October 15, 2022, I spent the afternoon (and the following morning) visiting Auburn University’s Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center, where I had last been in 1984 when I served as Alabama Land Manager for Union Camp Corporation. My visit served as a celebratory reunion. Rhett Johnson, who hosted my 1984 tour and served as Solon Dixon Director for 26 years, likewise hosted my October return. Emmett Thompson, Auburn Dean Emeritus, College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment, and his son-in-law Ken Pylant also accompanied us. I worked closely with Emmett, who was then Dean, when I served as Director, Alabama Cooperative Extension System 1996-2001.

My excitement for re-visiting the The Solon Dixon Center brought back lots of memories, renewed long friendships, and reignited my passion for longleaf pine, a forest type that once extended across 92 million acres from southeastern Virginia to east Texas.

America’s Richest Forest

I left the Center with a signed copy of Rhett’s (along with Bill Finch, John C. Hall, and Beth Maynor Young) Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can see, a coffee-table-quality treasure that I will cherish! The book carries a tantalizing subtitle: A New Vision of America’s Richest Forest.

From the book:

In colonial times, the longleaf turned out to be very valuable for lumber and for the pitch, tar and turpentine made from the trees and believed to be the origin of North Carolina’s moniker, “Tar Heel State.” Eighteenth-century ships were made entirely of wood, and North Carolina was called upon to provide so-called “naval stores” including tar, pitch and turpentine that were used to keep ship bottoms waterproof and afloat.

Of course, much has changed in the South over the last 500 years. A survey conducted in 1996 by a Florida researcher found that less than 0.01 percent of the remaining longleaf pine forests could be considered old growth. This handful of virgin forests is a draw for scientists, serving as a benchmark for conditions prior to European settlement.

Only about one percent of their original range remains. Longleaf pine communities may have covered some 92 million acres across its natural range, but now fewer than 3 million acres remain.

Rhett updated the longleaf acreage numbers as we toured the property, indicating that the total acreage had dropped to 2.5 million and now, resulting from dedicated efforts across the south, stands at six million!

Longleaf is a long-lived species, kept vibrant with periodic fire. This stand may be two hundred years old, with widely-spaced overstory, scattered mid-story trees of lower age classes, and fire-dependant herbaceous ground vegetation.

William Bartram described such “high pine forests, dark and grassy savannas” from his wanderings 230 years ago. Well over 100 years ago, John Muir spoke of his travels in the longleaf forests:

“In ‘pine barrens’ most of the day.  Low, level, sandy tracts; the pines wide apart; the sunny spaces between full of beautiful abounding grasses, liatris, long, wand-like solidago (goldenrod), saw palmettos, etc., covering the ground in garden style. Here I sauntered in delightful freedom, meeting none of the cat-clawed vines, or shrubs, of the alluvial bottoms.”

The longleaf forest energizes me…reminds me of the two-century dynamic intersection of human and natural history as the new nation emerged in part by the thrust provided via a vast rich forest and the industry it supported. My own professional life launched and flourished during the 12 years I worked for Union Camp. Our company-owned Chapman Forest constituted 220,000 acres of intensively managed loblolly pine and associated hardwood stands in adjoining riparian areas in a five-county area of south-central Alabama, south of the black belt physiographic region. The loblolly had replaced original stands of longleaf. As a Fortune 500 paper and allied products manufacturing company, Union Camp’s forest management emphasized fiber production, for which loblolly best satisfied the objective.

Our Chapman Forest offices in Butler County stood within an old growth longleaf grove, which included several federally endangered red cockaded woodpecker colony trees. The nests at our location had been excavated 60-70 feet high in live trees. The birds keep the sap flowing to ward off snakes and other predators from their eggs and young…and to trap tasty insects.

(Stock image from internet)

The forest type extended northward to the southeast Virginia coastal plain, yet I do not recall encountering longleaf pine on the forests I managed there during the seven years I worked with Union Camp in that region. I would love to have seen the vast longleaf forest that stretched across the South prior to European settlement.

 The Solon Dixon Legacy

Rhett and Emmett shared stories of the Center’s namesake. Rhett gave me a copy of The Dixon Legend. Mr Dixon was a genuine legend from another era, a man who loved the land and its pine, and who left a lasting legacy through Auburn University.

