January 19, 2023, I awoke early to enjoy dawn on the lake, then hike the Cabins Loop Trail at Oak Mountain State Park, an 11,360-acre wildland gem near Birmingham, Alabama. This short trail runs through diverse habitat along the south shore and peninsula of Tranquility Lake. I introduce the trail and some fascinating natural features through these observations, photographs, and reflections.

Loop Trail from Cabins

Because I had only minimum time before heading to a breakfast session of the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, the trail suited me perfectly. An alert Nature enthusiast can see, feel, and absorb a lot of beauty, magic, wonder, and awe in just a mile of trail-trekking. So much lies hidden in plain sight…awaiting discovery!

I spent four years (1975-78) conducting tree nutrition and forest fertilization research across the southeastern US (VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, and AL), where my forest products industry employer owned and intensively managed two million acres of forestland. I learned to recognize soil features (texture, color, drainage, depth, etc.) that revealed fertility and quality. Not far into the loop, I hiked through a ridge-crest (convex slope), barren, infertile forest with a shaly trail surface, a telltale sign of poor soil wherever I’ve wandered in the southeast.

Most shale-derived soils in these southern Appalachians are nutrient poor, excessively-drained, and erodible. This ridge-spine dipping to the lake supported a stand of upland hardwoods, poorly-stocked (low stand density), short, and with low biomass per acre. During my research field days my tool kit included a sharp-shooter spade, allowing me to dig deeper (literally and intellectually) into the forest soil-site quality dimension than I could assess from shale exposed along a forest trail!

I soon escaped from my forest-soil-scientist-nostalgia, focusing instead on the magic of the morning’s saunter. The ever-accompanying Tranquility Lake prompted reflections…the forest on her surface as well as thoughts deep in my head, heart, and soul. I’m reminded, as I often am, of a relevant John Muir quote:

This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.

I take great comfort and find inspired joy knowing that this delicious time of day is racing away westward (at this latitude) at roughly 800 miles an hour, at the same time departing…and promising to return 24 hours later! Ah, who can long concentrate on a little trail-shale when the poetry of Nature reveals herself?!

Our southern winter’s stark beauty is a constant and welcome companion. This same view in July may reveal a peek of lake through the leaves. During the dormant season, the view is unobstructed. Even the distant sky appears through the hilltop canopy beyond the lake. I love our winter-naked hardwood forests! Sure, I will embrace spring in her splendor, yet eventually I will embrace October’s cooling days and November’s shedding leaves. The cycle remains unbroken.

Reflections on a Beaver Colony

A bit further, the trail passed through an area frequented by beavers. They’ve kept the predominantly sweetgum saplings and brush neatly cropped. Sweetgum bark and leaves are apparently tasty and nutritious, and the species conveniently resprouts, assuring a continuing food source. Note that sunlight adequate to support grasses reaches the forest floor. Beaver are exceptionally talented engineers, even as, in this case, modifying their habitat to suit their needs.

A recently chewed sweetgum sapling stump alongside a sprout cluster (below left) evidences the gardening skills the beavers employ. Below right is a prior year’s chew, in this case showing the sprouts regrown after last year’s harvest.

Beavers are not limited to direct harvest of saplings to collect food and modify habitat. The adroit engineers had in prior years attempted to kill or down this two-foot-diameter oak. Downing it (a formidable task) would have brought a veritable treasure of twig cambium and leaves to the family.More importantly, simply killing this main canopy occupant would open a wide hole for sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor, encouraging an explosion…an irruption…of edible woody trees and brush. I’m ceaselessly amazed by the wonders inherent in Nature, “learned” through the intricate process of natural succession. Perhaps some curious beaver girdled a large oak creating a prolific abundance of yummy seedlings. She may or may not have correlated cause and effect, but she did, as a result, produce more progeny that she otherwise would have. In technical terms, she and her tribe showed greater fecundity. Without diving more deeply into the realm of learned and inherited behaviors, suffice it to say that evolution favors the strong, creative, and fecund.

Some Unanticipated Wonders

Another mature tree within the colony’s range, now deceased, caught my attention, draped with resurrection fern. I appreciated its cloaked silhouette. Time will soon draw the tree to the ground. Already, all of its fine twigs and branches have sloughed earthward. I give the remaining coarse structure no more than 2-3 years erect.

