March 16, 2023 I co-led (with Mike Ezell, AL State Parks Naturalist Emeritus) a Nature walk at Joe Wheeler State Park for members of the Huntsville LearningQuest class that had just completed a seven-week course on the State Parks of North Alabama. I sauntered the woods for an additional two hours after the formal field excursion. This Post presents some of the miscellaneous delights I encountered.

Miscellaneous Delights

And a fine/vine day it was! Like so much of the forest buffering Lake Wheeler, acquired by the Corps of Engineers and TVA during the early 1930s, the Joe Wheeler State Park forests we hiked had either been in active agriculture or had recently been abandoned as a consequence of the Great Depression. Grape vine thickets developed as a result of natural succession and forest regeneration. The vines, equal in age to the hardwood main canopy, remain a major component in the maturing second growth forest.

Mike is the consummate naturalist and educator, demonstrating his passion and joy of teaching and learning, holding everyone’s rapt attention and leading them into a forest of discovery and learning!

Every tree and stand has a story to tell. Bent and bowed, this ten-inch diameter tree bore the brunt of a falling neighbor, not decaying on the ground. The blow permanently brought the still-living stem to near horizontal, now shaded heavily by the intact canopy above. How long will it survive? It’s entered the beginning of its end. It will not survive the low energy light reaching its leaf-factories.

Nature’s magic and mystery draws my attention, often generating mental word play as I contemplate what I see. I wondered as I admired the deeply-furrowed and warty complexion of the hackberry at left how its bark compares to the bite of the nearby sugar maple! I often encounter sign-consuming trees. Nathing in Nature is static! Trees grow around fences, signs, and nails. Many a sawyer at a sawmill leaner the hard way that consumed steel can ruin a well-sharpened saw!

Several times hotter than the surface of the sun, thunderstorm lightning bolt can scar even a mighty oak. This white oak shows a vertical seam that reaches from the ground to its top. I’ve seen other trees shattered by such a strike, blown apart and instantly killed. This individual remains alive, vigor reduced, yet still producing acorns and performing its most essential evolutionary function — procreation, albeit with diminished carbohydrate production.

I love tree form oddities and curiosities. The hickory at left and the white oak grew clubbed branches…anomolies that few through-hikers would have observed. I see such phenomenon because I look! Normally a tree rejects a dead branch at the main stem. For some reason not clear to me the trees continued to sustain bark and wood production to the stubs.

My four-acre home lot in New Hampshire supported an ancient northern hardwood forest, including some very large American beech, yellow birch, and sugar maple. However, here in northern ALabama I did not expect to encounter a four-foot diameter sugar maple. I am sure there is a rich story with this one!

Loblolly Pine Curiosity

I’ve written previously about finding circumferential bark redges on loblolly pine. I’m convinced that they result from yellow-bellied sapsucker bird-peck and resultant microbial action generating the ridging.

I recorded this 3:08 video to add depth and a fuller visual image.

Without additional observations and reflections, here are more images of this fascinating phenomenon.

I had photographed other examples at Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve.

And at Monte Sano State Park.

I shall always remain an enthusiast for tree form oddities and curiosities!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
• And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. (John Muir)
• Nature’s delights lie hidden in plain sight wherever I enter her forested domain!

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.

Big Cove Creek and the Hays Preserve

April 13, 2023 I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Hays Nature Preserve, focusing my limited wanderings near where Big Cove Creek enters the Flint River. Big Cove Creek flows south (left) in a channel evidencing historic linearization, appearing more like a canal than a natural, winding stream. The creek enters the Flint River (right) with an accommodating inflection downstream, a natural signature of stream/river confluences across the globe.

Some photos require little interpretation, observations, and reflections. I snapped the above photos from the footbridge (below left) from downstream, looking north (above left) and southwest (above right). The view below right looks northeast across the creek from above the bridge. All four images show the rich reflective stream surface.

This fifth image shows the creek entering the Flint from the right. The Hays Greenway bridge crosses the Flint 500 feet downstream (lower center photo through the trees).

The Greenway bridge is necessarily sturdy. The Flint flushes frequently and savagely. This northerly view places the Flint’s downstream to the left, where within ten miles it meets the Tennessee River.

Greenways and Sewer Lines

The same view from a few steps back, offers some important signage. This past spring semester I co-taught The Streams (and Sewers) of Madison County with colleague Jim Chamberlain. We combined streams and sewers for reasons that may not be apparent at first glance. First, across the US, our streams throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th were, in reality, our sewers. The ‘solution to pollution was dilution.’ Only with extensive federal regulations in the latter half of the 20th century did we begin widespread sewage treatment.