Emmet (center), Rhett, and I stand in front of Mr Dixon’s family home, “built in the 1850’s and moved to its current site in the 1870’s.” It is “framed with locally milled pine… The home features hand-planed boards on the walls and ceiling… Originally surrounded by outbuildings related to the Dixon’s forestry operations, the Dixon home is now the center of the Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center.

“Four generations of Dixons, each promoting the management of trees as a renewable resource, made their living in forestry on this ground, thereby contributing significantly to Alabama’s economy and forest industry… Solon and Charles (Solon’s brother), both raised in this home, became successful forest product industrialists and recognized conservationists.”

“In 1978, Solon and his wife Martha, donated the land and a gift to Auburn University to build the Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center. Solon stated at the dedication in 1979, “Standing on the very ground which our ancestors homesteaded many years ago, we see the beginning of a learning and research center which will last far beyond our lifetimes.” The Solon and Martha Dixon Foundation Learning Center stands nearby.

A state of the art auditorium bears Rhett’s name as well as Dean Gerstad, a now retired Auburn forestry faculty member who dedicated his professional life to advancing longleaf pine science and practice.

Many former Auburn forestry students recall their undergraduate summer at forestry camp, conducted at the Center under Rhett’s tutelage. They all remember The Box where during Camp Rhett housed various and sundry snakes he collected on the property. I’m told that The Box served as the nexus for frequent snake-related harmless practical jokes!

Re-establishing Longleaf Pine

The Center and the allied Longleaf Alliance are striving to re-establish longleaf throughout its historic range. For example, the Bankhead National Forest in northwest Alabama, within the species’ natural range, plans to eventually convert one third of its pine uplands to longleaf. Similar efforts are accelerating across south Alabama.

Late in the afternoon October 15, 2022, we visited an area where the Solon Dixon crews are converting a mixed mature forest to longleaf pine. Following timber harvest, staff employed herbicide and fire as site preparation before planting longleaf seedlings. The planted trees have completed two growing seasons.

Longleaf can spend 1-4 years in the grass stage (below left) before sending up a first “candle” (below right).

Below left Rhett is showcasing a vigorous individual that candled in season one. My three fellow observers are standing at the edge of the converted area. Older longleaf borders the new stand.

I recorded this 1:44 video at the longleaf-regenerated clearcut:

Lasting Evidence of a Dying Operation and Trade

As we approached noon October 16, I snapped this photo of a loblolly pine plantation adjacent to a mature longleaf stand, one old enough to retain turpentine faces from naval stores operations decades ago. From the Southern Forest Heritage Museum website:

Naval stores are a nearly forgotten legacy in the South, but throughout history nations have depended on them, sought them out, and fought wars over these resins from pine trees. These products—tar, pitch, turpentine, and rosin—long kept wooden ships of the world afloat and were found to provide other uses prior to the petrochemical dominance. Even with the decline in sailing ships, there has been an international demand for these products.

The story of naval stores is remarkable and messy, but the industry helped support much of the South’s economy for nearly 400 years. Naval stores operations, which involved scoring the tree cambium, was slow to develop in Western Gulf states. The largest naval stores operations in these western states occurred following the harvest of the virgin pine forests. The resinous stumps that remained were harvested, chipped, and steamed to obtain the same chemicals that had been obtained by chipping live trees. 

We stopped at this old stand at sunset our first day. An old naval stores face is visible at the base of the tree at the left margin.

This scar (below left) is callousing over, yet the sap drip collar is still present. The same tree stands at right, its coarse branching and flattened crown are typical of old longleaf.

Here is another scarred face with an aluminum nail for hanging the collection bucket under the drip collar. Below right shows yet another old face on a tree still vibrant enough to actively callous the old wound.

Back at the Center Rhett show us an interior view of a working face. The view is from the tree’s perspective looking out to the scoring.

Here is another morning view into an old growth longleaf forest. This one appears to be overdue for a prescribed fire. An understory of woody vegetation has developed. I find the combination of forest, cerulean sky, and wispy cirrus irresistible.

Reuniting with Emmett and Rhett at the Solon Dixon Center, under the spectacular second morning sky, brought me squarely back to my forestry roots. My retirement wanderings have rewarded me over and over again. My eyes see far more today than they did during my younger, career-driven woodland explorations. In part, today I know well that Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe often lie hidden in plain sight. I now know better how to look so that I may see…and understand. Seeing and understanding open the door to appreciation and inspiration. Inspiration is a portal to lifting my heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit.

I’m soothed, too, to see that Rhett’s passion for our remarkable longleaf forests is expressed by his truck’s license plate!