Just as the beavers encouraged new life through their harvests, this smooth alder was already demonstrating an act of seasonal renewal. These are male flowers (catkins) fully emerged from a native shrub species that grows along streams or lakeside.

Lichen artistry decorated this sugar maple trunk. Nature does indeed abhor a vacuum. Thank God for helping me see beauty in a life form content to flourish on a vertical bark surface.

Tree Form Oddities and Curiosities

I entered the forest without any alert that hazards awaited. However, I soon discovered that all was not safe, serene, and mellow. There are oak trees capable of devouring metal signs on the loose! This hapless sign lost its way, relaxed its danger-awareness, and fell prey to a large-mouthed red oak.

Viral, bacterial, or fungal infection spurred this large circumferential burl on a beech tree. Generally, such burls are non-fatal, akin to a benign tumor. The agent triggers the tree to produce tissue growth, often gorgeously textured and coveted by ornamental bowl-turners.

Lightning hits often here in the Southeast. Sometimes it kills tree; other times it scars them. This maple survived, but bears the scar of a blast decades ago that nearly blew it to pieces. It appears to be structurally on its last legs.

Unsurpassed Beauty of Forest, Water, and Sky — A Visual Morning Symphony

I don’t see the need to add a lot of narrative to the following five photographs. A picture speaks a thousand word, saying all that I feel is necessary. The sun officially rose at Oak Mountain January 19 at 6:50 AM. I snapped these photos just 20 minutes later. The sun had not lifted high enough to cast its rays on Lake Tranquility or its surrounding hills and forests.

I seldom enter Nature without appreciating the total package of land, life, terrain, and the firmament above…the combination both inspiring and exhilarating!

Sunrise has touched the puffy morning cumulus, even as it has warmed my heart, soul, mind, body, and spirit.

Nature’s revelations are available whether we spend a day or squeeze an hour stroll into a busy morning. I encourage you to invest whatever time is available wherever you happen to be. The rewards from an abbreviated woodland trek can return dividends beyond your imagination, especially when dawn and dusk enters the equation.

I’ll close with another Muir quote:

All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land or down among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God’s eternal beauty and love. So universally true is this, the spot where we chance to be always seems the best.

Henry David Thoreau added his own wisdom in advice to those who enter the forest:

It’s not what you look at that matters; it is what you see!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go…the spot where we chance to be always seems the best.
• The rewards from an abbreviated woodland trek can return dividends beyond your imagination, especially when dawn and dusk enter the equation.
• I seldom enter Nature without appreciating the total package of land, life, terrain, and the firmament above.

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.

In concert with the January 19, 2023 Alabama State Park Foundation Board meeting I spent two nights at a Park cabin on Tranquility Lake (Oak Mountain State Park), rewarding me handsomely with one evening and two mornings of short saunters along the Maggie’s Glen Trail. I want to share a compendium of observations, reflections, photographs, and one short video from my saunters. I use saunter purposefully, borrowing John Muir’s wisdom:

I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike!’ Do you know the origin of that word saunter? It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the middle ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going they would reply, ‘A la sainte terre’, ‘To the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.I

I’ve found Muir’s wisdom to be timeless. Although he is clearly a great conservationist and tireless Nature observer and philosopher…and I am but a tired old forester addicted to Nature and sharing a simpatico relationship with Muir’s spirit.

Maggie’s Glen Trail Wanderings: The Quiet Inspiration of Sylvan Streams and Morning Solitude

I sauntered into the glen the evening of January 17 and the following two mornings, each time finding peace, solace, and inspiration.

The marscenent, clinging bronze leaves of lower-canopy American beech brightened the understory gloom, and stimulated my musing and contemplation. I wondered, what is the evolutionary advantage to holding spent leaves over the dormant season? I’m grateful for the winter splash of color, yet it brings me no closer to an explanation. Leonardo da Vinci opined that all effects in Nature are born of cause:

In nature there is no effect without cause; once the cause is understood there is no need to test it by experience.

I shall continue to seek identifying the cause for a sapling beech retaining its spent leaves.

Contemplating or not, I liked the early morning combination of clinging beech leaves, a silent trail, a gurgling stream, and a deep-woods jogger who surprised me on the trail. I still miss my own morning runs from many years ago…when knees knew no limits and I trained enthusiastically for 10 Ks, half-marathons, and the full 26.2-milers! Those memories live within the young man who still resides in my mind.

