Mid-August Hike Circuiting a Summit-Glade Racetrack

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August 16, 2022, Jim Chamberlain, friend and fellow Nature enthusiast, and I hiked to and circuited the Racetrack Trail at Wade Mountain Nature Preserve, located just north of Huntsville, Alabama. This summit-top limestone glade is a climax plant community dominated by low growing herbaceous species and associated shrubs and trees. I had done little homework prior to our visit. The unique nature of the site and its vegetation took me by surprise. I will describe and explain as we proceed through this Post.

We entered the preserve via the trailhead below. We hiked to the summit racetrack through a typical temperate mixed pine and upland hardwood forest.

 

See my September 21, 2022 post on my hike through the mixed pine and hardwood forest: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/09/21/mid-august-hike-my-first-visit-to-wade-mountain-nature-preserve/

A Unique Ecosystem — A Special Floristic Community

 

My eyes opened a bit wider as we exited the more typical forest, transitioning to the glade. Certainly, we had ascended into a forest of fewer stems per acre and decreasing dominant crown height. Even at that, our entry to the glade seemed abrupt. Suddenly, the bright light of the opening pervaded. The path became a chalky, dusty near-white. Grass grew trailside and extended into herbaceous vegetation, brush, and scrubby forest.

 

A Floristic Plant Ecology Study of the Limestone Glades of Northern Alabama, Jerry M. Baskin, David H. Webb and Carol C. Baskin (Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, July-September 1995), described the kind of glade we encountered:

The limestone glades of the southeastern United States are natural open areas of rock pavement, gravel, flagstone, and/or shallow soil in which occur edaphic climax plant communities dominated by low growing herbaceous species. 
The physical environment is characterized by high irradiance, high soil temperatures in summer, and extremes in soil moisture ranging from saturation/flooding in late autumn, winter, and early spring to below the permanent wilting point in summer and early fall.

 

 

Lone cedars, in open-grown rounded form, punctuate the glade. I’m more accustomed to the closed canopies of our northern Alabama forests, accepting (no, welcoming and embracing) the glade’s open sky, bright light, and fresher air. Don’t get me wrong, I find no fault in the deep forest, yet, who among us does not like a change of pace?!

 

Near where we entered the glade, an abrupt summit of exposed limestone bedrock and scrub forest greeted us. It beckoned my camera lens, yet I did not truly appreciate the image and its power until I reviewed the photos back home. Although absent the lofty grandeur of my near-heaven memories of the Tetons, for example, this 1,020 rise warmed my soul and soothed my heart.  The unique habitat under a gorgeous sky enveloped me in a spiritual aura when I studied and appreciated the image in my office. I know, all that sounds a bit mushy, but in this time of retirement, I believe I am due some escape to the side of sentiment and feeling. Observations on the science of this unique floristic community go only so far.

 

Here’s the two-and-a-half minute video I recorded near the summit: 2:36 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLU17weMCaI

I must correct a term I used in the video narrative. I incorrectly termed the limestone glade a “bald.” Was that my first in-the-wild video narration error? No, nor will it be my last!

Part of the glade’s charm owes to encountering what I did not anticipate. I think of chinkapin oak as a lowland forest species, yet here it stood sapling-size, in bush form. In my riparian forest explorations I’ve seen chinkapin oaks approaching three feet diameter and reaching to better than 110 feet vertically.

 

I am sure I would have discovered loads of unusual flora had I focused my efforts, especially had I been accompanied by someone more knowledgeable than I. Perhaps some day I can return in the company of one who knows this community and can lead me through a journey of comprehension and understanding. As with many of my Nature wanderings, on the glade, once again, I find out how shallow is my knowledge of our local and regional wildness. With my age and experience, the more I learn, the less I seem to know. I recall my early years of forestry practice when I thought I knew everything! The same is true of life.

 

Summer Wildflowers

 

The glade presented a nice palette of summer wildflowers, including this sunflower-like prairie rosinweed (flower left; leaves right).

 

Less showy, yet more abundant, here’s roundfruit St. John’s-wort (flower left; leaves right).

 

Carolina ruella brightened the rather drab grey of the chalky, pebbly soil surface.

 

An online North Carolina Cooperative Extension publication provides a nearly lyrical description:

Ruellia caroliniensis, or Wild-petunia, is very common in North Carolina, found in lawns and woodlands. This native wildflower is so common that,  despite its beauty, it is sometimes considered a lawn weed. This unbranched perennial can grow to 2 to 3 feet tall. Its leaves are light green and tend to have a crowded appearance. Its purple flowers bloom in spring, summer, and fall. The unstalked flowers are in axillary clusters of three to four and usually only one or two are open on any given day. Even though wild petunia’s flowers only last for a day, its long flowering period more than compensates. It seeds readily.