I’m grateful that Rhett and Emmett have dedicated their professional lives to endeavors like assuring that the Solon Dixon legacy lives on through future forestry and wildlife professionals.

When Judy and I visited the Center so long ago, our children were four and six years old. They will soon be 44 and 46. I am reminded of the words of Louis Bromfield, mid-20th-century novelist, who dedicated his life to rehabilitating his “old worn-out” Ohio Farm:

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 that any of us can hope to accomplish during our fleeting existence is to leave some small corner of the world better through wisdom, knowledge, and hard work.

I applaud Emmett and Rhett for their wisdom, knowledge, and hard work…and their unflagging passion!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• I am hopelessly addicted to stories of passion for special places.
• And for special forest types, like longleaf pine.
• The best that any of us can hope to accomplish during our fleeting existence is to leave some small corner of the world better through 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 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.

Nothing beats a sunrise along water. Staying overnight October 19, 2022 at the Joe Wheeler State Park Lodge near Rogersville, Alabama, I walked to lakeside at the next day’s dawn. A chilly fall morning rewarded me with a full dose of lake mist and brightening sky inspiration…the alchemy of fog wisps, first light, bordering trees, and marina-magic.

I snapped this image at 6:38 AM. As I often say, Nature’s daybreak glory never fails to reward my early-to-bed/early-to-rise life pattern. Nature metes her most potent elixir from astronomical twilight through nautical twilight to civil twilight and sunrise. The three twilight stages, respectively, occur when the sun ascends from 18-12, 12-6, and 6-0 degrees beneath the eastern horizon. Sunrise ends official twilight. The image below presents deep into civil twilight…awaiting sunrise. The three stages constitute what we term as dawn. I am a dedicated creature of dawn!

Here is the 1:26 video I recorded during that exquisite dawn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3PQ6u84_tU

How could a true nature enthusiast not experience this celebration of life and living that morning at 6:38 and 6:40 AM, respectively!? Such a morning lifts my spirits, girding me for whatever the day ahead presents.

As he so often did, John Muir captured the essence of my dawn experience:

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

Turning westward, the light (6:42) played less spectacularly across the water and fog, yet still I found Muir’s words true to my sensation of awe and inspiration:

Look! Nature is overflowing with the grandeur of God!

Allow me a non-Nature sidebar. Near where I stood, a monument commemorated the lake and the Park’s namesake, General Joseph Wheeler, a West Point graduate and CSA cavalry general. Many in our time seem hellbent on virtue-signally the past into oblivion…wiping away elements of history they find disagreeable. I contend that we cannot today, 160 years after the onset of the Civil War, rewrite history to suit our own ideals, standards, and preferences. General Wheeler served his homeland (a Georgia native) faithfully and courageously during the war, then served his reunited country in Congress. At age 61 in 1898, Wheeler served as a major general in the Spanish-American War. A year later in sailed for the Philippines to fight in the Philippine-American War. Tear down his monument and wipe his name from the lake and park? That is the sentiment that George Orwell warned us may lie ahead in his prophetic 1984 novel!

Okay, I return us to the Nature of our October 20, 2022 dawn and sunrise. By 8:10 AM, the sun lifted well above the forested east rim of Lake Wheeler. The morning’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe persisted!

I can’t resist offering another apt Muir quote:

There are no accidents in Nature. Every motion of the constantly shifting bodies in the world is timed to the occasion for some definite, fore-ordered end. The flowers blossom in obedience to the same law that marks the course of constellations, and the song of a bird is the echo of a universal symphony. Nature is one, and to me the greatest delight of observation and study is to discover new unities in this all-embracing and eternal harmony.

Early Afternoon Venture into the Lakeside Forest

The fog had long since lifted when Judy and I entered the Awesome Trail following the Board meeting and lunch. We had photographed the Awesome Trail from our pontoon boat lake tour the prior afternoon. The trail winds through the forest just 30-40 feet from the lake in the image below.

The trail was a magic carpet of shed leaves, the woods glowing with a soft autumn yellow.

I thought of Robert Frost:

In retrospect, my now 71 years in the yellow woods have made all the difference! I’ve seldom (ever?) had a bad day in the woods.