From the perspective of a rise that I mounted, the forest stream seems to emerge from the base of the hill, yet it is simply snaking along the base from out of sight to the right of the frame.

The omnipresent marscencent beech leaves grace every Maggi’s Glen Trail photograph. I may be overdoing the forest, stream, hillside, and special place magic photographs, but I never tire of the quiet, serene, mystical sense of the place. Well over a century ago, Muir observed:

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

Maggie’s Glen is surely one of those places.

Here are two more images — I can’t help myself!

Recognizing once more than my still photos can never tell the whole story nor depict the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe, I recorded this 1:51 video:

Mystery and Fascination along the Trail

Mosses, Fungi, Algae, and Lichens

Park crews clear the trail of downed trees; Nature does the remaining work, decomposing and returning the felled trunk to the soil. Hyphae of the lumpy bracket mushroom are decomposing the cellulose hidden within. Moss carpets the bark that hasn’t yet sloughed to the ground. The carbon cycle is at play, hidden in plain sight.

A close up reveals the algae-coated bracket upper surface, and its distinctly poly-pored underside (right).

Another nearby stump support gilled polypore mushrooms, whose hyphae are likewise decomposing the wood. As I’ve frequently observed, all life dances in continuing harmony with death. The rhythm never ceases…one does not exist without the other.

I wonder, when does one distinguish between deadwood and humus (the organic component of soil, formed by the decomposition of leaves and other plant material by soil microorganisms)? The outer surface of these two downed logs can already be termed humus. The inner woody remains will soon be fully incorporated into the litter and soil. Nothing in Nature is static. The same holds for we mere humans during our own fleeting existence. Recall the old funeral words, “ashes to ashes; dust to dust.” Solomon declared in Ecclesiastes, All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

American beech commonly hosts lichens and mosses on its smooth bark, like a canvas is home to human artistry. Recent rains sufficient to draw stem flow from the intercepting crown, wetted the entire trunk, accenting the lichen and moss displays. Who needs human art when Nature is the master of design?!

Likewise, who needs my words to interpret Nature’s absolute magic and inspiration!

Pine bark furrows can be rich microsites for lichens, mosses, and algae. I suppose one could find doctoral dissertations identifying the abundance of life in the bark furrows of loblolly pine. I will remain content to marvel at the beauty of such features and appreciate that life on Earth knows few bounds. The bark furrows are well-watered (stem flow and blowing rain); they trap organic matter and dust from the stemflow; and their shady domain protected from scorching sun and drying winds.

I found this decaying pine stump worthy of mention. Its bark remains intact. The stumps outer wood, known as juvenile, has decomposed, while its inner core of more resin-soaked heartwood stands firm, more resistant to decay.

Algae and lichen line these furrows. I include it not because it differs from the prior bark furrow photos. Instead, it signals avian life to the astute observer. Woodpeckers have searched its bark for sub-bark insects, leaving the distinctive wood-peck signature of yellow-bellied sapsuckers.

Forests are treasure troves for discovering all that lies hidden in plain sight, especially when one saunters through a special place like Oak Mountain’s Maggie’s Glen.

Spiral Wood Grain

Even as I strive to unveil the mystery behind marcescent beech leaves, I have not yet found scientific rationale behind spiral wood grain, evident on these dead (and debarked by decay) oak logs. Both are spiraling clockwise (when viewed from above). I’ve pointed out the tendency in prior Posts. I suspect trees with spiral grain are structurally stronger.

This one has a gentler spiral, still clockwise.

Albert Einstein was a consummate student of Nature; his timeless wisdom and deep contemplations fuel my own observations and reflections on Nature:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

It is not the fruits of scientific research that elevate man and enrich his nature, but the urge to understand, the intellectual work, creative or receptive.

In every true searcher of Nature there is a kind of religious reverence, for he finds it impossible to imagine that he is the first to have thought out the exceedingly delicate threads that connect his perceptions.

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)
• Nothing exceeds the magic, inspiration, and sacred spirit of a quiet morning forest and a gurgling stream amid the mists of a new day.