Yes, I found this species this year in May along Madison, Alabama’s Bradford Creek, evidencing its extended flowering season locally. The NC State reference added this note: Dry to moist forests and woodlands. Carolina ruella is apparently not picky about its preferred habitat!

 

We found lots of butterfly milkweed flourishing in this harsh, dry, exposed environment. Only one bore a full flower head. Again, in stark contrast to the chalky soil, the milkweed showed remarkable adaptability.

 

Two summers ago I purchased a small pot of butterfly milkweed from a nursery specializing in native perennial plants. It is thriving in my cultured garden with routine watering and occasional fertilization. Amazing that a plant can thrive across the range from a cultivated oasis to a barren glade summit.

 

Prickly pear, unlike my preconceived notions for ruella and butterfly milkweed, seems perfectly suited to the glade.

 

Scrub Forest Elements

 

Supplejack vine appears regularly during my bottomland and upland forest rambles. Here it is in the scrub forest within the racetrack, twining clockwise around a sapling (left) and around companion supplejack vines (right). Apparently, supplejack is an obligate clockwise climber. Oh, the ways of Nature!

 

 

A sign that perhaps the devil (here at Devil’s Racetrack) himself posted! Why else would it be partially hidden among a foul mess of lichen, moss, and of all things, resurrection fern? I’m kidding, of course, about the foul descriptor. I find it, instead, whimsical — perhaps a creation of woodland fairies! I’d like to see it when rains refresh the fern.

 

 

Not a whimsical creature, the bowl and doily spider waits for a hapless insect stops by for a snack. Well, not for a snack, but to provide a snack.

 

Mary Howitt began her epic The Spider and the Fly with words that touched us deeply as children:

‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ said the Spider to the Fly,
”Tis the prettiest parlour that ever did you spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I have many curious things to show when you are there.’

‘Oh no, no,’ said the little Fly, ‘to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.’

And Howitt’s lesson ended with these unforgettable sentiments:

And now, dear little children who may this story read,
To idle, silly, flattering words, I pray you ne’er give heed:
Unto an evil counselor close heart, and ear, and eye,
And take a lesson from this tale of the Spider and the Fly.

Stated a bit differently, never accept candy from strangers!

Importantly, according the the Nature of things, spiders are no less noble or worthy than flies. There is no distinction of good and bad in Nature. Spiders are not evil, nor are flies angelic. The food chain is real; its a spider-eat-fly world. However, by no means are spiders apex predators. This doily spider has a bowl for a reason…an escape and shelter from the many critters that relish tasty arachnid treats!

Everything in Nature is connected to everything else. John Muir said it best:

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

 

Conservation and Utility

 

I try to avoid incorporating photos of human infrastructure, but I thought it added something to this Post. The Racetrack Trail meets the transmission line tangentially as it arcs (pardon the pun) across the northern extent of its circular transit (below left view to the west). After we departed the Wade Mountain trailhead, our route home transected the power line right-of-way a couple of miles to the west. The photo below right looks to the east at the north end of Wade Mountain, rising 300 feet above the photo point. I offer the two images only to provide some location perspective, and to evidence the intersection of utility (the power line) and conservation (the Nature Preserve).

 

The interplay of utility and conservation does not create a cross-purpose paradox. Instead, the proximity demonstrates that conservation is not about protecting wilderness in an area that has long seen human interaction and disturbance. The Land Trust of North Alabama mission is direct and clear:

Our mission is to preserve North Alabama’s scenic, historic and ecological resources through conservation, advocacy, recreation and education.

The Wade Mountain Nature Preserve meets the spirit and intent of the critical mission!

 

Final Look at a Sacred, Spiritual Place

 

Here’s a repeat image of the special place…with its essence, spirit, and aura…on the Wade Mountain Nature Preserve Racetrack Trail.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these thoughts:

  • Unique natural areas offer special rewards.
  • Each place in Nature has a unique character and tells its own story.
  • Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir, especially when Nature offers unique treats!