Muir said it simply and succinctly:

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Nature’s dawn magic leaps from its nighttime slumber!
• A chilly fall morning rewarded me with a full dose of lake mist and brightening sky inspiration…the alchemy of fog wisps, first light, bordering trees, and marina-magic.
• John Muir: Nature is one, and to me the greatest delight of observation and study is to discover new unities in this all-embracing and eternal harmony.

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.

This post offers 44 minutes of sunrise inspiration at Alabama’s Lakepoint State Park and Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge October 15, 2022.

An equinox stroke eliminated my planned March 2022 trip to Lakepoint State Park for a quarterly Alabama State Parks Foundation Board meeting. I vowed to visit the Park once I recovered and summer had passed into fall. I arrived Wednesday October 12, in time for lunch at the Lakepoint SP Lodge, met by my host Tasha Simon, Natural Resources Section Chief, Alabama State Parks. Tasha toured me through the Park that afternoon and through mid-afternoon Thursday, offering ideas for me to pursue until I departed early Saturday morning for Andalusia.

I focus this post on the truly spectacular sunrise I chronicled Saturday. Interestly, the Park is surrounded by the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge. I ventured from the Lodge, walking the Lake Eufaula shoreline, my feet firmly planted on the State Park. However, every photo over Lake Eufaula, created by damming the Chattahoochee River downstream, captured images of the Eufaula NWR. The partnership and co-location stand as a story of interagency success: US Fish and Wildlife Service and Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The sun rose by my watch at 6:55. Leaving my room at 6:30, I looked ESE to the lodge at 6:39 (left) and snapped the mist rising above the bay  at 6:40.

I don’t see much need for my own narrative. The photos speak volumes; their beauty requires little interpretation. My more typical forest wanderings (and wonderings) warrant adding my observations, reflections, and ecological explanations.  These views at 6:42 and 6:48, quite simply reflect the absolute calm and serenity of an autumn dawn, air cool enough above the water to condense rising mists.

Some bands of mist created fog banks, adding elements of intrigue and mystery to the 6:51 and 6:57 waterscapes. Already, anticipating a mild and sunny day, fishermen are launching their craft. I wonder how many marveled at Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe…a reach far beyond the allure of landing a big bass. Back in the days of my youthful fishing, I recall even then that catching was important, but really secondary to the joy and inspiration of being outdoors. I felt echoes of that youthful joy from early mornings shared with Dad and my older brother. In fact, Dad stood with me (really, in me) October 15. I sense his presence often in such special Nature moments. Occasionally, near-conversations flow, not audibly, yet seeming so very real. My eyes shared the morning mists.

My 3:18 video depicts the peace, quiet, serenity, and beauty of that misty sunrise.

According to my iPhone photograph, the rising sun punctuated the dawn at 6:56 AM as I walked through the boat launch parking lot.

I cherish the impactful moment I captured with this 2:37 video. My videography is nothing special. It is my timing…my early morning wanderings at the right place…that are noteworthy. As my ardent angler friend often reminded me, “There is only one way to guarantee catching no fish.” Each time I would ask, “And what is that.” His consistent reply, “Never wet a line.” I would never capture a good dawn photo or video if I never arose before dawn.

Like all of life and living, Nature enthusiasm requires showing up. I had driven more than four hours to spend three days at Lakepoint State Park and the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge. I was not about to miss opportunities for experiencing the deep and varied Nature of the place!

I snapped my favorite image right after sunrise as two fishermen worked the shoreline backlit by the rising sun at 6:57 AM.

American lotus and vegetation across the water accepted the sun’s slanting rays at 6:58 AM. I suppose the early morning anglers in every photo were eager for the sun’s warmth.

The two gentlemen in the backlit scene above soon fished their way from the bank heading into more open water, trolling across the piling dockside, at 7:00 and 7:01.

By 7:14 AM, daylight was in full swing as I trekked back to the lodge to head for Andalusia for the Longleaf Pine exploration leg of my journey.

I captured this collection of photos, videos, observations, reflections, and memories across 44 minutes. I feel an urgency in sharing these remarkably soul-stirring and spirit-lifting 2,640 seconds with other Nature enthusiasts. My two-part retirement Vision is quite simple:

• 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.

I could write a lengthy treatise on my rationale for why I believe people should pay greater attention to and engage more with Nature…and modify their relationship to the natural world. Instead, I choose to condense my arguments into more such 44-minute distillations.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• I find Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe wherever I seek it, especially at dawn.
• I want to feel Nature’s essence and taste and inhale her sunrise elixir!
• The land and water came to us out of eternity; I thank God for our collective wisdom to secure special places in perpetuity.