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 excited to offer the second of my new GBH Brief Form Post format (Less than three-minutes to read!) to my website. 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 on at least a trial basis.

Brief-Form Post on Mysterious Loblolly Pine Tree Form Oddity

Two Loblolly Tree Form Oddities on Joe Wheeler State Park

March 16, 2023 I visited Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park, encountering two loblolly pine tree form oddities. During the coming weeks I will publish my long-form photo-essay on the March Revelations of Mysterious Delights at Joe Wheeler State Park. In the meantime, here is the second trial employing my new GBH Brief Form Post format, this one on a single aspect of my March 16 visit.

I have not discovered a certain explanation for the cause of these circumferential ridges. Colleagues have suggested old fencing, but who would place a fence ten feet above the ground?! I reject that idea.

I recorded this 3:09 video at one of the two special trees:

My Speculation

Although I used the term “speculation” I am taking a step further…declaring that the only viable explanation is the tree’s physiological reaction to horizontally linear sapsacker birdpeck. Perhaps the ridge-development is spurred by associated viral, fungal, or bacterial infection.

The close up suggests individual woodpecker bird wounds and apparent sap oozing to the surface.

I’ll continue to search for affirmation from anyone in the know. I would love to be able to query Dr. Alan Drew, a plant physiologist (deceased) who served long ago on my PhD committee.

Observation of note from Albert Einstein:

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

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

I am excited to introduce a new GBH Brief Form Post format (Less than three-minutes to read!) to my website. 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 on at least a trial basis.

Brief-Form Post on Wetland Restoration

Recent Conversion at the Sanctuary

February 14, 2023 I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary. During the coming weeks I will publish my long-form photo-essay on my Valentine’s Day tour. In the meantime, here is the first trial employing my new GBH Brief Form Post format, this one on a single aspect of my visit.

The Sanctuary is indeed wet land, seasonally saturated and occasionally flooded by the adjacent Flint River. Modified by minor drainage when converted to crop production decades ago, the ongoing wetland protection project intends to return the fields to their original hydrology.

These photos depict this winter season’s planting of appropriate wetland tree species and constructing two shallow water impoundments to attract waterfowl and associated fauna.

I recorded this 3:04 video at the site February 21, 2023:

Nine-Year Farm-to-Forest Results at Webb Pond Preserve

Here are photos from my March 8, 2023 visit to the Webb Pond Preserve (Land Trust of North ALabama), where similar wetland restoration efforts converted wet farmland to wetland. The forest and shallow impoundment below will soon enter their tenth growing season.

I’ll closely watch the GSWS wetland restoration project as it develops from farm to forest. The Webb nine-year farm-to-forest success offers a glimpse of what to expect at the Sanctuary.

Observations of note:

• A functioning natural ecosystem is a work of supreme art, in these two cases aided by the hands of man.
• Meaningful conservation often requires deliberate, informed, and responsible action.

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

Miscellaneous Housekeeping

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.

December 10, 2022, I hiked a new trail, simply referred to as the Hiking and Biking Trail, that begins near the Refuge entrance gate for the Visitors Center. Fellow Nature enthusiasts Chris Stuhlinger, Jim Chamberlain, and Ed Mullin accompanied me. The flat, hard-packed fine gravel path winds through the deliciously varied habitat of mixed pine/hardwood uplands, riparian hardwood bottomlands, cropped fields and meadows, flooded wetlands and ponds (like Dinsmore Slough), and the actual channel of Flint Creek. This Post offers observations, reflections, 20 photos, and one short video.

I issued a related brief Post on our pre-hike visit to the nearby two-story observation building, and the new wildlife photo blind, all in the vicinity of the Refuge Visitors Center, closed this winter for renovations: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2023/02/22/december-10-2022-the-cranes-are-back-at-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge/

I will also issue a Post presenting the mosses, lichens, and mushrooms we encountered on the Hiking and Biking Trail.

The Trail

We covered 5.5 miles through varied habitat and transitional weather. The day began in the upper 40s with fog and low stratus, which lifted and broke by mid-morning, replaced mid-day by thickening clouds moving in with an approaching cold front. Associated rain arrived shortly after I returned home at 2:00 PM, dropping 0.70 inches into the overnight hours. Our timing proved fortuitous for enjoying a Saturday morning outdoors.