 

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2022 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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 grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
  • And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

Steve's Books

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Wildness in an Urban Setting

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August 12, 2022, I visited the 20-acre Indian Creek stream-side property owned and stewarded by Huntsville, Alabama’s Grace United Methodist Church, toured by my friend and Grace UMC parishioner Jim Chamberlain, a fellow Nature-enthusiast. It’s fitting that a church owns this sacred place, where I feel the nearness of a higher Power, immersed in a natural spiritual essence and filled with the hope of eternity. I’ve driven past the church dozens of times, paying no attention to it or the forest behind it. However, hidden in plain sight, the property serves as a reminder that Nature lies within easy reach to all of us, an island of urban wildness, rich with forest and edge plant and animal communities.

Streamside Forest

 

Indian Creek flows south from the property to first run along the Indian Creek Greenway at the Providence community, crosses Route 72, then parallels the Indian Creek Greenway. The Providence segment terminates just a few hundred feet below the church property. The stream had good summer flow, visually complementing the riparian forest lining it. At this point the church property reaches across the creek.

 

This rich bottomland supports a vibrant forest, including the largest tree we encountered, a 39-inch DBH (diameter breast height) southern red oak, wearing a tree moss skirt. The view left looks back into the stand toward the church, which sits safely well above the floodplain. The photo below right shows that the oak stands squarely in the flood zone, just fifty feet from the stream.

 

Jim captured this image of me with the oak. It’s not often that I have such an aura about me! Perhaps it is the spiritual essence of the place loaning its glow to an old forester.

 

The oak barely beat out the nearby yellow poplar, which we measured at 36-inches diameter breast height. Both trees stood greater than 100 feet, in their own way reaching heavenward, just as the parishioners do through their songs, prayers, and fellowship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s my 2:07 video centering on the poplar and giving you a taste of the riparian forest along Indian Creek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM-EX7c0Ovc

 

I’ve spent many hours combing our north Alabama woods, yet here on the church forest I encountered my first-ever trifoliate orange (Citrus trifoliata), with its woody multiple thorns and, you guessed it, its leaves of three (i.e.trifoliate).

 

Because this is a strange new plant for me, I offer this description from a North Carolina Cooperative Extension reference:

Trifoliate Orange or Hardy Orange is a deciduous thorny shrub or small tree that grows up to nearly 20′ tall. This plant blooms in mid-spring and fruit ripens in early fall. Spines are sharp and numerous and are not for high traffic areas. This plant may be pruned into a thick, impenetrable hedge. This plant is an excellent winter character as specimen planting. This plant prefers well-drained, acid soil and full sun. It is intolerant of shady siting, is easily transplanted, and has no serious pest or disease problems.

The lemon-like fruit is exceedingly sour and full of seeds. If eaten in large quantities, the high acidity can cause severe stomach pain and nausea. Some people experience minor skin irritation with prolonged contact. While the peel and the pulp can be used to make marmalade, the fruit is often left on the tree to provide beauty well into winter.

Makes an excellent hedge, its thorns deterring entry.  However, it can be somewhat invasive.

Admittedly, while happy to encounter this new (for me) species, the cited description does not engender warm feelings! The specimen I photographed is growing in full shade, thus explaining its less than robust condition. I suspect that it sprouted from seed washing downstream from a vibrant mother plant thriving in more favorable conditions. It was not lost on me that the woody thorns brought to mind a long-ago crown of thorns.

The orb weaver spider below at the top of its web is feverishly wrapping its dinner. Just as I glanced ahead, the hapless insect flew into the web. Within seconds the spider had immobilized and wrapped its future meal. Nature is harsh. It’s a spider-eats-insect world. So many people tend to think of Nature as an idyllic world characterized by peace and love…entirely cooperative and synergistic. I’ve heard idealists remark, “Why can’t we all get along…like in Nature?” Truth is, Nature is ruthlessly competitive. The food chain is fine, as long as you sit upon the apex. The spider loves the moth, freshly wrapped. A female praying mantis loves her mate — he tastes so good when she consumes him after coitus.

 

Here is Jim’s 11-second video of the spider in action, a sobering image and a stark reminder of Nature’s harshness:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPaQxoh5rn2EEsQTn5U3C7lvIrDIpo6sxiQxUaCaRZrFSog7sr87j0Yct8Jcy55uQ/photo/AF1QipNlStEd8bgzDwg2AQKacCzeVztTEmxmZmOTXukU?key=RENDMkdpZHFfMHdSdXlxMlZZaTNHLUxWUVlnZUJB

 

Here’s Jim’s still shot of yet another orb weaver web.

 

Nature is anything but the universally pleasant and peaceful place depicted in 1960s Disney movies.

I’ve read many recent much-ballyhooed pseudo-scientific tomes that address how caring trees in the forest are to one another. Instead, I see evidence in every stand that competition is brutal…to the victor go the spoils of space, moisture, and nutrients.