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.

October 2022 I enjoyed my first visit to Alabama’s Lakepoint State Park near Eufaula. I found the Park’s forests and Lake Eufaula shoreline delightful, rich with Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe. See my focus on the Park’s managed loblolly pine forest, intersected with pleasant trails.

A Park and a Refuge

An equinox stroke eliminated my planned March 2022 trip to Lakepoint State Park for a quarterly Alabama State Parks Foundation Board meeting. I vowed to visit the Park once I recovered and summer had passed into fall. I arrived Wednesday October 12, in time for lunch at the Lakepoint SP Lodge, met by my host Tasha Simon, Natural Resources Section Chief, Alabama State Parks. Tasha toured me through the Park that afternoon and through mid-afternoon Thursday, offering ideas for me to pursue until I departed early Saturday morning for Andalusia.

I focus this Post on our hike through the managed, park-like loblolly pine stand transected by a gentle trail and bounded by a loop road accessing Deer Court, ClarkLoop, Barbour Loop, and the Alabama Loop. The pine stands out more darkly within the loop across Route 431 from the golf course at the left-center of the aerial photograph.

We met at the restaurant, located in the Park’s lodge along Lake Eufaula.

The Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge surrounds the Park, representing an effective State/National partnership.

The pine stand we traversed extends to the water line in the day use area (left). Mixed natural hardwood forest borders the lake in other parts of the park (right).

A Managed (Park-Like) Loblolly Pine Forest

We drove from the lodge to the activity building on the northern side of the subject pine forest, which borders the parking area.

I often refer to forest conditions that are park-like…and have for many years. However, I just now consulted my dictionary of forest terminology, finding no formal definition. Back in my graduate school days and early in my academic career, when every written point had to be affirmed by a literature citation, I would have panicked. Today, instead, I remind myself, “I know what park-like means. Why on earth do I need to confirm what I know it means with what somebody else thinks it means?!” So, allow me to fashion the parameters for my own park-like definition:

• Populated by mature (larger than seedlings and saplings) trees
• Average height at least 40 feet
• Crowns not touching; that is, less than fully stocked
• Some sunlight reaching the forest floor
• Understory somewhat open
• A sense that the forest is accessible
• Visibility extends into the forest

Our subject forest meets those criteria. Park crews have commercially thinned the stems, leaving lots of crown space for growth. Prescribed fire (about a three-year cycle) maintains the open understory. The unmanaged hardwood and mixed pine/hardwood stands nearby present a solid edge, appearing jungle-like, with no visibility into the forest. I prefer the open view, with individual stems fading into the distance, and the sky and sun above.

I recorded this 2:02 video within the stand October 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGqa8rERuak

The view below left looks out from the trail onto the loop road. The trunk below right evidences the prescribed fire, hot enough to control woody understory insurgents without damaging the naturally fire resistant loblolly pine.

During the days when I ran recreationally, I loved trails like the one we hiked (left). The crown view (right) suggests, with open space closing, that a next thinning may be timely within the next 2-4 years. Loblolly competes ruthlessly for sunlight. The species practices aggressive self-thinning. The strong survive. Lay literature (fairy tales and feel-good stories of the forest) depicts a fantasy of an idyllic world where peace, love, tranquility, and cooperation prevail. Such is not the case. Resources (moisture, nutrients, and sunlight) are finite. Trees live to grow and reproduce. Those able to grow will live to reproduce. Those who grow best, tap a greater share of those scarce resources. The individuals who lose their share yield vitality, and will eventually succumb. This is not the fantasy world where caring and sharing rule the day. Life in the forest is dog-eat-dog, fiercely competitive. Resources are finite; only the strong survive.

Without periodic prescribed burning, succession would encourage woody shrubs and trees to occupy the understory, eventually converting the forest from a single-tiered mature pine main canopy to an emerging predominantly hardwood forest overtopped by residual pine above. Lush perennial, non-woody plants, like the dog fennel (below left) flourish in the repeatedly burned stand. Because the mature main canopy produce prodigious cone and seed crops, pine seedlings germinate liberally in the fire-prepared soil (below right). A subsequent fire will kill the seedlings, yet if managers decide to regenerate the stand to pine, they can withhold fire, encouraging those seedlings to develop as the next stand. Such is one alternative afforded by the art and science of forestry.