I do not intend to introduce the trail step by step nor in sequential order. This stretch (photo below) depicts an edge (an ecotone) between closed forest cover on the right and cropland at left. Refuge managers devote significant acreage to crop production through Cooperative Farming:

Cooperative farming is a mutually beneficial arrangement where the farmer is allowed to farm refuge land under certain guidelines and restrictions, including location of crops, techniques, crops planted, and chemicals used. Wheeler NWR has an active cooperative farming program in which about 3,000-3,900 acres are planted annually. The goal of the program is to provide food and cover for migratory birds and other resident wildlife. The program supplements natural foods with grain crops, such as corn, milo, small seeded millets, and green browse. It is designed for farmers to buy the seed, plant, grow, and harvest the crop and leave a certain portion or share for the wildlife. Corn is usually chosen for refuge shares, although millet is planted in areas that remain wet too long for corn production. (From the WNWR website.) This field produced corn during the summer of 2022.

Some former agricultural lands have regenerated to forest. This upland pine stand appears to be 12-15 years old. I saw no evidence of planting (trees in rows), yet all stems seemed to be the same age. Therefore, I believe the stand either regenerated naturally, yet I did not see an evident seed source, or perhaps originated from aerial- or tractor-dispensed seed? Converting some acreage from marginal cropland to native loblolly falls within the Refuge mission to provide diverse habitat for wildlife.

I offer these photographs to both depict the typical mature riparian forest type we traversed and to highlight these field-edge oaks that over the decades have reached toward the sunlight available on the open field side.

A predominantly pine with mixed hardwood upland rises beyond Ed below. Dominant pine heights exceed 100 feet.

We hiked past several Waterfowl Impoundments, like the one to the left above:

Wheeler NWR manages 16 impoundments to provide approximately 2,000 acres of waterfowl habitat in open water, moist soil, and in areas where agricultural crops can be flooded. Management consists of manipulating water flows through 20 water control structures (WCS) consisting of concrete and/or corrugated metal pipes with flash board riser or screwgate structures. By adjusting the height of the control mechanism (screwgates and riser stoplogs), water levels are set and gravity-induced water flows can be created. 

Generally, impoundments are filled in the fall by rainfall or through spring seepage. Rarely can the refuge open WCSs and allow water to flow from the Wheeler Reservoir into the impoundments because the reservoir’s water level has dropped (early to mid-September) prior to the time when filling is needed (late September or early October). Impoundments are not filled with water until farmers harvest crops and just prior to the time birds begin to arrive at the refuge.

Most impoundments, with the exception of the Display Pool at the Visitor Center, can usually be drained or partially drained by gravity into the reservoir or its tributaries before the water level is raised in the spring (early to mid-April) by opening various WCS. A portable pump is used to empty the Display Pool. Impoundment drawdown is initiated after waterfowl leave, generally in late February or March, depending on the impoundment and yearly conditions. In typical years, water has to be pumped out of the impoundments after the reservoir is raised in mid-April.

Impoundments and related structures are maintained annually as resources and conditions permit. When soil conditions are dry enough, unwanted vegetation (especially woody vegetation) is mowed, disced, or removed. Roadsides and the upper, dryer portion of the dikes are mowed annually. Areas that are farmed do not require as much maintenance.

I snapped the photos below from the Dinsmore Slough Road, which through this section is the Hiking and Biking Trail. The views are, respectively, to the west (left) and east. A Water Control Structure separates the two.

My 2:16 video elaborates on these impoundments at Dinsmore Slough:

I learned a great deal about the Refuge by walking the trail and then preparing the narrative for this Post. For starters, I now know that the Refuge includes some 4,000 acres in Cooperative Farming and 2,000 acres in Waterfowl Impoundments.

This impoundment (left), with a pumping station (off camera), was draining to its managed winter level by gravity into Flint Creek (right), which in the image is flowing from right to left toward Lake Wheeler. The impoundment water is entering Flint Creek from the culvert outlet under the gravel. I had measured in excess of six inches of rain during the two weeks prior to our hike, sufficient to bring the impoundment to targeted brimful. We had experienced below average rainfall from late summer through mid-November, likely necessitating pumping water from Flint Creek by late October to flood the impoundment. We have since gone from rainfall famine to feast.