Upland Forest

Access to the upland forest is via the Grace Prayer Trail. Because we concentrated on the riparian forest, I failed to photo-cover the upland area. Perhaps on another visit we’ll spend more time in the mixed pine-hardwood forest.

Jim Chamberlain Photo

 

The Prayer Trail leads to a point for quiet reflection and prayer.

Jim Chamberlain Photo

Fairyland Portal

We entered the GUMC streamside forest through the adjacent riparian forest at Providence Elementary School, just downstream from the GUMC property. Students have created a fairyland for elves, gnomes, and other creatures of a fantasy world.

 

Even the trees have faces. I suppose it’s funny that the adjoining properties have different spiritual essences. The youth chose a more mirthful theme.

 

The Providence Greenway ends at the Elementary School property line.

Forest Edge

 

We walked along the church upland forest on the school driveway leading to its parking lot. The forest sits atop the rise north of the lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Chamberlain Photos

 

We found several plants worthy of photographing within the edge along the property line. I am sure that most drivers thought little of the weeds along the lane as they prepared to drop off or pick up their kids. Instead, I saw the edge as botanically rich…a showy summer garden. Heart-leafed peppervine, a member of the grape family, grew into the trees. Although attractive, its fruit is inedible for humans.

 

Common evening primrose did not seem to recognize that its name suggests an end of day flower period. The image at right with blurry flowers is intended to show its leaves.

 

I really like the red morning glory’s diminutive orange-red flower (left) and its typical heart-shaped leaf (right). Unlike the evening primrose, the morning glory lived up to its moniker.

 

The common morning glory proudly displayed its iridescent blue petals and white center.

 

I am grateful for a chance to explore the riparian portion of a 20-acre parcel along Indian Creek. I know the creek from hiking and biking along both the Indian Creek Greenway. Because the watershed in dominated by urban and suburban communities, it flashes (floods) rapidly. The GUMC flood plain evidences frequent and significant flushes. In effect, the property represents an island of urban wildness, rich with forest and edge plant and animal communities. It serves as a reminder that Nature lies within easy reach to all of us.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these thoughts:

  • Urban wildness lies within easy reach of nearly everyone who reads these words.
  • Whether a church property or a public Park or Preserve, Nature’s Spirit is ever-present.
  • Every tree, forest, and property has a story to tell!

 

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2022 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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

Steve's Books

 

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.

 

Special Post for October 2022 PLT Training

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I offer this as a new Post, yet it encapsulates three previous Posts from my earlier wanderings on the Land Trust of North Alabama’s Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve in Madison County Alabama. My reason for this break from my normal routine is simple — I will participate October in presenting a Project Learning Tree (PLT) workshop to self-selected area school teachers. Project Learning Tree is an award-winning environmental education program designed for teachers and other educators, parents, and community leaders working with youth from preschool through grade 12. PLT activities and resources enable teachers and engage children in learning about the environment through the lens of trees and forests. I love the PLT tagline: Learning is in Our Nature!

My co-presenters requested that I compile these prior photo-essays into a single Post…without my usual Great Blue Heron references…to share in advance with workshop registrants.

I begin with four photographs from the PLT planning team session on-site September 20, 2022.

 

The shelter below left, with the adjacent hardwood forest and the old-field pine across the parking lot, offers a perfect location for the workshop come rain or shine!

 

I am hoping for strong attendance and eager educators. I look forward to the learning that comes from the process of “teaching”!

The three prior photo-essays are, respectively, from:

  • June 23, 2021 reporting on my April 3, 2021 visit
  • June 16, 2021 also reporting on my April 3, 2021 visit
  • November 28, 2019 reporting on my November 6, 2019 visit

 

Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve: The Intersection of Human and Natural History

April 3, 2021 I revisited Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve, just east of Huntsville, Alabama (USA). See my November 28, 2019 Great Blue Heron Blog Post for previous reflections: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2019/11/28/happy-thanksgiving-chapman-mountain-nature-preserves-terry-big-tree-trail/

And my June 16 Post about the fierce competition for canopy space within the Chapman Mountain forests: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2021/06/16/spring-visit-to-chapman-mountain-nature-preserve-the-intersection-of-human-and-natural-history/

From the Land Trust of North Alabama website: Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve is a 472 acre property located just to the east of Huntsville on HWY 72. While we have plans for 10 miles of trails, a little over 3 miles are currently open and ready to explore. Like all of our public preserves, Chapman Mountain is open dawn to dusk and access is free. These trails are not just for hiking though. Mountain bikers and horseback riders are also welcome and an 18-hole disc golf course is now open to play.