Here is a second video (2:17) I recorded in the managed loblolly forest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGMAToMCijE

Emphasizing the finite light available, I use the vertical crown shot below left to demonstrate how thinning redistributes crown space among the residual stems. The standing dead tree below right succumbed to some natural agent, quite possibly lightning. Recall my oft-repeated observation that life and death in our forests march hand in hand.

A large oak stands within the loblolly. It is a residual that was already in place when past practice resulted in establishing our natural loblolly forest. The oak’s thick bark is resistant to the periodic prescribed fires. The oak adds a dimension of wildlife habitat diversity to the site.

Tree Form Oddities and Curiosities

Fusiform rust is a common fungal pathogen of loblolly pine, often infecting seedlings and, if not fatal, potentially carrying on into mature trees. The scar below left persists as a canker within our subject forest. The infection remains active, as does the tree’s battle to partition the active court and to callous over the wound. The interaction marks the tree with an obvious target canker. The tree, with the blemish apparent at its base (below right) continues to tap a share of upper canopy sunlight.

The fusiform cankers are pine sap infused, often igniting with surficially-intense fire during prescribed and wildfire. This individual carried the effect to extreme, opening a portal that attracted our attention. Will the burn-through kill the tree? The simple answer is, not yet. The rind of active cambium is valiantly trying to heal the wound. My assumption is that were the tree in a fully-stocked stand, it would have already lost its ability to compete with its neighbors. Instead, I believe that those who marked the prior thinning noticed the tree’s special visual character and marked it for retention, opening canopy space around it.

Here’s a different type of oddity, one of a peculiar nature that I had not spotted previously, even during my earlier career in managing industrial loblolly forests. These appear to be whorled 2-4-inch bark plates spaced irregularly along the vertical axis. I remain stymied, unable to find evident causal agent or mechanism. I can guess or speculate. Here goes: perhaps this individual responds to yellow-bellied sapsucker pecking by stimulating growth of these barky plates. Below right the plates extend into the live crown base.

April 3, 2020, I photographed this odd loblolly pine with circumferential ridges at the North Alabama Land Trust Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve near Huntsville. I wonder if the causal factors are related.

Einstein marveled at the mysteries of Nature:

The most beautiful gift of nature is that it gives one pleasure to look around and try to comprehend what we see.

Surrounded by the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge

The pine stand grows to the water’s edge within the Lakepoint State Park day use area, which, as does the entirety of the park’s landmass, abuts the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge.

I find special satisfaction and comfort in knowing that the full viewshed beyond the sign below right encompasses State and Federal land and water preserved and protected forever.

Paraphrasing from Louis Bromfield:

The land (and water) came to us out of eternity, and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best that any of us can hope to accomplish during our fleeting existence is to make some small corner of the world better through wisdom, knowledge, and hard work. 

My own hope is that this Post may spark interest or generate action oriented to spreading the gospel of Earth appreciation and stewardship.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Nature rewards every time I visit some natural place new to me.
• Einstein: “The most beautiful gift of nature is that it gives one pleasure to look around and try to comprehend what we see.”
• Every place in Nature has a 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.

John Muir aptly observed, In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks. So, too, every time I explore a new (for me) north Alabama natural area I receive far more than I seek.

Chris Stuhlinger, a fellow retired forester, and I co-lead a series of monthly hikes for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. September 2, 2022, we made a dry run on the Cold Spring Nature Trail, which passes through sections of both Monte Sano State Park and the Monte Sano Nature Preserve of the Land Trust of North Alabama. We led the OLLI group September 10. That’s Chris below left, and one of the OLLI group below right.

I won’t burden you with indicating the respective dates for the photos within this Post. Suffice it to say that if you see more than just Chris or me, the image is from the OLLI hike. The trail transits a remarkable older-growth upland hardwood forest, much of it occupying a cove setting: concave lower slope facing east to northeast. Species composition includes: red and white oaks, yellow poplar, mockernut and shagbark hickories, sugar maple, yellow buckeye, sweetgum, American basswood and white basswood, and even a sycamore and black walnut. Several individuals exceeded three feet in diameter. The canopy reached up to 120 feet tall.

Although I have not discovered how to capture full depth of field nor vertical extent with my iPhone, these two photos do a passable job with both. Perhaps one day I will acquire and learn how to use a real SLR camera!

Here’s a 2:16 video I recorded within the cove forest on the dry run date:

I like adding these short videos to my photo-essays. They add life to my sometimes stilted text and reduce the tedium of still photos.

