on local […]
Spring Morning Nature-Delights along Madison’s Bradford Creek Greenway!
I sauntered 2.5 miles with family on March 29, 2025, on an out and back from Heritage Elementary School along the Bradford Creek Greenway. I spent most of my time wandering hither and yon within the bottomland forest, exploring what might lie hidden in plain sight. Bradford Creek carried a full flow, flush in response […]
Mooresville, Alabama Cemetary: A Macabre Side of An Old Forested Cemetary! [Volume Three]
Note: I am flagging this photo essay as one of a sub-series that introduces the emerging Singing River Trail: A 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama. On March 8, 2025, at the […]
Brief-Form Post #45: A First Visit to High Falls Park in DeKalb County Alabama!
I am pleased to add the 45th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy 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. Introducing High Falls County Park […]
March Coming in Like a Lamb at AL’s Lake Guntersville State Park!
I embrace every chance I have to explore a new trail and to experience the shifting seasonal woodland tides of northern Alabama…or wherever my roamings take me. Compelled to attend the February 28, 2025, dinner affair of the Annual Environmental Education Association of Alabama (EEAA) meeting at Lake Guntersville State Park, I arrived early enough […]
Mooresville, Alabama Cemetary: A New Dimension to Life and Death in the Forest! [Volume Two]
Note: I am flagging this photo essay as one of a sub-series that introduces the emerging Singing River Trail: A 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama. On March 8, 2025, at […]
Winter Dormant Season Wonders in a Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Bottomland Forest
Note: I am flagging this photo essay as one of a sub-series that introduces the emerging Singing River Trail: A 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama. On the morning of February 8, […]
Bottomland Tree Oddities on the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary!
On February 15, 2024, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I sauntered through the eastside bottomland hardwood forest at Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary. Heavy flooding two days earlier submerged the forest in overflow from the adjacent Flint River. We decided to see whether the river had fallen back within its banks…it had, yet it […]
Brief-Form Post #44: January Fungi Discoveries along the CCC Trail at Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park
Brief-Form Past #44 I am pleased to add the 44th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy 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. January Fungi Discoveries […]
Mid-February Gulf-Coastal Alabama Delights!
Judy and I visited Alabama’s Gulf Coast on February 21 and 22, 2025, inhaling spring breezes, experiencing hints of the season’s first gentle vernal touches to Alabama’s south shore, and contemplating Hopkins Law tracking vernal progress north at 120 miles per week! I captured still images and brief videos of treasured elements of the season […]