The greenway passing south through the Hays Preserve is a sewer line right-of-way. The sign here, looking north across the Flint River, warns of the treated water outfall on the far side. Decades ago, Big Cove Creek served as the sewer. The day I visited, the treated water was much clearer than the still somewhat turbid water of the Flint River.

I’m reminded of a mid-20th century clarion call of conservation warning from Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac). He worried whether we would ever awaken to the need to identify, protect, and preserve wildness:

All conservation of wildness is self-defeating, for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish.

Leopold, I am grateful, proved overly pessimistic. He wrote those words when sewage clogged our streams, a condition we’ve remedied. Today, we are managing a level of wildness within Huntsville, Alabama, America’s Rocket City!

The Flint is a delightful river; its mood varying with rainfall patterns. Here are the bridge views east (upstream) and west (downstream). Darkening sky, fresh spring greens, and perfect afternoon light brought the scene to life!

As I’ve observed frequently, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video raises the return yet another order of magnitude! Here’s my 2:08 video of views up- and downstream.

Expanding on the sewer line element, the photo below left shows the actual outflow point (lower left open water). The image below right looks south over the same ‘candy cane’ vent pipe to the river.

Two-tenths of a mile to the north, another telltale vent pipe reminds me that many of our local greenways follow sewer lines (in this case, treated water).

Match Stick Forest: A Special Feature

This special riparian forest feature sits just west of the parking lot where Big Cove Creek enters the Flint River. I can only speculate how it earned its moniker. The grove is densely populated with sweetgum and oak, perhaps ten to fifteen years ago bringing to mind a forest of slender matches (or pencils). Today, the stand is rapidly self-thinning, looking less and less like matchsticks. I’ll continue to watch it develop.

I recorded this 1:44 video to once again provide a clearer depiction of a special place.

Hays is indeed a special place, made all the more endearing by its rich history, a location in the state’s fastest growing metropolitan area, and by its diverse and dynamic ecosystem elements.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. Aldo Leopold
• All conservation of wildness is self-defeating, for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish. Leopold
• Every parcel of land (whether back Forty or urban Nature Preserve) has its own story to tell.

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.

April 19, 2023 I arrived about noon at Alabama’s Lake Lurleen State Park, then departed April 20 after a morning meeting of the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board. I focus this Post on the splendor of the lake the first afternoon and snippets I captured at sunrise the next morning during a quick encounter lakeside before my departure.

The lake did not disappoint, a seamless drape of sky and water.

My hollow words sometimes add little incremental value to my photographs and videos. Such is clearly the case with the cerulean sky, rippled water, and scenic shoreline. My two-minute noon video speaks volumes.

The chattering barn swallows surging from their nests under the dock add a celebratory touch to the scene.

Every view along the lakeside trail is framed by shoreline trees.

The water and sky offer a perfect complementary match!

My 1:48 video captures the lakeside beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of Lake Lurleen State Park.

Never one to miss a dawn in Nature, I found another day of joy at 7:15 AM. One lovely day simply transitioned to another. No, perfect weather is not the rule at any of our parks, yet one should never be surprised when perfection make a repeat performance. John Muir expressed the day’s radiance:

The sun shines not on us but in us.

My 1:36 sunrise video simply amplified the ambience.

Wisps of morning mist rose from the still-spring-cool water (below right). A single swallow, among the many greeting the morning, is silhouetted against the sky (below right).

Edward Abbey likewise appreciated the magic of brilliant sunshine:

There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere.

I suppose the domestic grey geese, cavorting noisily near the park headquarters, likewise saw value in the new day.

My 30-second video captured their new day welcome.

My Lake Lurleen Post offers little ecological insight, explores no wildland mystery, nor reveals any deep forest secrets. Instead, it highlights the special delights of a brief late spring amble lakeside at Lake Lurleen State Park, a west-central Alabama gem.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• There is beauty, heartbreaking beauty, everywhere. (Edward Abbey)
• The sun shines not on us but in us. (John Muir)
• Nothing exceeds the magic, inspiration, and sacred spirit of a placid lake surrounded by forest.

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.

March 16, 2023 I co-led (with Mike Ezell, AL State Parks Naturalist Emeritus) a Nature walk at Joe Wheeler State Park for members of the Huntsville LearningQuest class that had just completed a seven-week course on the State Parks of North Alabama. I sauntered the woods for an additional two hours after the formal field excursion. This Post presents my observations and reflections from the bluff-top trails near the lodge.

I grew up in the central Appalachians. Every hike traced the rough terrain. Only infrequently were trails flat. I welcomed the perspective of trekking along the bluffs, 50-100 feet above Lake Wheeler on a breezy spring day.