State Champion Basswood Tree

The state champion basswood tree is a trailside highlight. This beauty at last measurement (July 2016) stood 113 tall, had a crown radial spread of 63 feet, and boasted a diameter at breast height of 41 inches. Its average crown spread of 63 feet from the trunk translates to the tree effectively occupying 0.29 acres! No wonder there are no other nearby large trees. This champion is a tough competitor, shouldering aside others who tried in vain to capture the upper canopy sunlight.

The tree is not without internal stressors. An old basal scar from a long-ago-broken-away stem (below left) signals heart rot eating away from within. Some day, forces yet to be determined will spell the end of this magnificent champion. However, I told the group that its chances of out-lasting this old forester are pretty good. The tree dwarfs our OLLI hike participants.

I always struggle with what to exclude in these Posts. This cathedral grove offered many individual trees worthy of profiling with photographs and observations, to name a few individuals: yellow poplar, yellow buckeye, shagbark hickory, and a handsome white basswood, among others. Chris and I plan to return during the winter to gather photographs, make measurements, and assemble material for a subsequent Post.

Cold Spring

Another reason for returning during the dormant season, when seasonal rainfall is more reliable, is to see the spring with greater flow. Here’s Chris snapping a photo of the OLLI group standing at the rock face where the spring emerges.

Here’s the august group at the spring, courtesy of Chris’ camera.

As we paused at the spring, I recorded this 2:23 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaFmRSD6rtE&t=6s

Once again, a short video tells a far deeper tale.

Understory Plants and Flowers

I’ve long been a spring wildflower devotee, from my freshman systematic botany course that focused on the spring ephemerals of the central Appalachians, through my 13 interstate professional relocations across the country. After several years retired here in north Alabama I’ve evolved to more and more appreciate mid- and late-summer bloomers. Let’s visit a few that caught my eye along the Cold Spring Loop Trail.

I’m a softy for blue flowers like this zigzag spiderwort. Note the slight stem direction change at each leaf node, thus the zig zag moniker.

We found several specimens of fortune’s spindle (AKA wintercreeper) an escaped euonymus cultivar from east Asia. Its dark evergreen foliage and climbing form make it a desirable arbor cover for home plantings. I saw no evidence that it is an aggressive invasive. The individuals we saw drew me closer, serving as a point of focus and contrast.

This particular cluster was growing on the trunk of a yellow buckeye (below), the larger of two vine stems well-camouflaged vertically along the bark, distinguished only by the moss clinging to it.

Great Indian plantain still retained a few non-showy flowers. Marking its beauty are large glossy deep green leaves.

Bearing yet another blue flower, fall phox did not shout for attention, filling its reproductive end-of-season role as a seeming wallflower, yet lovely just the same.

Unlike its wildly showy domesticated cousins, wild hydrangea offered more subtle beauty. However, because I am a big hydrangea enthusiast, I appreciated seeing this specimen offering welcome along the abandoned paved road leading to the trailhead.

Nearby, along the same old road we found creeping cucumber in full flower, an understated intricate beauty, with fine tendrils assisting and enabling its annual climb.

Fungi

I’ve become a fungi kingdom convert, more and more understanding and appreciating this life form, its manifold and diverse members, and their essential role in our forests. Turkey tail, the mushroom of a wood decay organism, is common across eastern America. The internet is rich with sources describing its medicinal benefits.

I photographed this oak mazegill mushroom on the end of a section of an oak bole cleared to open the trail. I regret that the old forester who doesn’t kneel as well as he useta-did (southern expression), failed to capture a good image of the intricate maze-like underside.

Here is an image from on online source:

Conclusion

My primary retirement mission is simple: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

All of my teaching, hike-leading, writing, and publishing fit the mission. I love what I do, whether co-leading a morning exploration in a local preserve with friends and fellow Nature-enthusiast seniors or bushwhacking alone through a mature riparian hardwood forest. Standing with the state champion basswood, I feel a spiritual/sacred connection to a forest elder. I em engaged entirely with all five personal portals: body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit!

I want to feel Nature’s essence and taste inhale her elixir…and share the magic with others! Learning, teaching, and inspiring are in my Nature.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Every time I explore a new (for me) north Alabama natural area I receive far more than I seek.
• I want to feel Nature’s essence and taste inhale her elixir…and share the magic with others!
• And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. John 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.