The photo above right shows the strong outlet current at the gravel edge. Although I was unable to secure a decent photograph, we watched a constant school of 2-3-inch minnows swimming in the immediate outlet flow…thousands of them, we supposed, feeding on sustenance suspended in the impoundment outflow. Larger fish worked the minnows constantly, splashing in pursuit, occasionally sending minnows airborne! Oh, the advantages of residing higher on the food chain!

Tree Form Oddities and Curiosities

As is my routine, I stayed alert for tree form curiosities and oddities. A trailside black cherry long ago suffered a blow at five feet from the ground, knocking its then sapling stem to horizontal. The flattened stem responded by activating a dormant but at the impact point, generating a vertical main stem that rose into the main canopy. Another bud sprouted at about four feet from the main stem. That branch rises only into the intermediate canopy. Some would suggest that this is an Indian pointer tree. Sorry, this individual is a natural phenomenon. Native Americans had exited this part of the Tennessee Valley at least 100 years before this Refuge forest regenerated.

I’ve found only a few examples of the phenomenon below since beginning these Posts with retirement. Visualize an oak sapling broken at knee-height by a fallen tree or branch. Normally, standing independently, such a fractured sapling stump would either generate an adventitious bud that would sprout, develop foliage, and keep the shattered sapling alive…or simply die. Neither occured in this case.

Instead, the sapling had previously root-grafted with what is now the much larger adjacent oak. The larger stem continued to grow, supported by its vibrant main canopy crown. The oak treated the grafted sapling as its own stems and branches, callousing over the wound. In effect, rather than a trunk branch stub, the calloused sapling rises from the ground attached at the root graft.

Five hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci understood Nature:

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

When I encounter tree form curiosities and oddities, I seek to understand the cause. Wandering woodlands is far from a brainless exercise, especially when I endeavor to interpret what I see via these photo-essays. Here is another such oddity we spotted. The sweetgum lost its top 15-20 years ago at about six feet. The opening at its right base reveals that the old tree stood hollow, weakened, and subject to breakage from wind. My forensic forestry concludes that the tree suffered that consequence long enough ago that the fallen top has since decayed and incorporated into the forest floor. The hollowed snag retained life sufficient to sprout two stems (right and left rim) to sustain some level of vigor, enough to callous the shattered rim. Nature is remarkably resilient. The evolutionary urge or imperative is powerful. Is it worth the struggle for such a seriously impaired individual to survive? Yes, if the effort (the two spouts and their crowns) can produce even one sweetgum seed ball with a single viable seed that finds fertile ground, takes root, and continues the genetic line. Again, always strive to understand the cause!

Trail Endings

Water impoundments, cooperative farming, diverse ecosystems, and manifold tree species and forms paint a variable Nature-quilt. Yet, there is more when we seek to discover what lies hidden in plain sight. Like so many facets of Nature, wildlife scat tells a tail. Coyote skat (left) contains telltale fur, perhaps a rodent or larger mammal. Below right, raccoon skat reveals evidence of what had been in our region a bountiful persimmon crop. The tasty sweet fruit holds one-third-inch indigestible seeds that pass through the animal whose digestive acids scarify the tough seeds, encouraging germination when the forager drops them on a surface more suitable than the trail.

Allow me the liberty of including the skat under the heading of trail endings. Ed and I saw reason to show proof that we had, in fact, made it to the trail’s end.

As we returned to our vehicle, clouds thickened to the west, presaging the approaching front. I am seldom satisfied with observing just a single dimension of Nature. I enjoy understanding and appreciating the whole complexion of Nature — land; plants; water; wildlife; and the weather and climate within which life thrives. Our day began in dense stratus overcast and morning fog. As we wandered, the fog cleared and the stratus broke. Now, when exiting, we watched the front grow evident in the west. Never…ever…imprison me in a static climate. Weather diversity is a powerful spice of life for this old forester.

The system’s initial raindrops greeted us as we arrived at our Madison homes. I am blessed to live a location (northern Alabama) where Nature in her varied moods, faces, landscapes, and weather offers abundant beauty, magic, wonder, and awe.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Nothing surpasses a gorgeous southern winter day on a new trail crossing through diverse habitat.
• Muir observed eloquently that “Going out…was really going in.” 
• Nature willingly shares her secrets and delights with those who seek to see and to understand.

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.