A Mid-March Bluff Trail Morning

The distant horizon is actually Wheeler dam, indistinct at this distance with the naked eye. I often wonder how less that 100 feet above the water, I feel as though the bluff is high above, yet were I in a boat below, the bluff would appear unimpressive. Always, elevation expresses an exaggerated visual perspective from above. I mis the days when, as a younger man with better knees, I could scale most peaks effortlessly.

Mike held forth with ease and intimate familiarity. He grew up along Lake Wheeler. He knows the area deeply…and has an unbridled passion for it. His love for the land and knowledge of the Nature of it is inexhaustible. I’ve often heard the old saw, “People don’t care how much you know…until they know how much you care.” Mike cares!

Some photos require no narrative. I’ll say only that our group found itself blissfully, spiritually (not spatially) lost in the spring forest.

These views epitomize the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of a bluff-side stroll in Joe Wheeler State Park on a splendid spring morning!

Again, there’s little need for my observations and reflections!

Even better than still photographs, I offer my 2:27 video from the bluff.

As I complete my narrative in early May I know that the forest canopy will soon block most views to the lake. Nothing in Nature is static, not even the view from the bluff.

Likewise, this 35-second video of a barge passing, is season-limited. By June only the distant powerful engine chugging would reveal the barge passing…unseen.

Special Features

Former pastures, dating back to abandonment when TVA acquired these lakeside buffers along with the soon-to-be-flooded lands, are often heavily populated with large grape vines that grew up with the new forests. I enjoy the jungle-like appearance of these mature hardwood trees draped with Tarzan-worthy vines. And beware the sign-eating trail-marker trees. Nothing in Nature is permanent, not even a metal trail sign!

Our OLLI hikers voted with their feet, sharing my endorsement and fascination with the hanging grape vine gardens of these former pastures. All of wondered what tales the large yellow poplar could have shared.

Wild comfrey issued its fresh spring leaves as we walked the trail. Hickory buds nearly burst this time of year. Massive foliar tissue ejects from the jettisoned bud scales. I’d like to see that action in time lapse video.

I don’t like to miss forest treasures and delights during my woodland saunters. Allow me to repeat my five essential verbs for meaningful woodland exploration:

1. Believe — know that delights lie within plain sight
2. Look — search your viewscape with intent…to find the magic that you know is there
3. See — peel away layers of distraction, both visual and mental
4. Feel — infuse what your eyes detect through all of your portals: mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit
5. Act — allow the feeling to direct you to informed and responsible stewardship of Nature

Henry David Thoreau said it well: It’s not what you look at that matters; it’s what you see!

So few who pass through the woods reach beyond looking. I urge readers to see what truly matters!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
• And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. (John Muir)
• It’s not what you look at that matters; it’s what you see!.

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.

I am pleased to post the 12th of my new GBH Brief Form Posts to my website (Less than three-minutes to read! Not including the brief videos). 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 the brief Posts regularly.

The Intersection of Human Engineering and Nature’s Inspiration

I attended the 2023 TN Air Show at Smyrna (Nashville area) Saturday June 10. I did not anticipate finding a Nature connection, yet one emerged with great clarity: The Marvels of Human Engineering Meet Nature’s Splendid Inspiration!

Rather than pontificate with weighty narrative, allow me to present three brief YouTube videos (and two photos) that I posted this week and a few words about each.

My 20-second video captured three Blue Angels as they rose into the sun-aura of a cumulus.

I’m reminded of the stirring words of WWII pilot John Magee’s poem High Flight:

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds —

and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of;

wheeled and soared and swung high in the sun-lit silence.

Hovering there I’ve chased the shouting wind along,

and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air;

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,

Where never lark nor even eagle flew;

And while, with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

I included the poem in my Dad’s eulogy. A Pacific theatre WWII Army Air Corps veteran, Dad carried the poem in his wallet until the day he passed. I watched the Blue Angels with tear-filled eyes. Twenty-seven years deceased, Dad stood with me.

This 40-second video from Saturday afternoon recorded a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II racing across the flight line, then lifting vertically among the cumulus before appearing to float softly against the backdrop of the cerulean blue and white of an early summer afternoon.

Again I felt Dad’s spirit soaring both within and beyond me, tears remaining.

Finally, this 22-second video captured a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, capable of Mach 1.6 at altitude. This high performance aircraft appears to hang in the air as it passes among the cumulus under the cerulean blue of an early summer afternoon, once again combining the marvels of human engineering with the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of Nature.

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts to a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Through the presence of Dad’s spirit, the power of flight that he loved, and Nature’s abiding beauty, magic, wonder and awe, I:

• Put out my hand, and touched the face of God!

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

NOTE: I place 3-5 short videos (15-seconds to three minutes), like the one in this Post, 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!