With this current Post, I offer reflections on the interplay of natural and human history on this, and nearly every forested property in northern Alabama. From an interpretive sign along the Terry Trail:

Along the trail you may notice an assortment of abandoned objects, from rusted metal waste, discarded household and farm items to an old car. We have chosen to leave these reminders of the history of this land, which was previously a working farm. Parts of the Terry Trail follow an old farm access road and the preserve includes remnants of an old homestead and barn. Use your imagination to visualize what this area may have looked like in the past and what it may look like in the future. Nature will continue to slowly change this site until one day these objects and this site’s history will no longer be apparent.

Native Americans occupied (extensive impact) the entire eastern US for at least 12,000 years prior to European settlement. Over the past 200 years, the European newcomers left the mark of their intensive management and settlement. So, picture as recently as 50 years ago a working farm, on-site residents, tilled land, pasture, and woodlots.

Interaction of Human and Natural History

 

Across the parking lot from the trailheads, loblolly pine trees shelter the 18-hole disc golf course. The flat land had been tilled into the 1980s. Consulting forester Brian Bradley told me that a 1985 aerial photo shows the field still in crops. By the mid 1990s the field has seeded naturally to pine from adjoining mature loblolly. The pine captured the site effectively. There is very little understory of ground vegetation and brush, the effect enhanced by what Brian describes as a very good prescribed fire in 2018. There is no sub-canopy of hardwood saplings and poles. The stand is pure, even-aged loblolly pine. Some day I will extract an increment core to determine the exact year of establishment (i.e. age). Brian revealed that a reliable logger thinned the stand in 2014-15, giving it the current look of a well-tended planted stand with stems evenly distributed. Brian, when pressed to give me his best estimate for stand age, offered his answer of 32+/- years, an estimate I embrace wholeheartedly! We also agree that the main canopy averages 75 feet.

Chapman Mountain

 

 

Within the current forest this stone wall perhaps served one or more of several purposes:

  • Separated adjoining pastures
  • Divided pasture from cropland or garden
  • Resulted from stacking field stones removed from tilled land or improved pasture

No matter its intended function, the wall will outlast all of us, and in the meantime serve to memorialize the coarse hands and hard labor of those who built the wall. For those of us today who labor at our keyboards, what will be the physical manifestation of our work? I doubt that we will develop calloused fingertips or even a sun-blistered neck!

Chapman MountainChapman Mountain

 

This now-massive American beech germinated from a beech nut that some squirrel, during the active days of the farm, cached among the stacked stones and failed to rediscover and consume. The beech grew for many years before the managed lands on either side of the wall reverted to forest cover. Its neighbors are younger by decades. The beech tree did not grow alone and without company. The huge spiral of dead grapevine grew tall with the beech, and has now reached beyond its terminal age, still weakly vertical and doomed within just a few years to finding home in decay on the forest floor. To every thing there is a season, whether grapevine or beech tree. A dead stem of unidentified hardwood species stands to the right of the beech in this image. I wonder how many Terry Trail hikers notice and appreciate the unique beauty of this trio? I see it as a sculpture, a work of art rich with its own legible historic context and story.

Chapman Mountain

 

Below left the Terry Trail diverges to the left. An old farm access road extends straight from the photo point. Oh, the stories it might tell! I’m reminded of the jungle-covered Mayan cities, almost invisible to casual observers. I wonder were modern humans to disappear from our fine planet today, would the evidence of our existence be as hard to discern 1,300 years hence? Interstate 65 passes just 15 miles west of Huntsville. What could Nature accomplish with that 300-foot wide right of way over 13 centuries of abandonment? How long do asphalt, concrete, and steel persist without ongoing maintenance? How long before mowed shoulders and medium strips revert to deep forest? How long until Central Park consumes all of Manhattan Island? The narrow abandoned dirt road below is already nearly invisible to those who do not speak the language of reading the landscape.

Chapman Mountain

 

 

Marie Bostic, Executive Director of the Trust, tells me that nearly every Land Trust of North Alabama preserve carries a story of at least one on-site still. This side trail leads to a spring head where the old still is rumored to have provided the homestead residents with the vital natural medicine. Distillation has rewarded civilized humans for at least 1,000 years:

The origin of whiskey began over 1000 years ago when distillation made the migration from mainland Europe into Scotland and Ireland via traveling monks. The Scottish and Irish monasteries, lacking the vineyards and grapes of the continent, turned to fermenting grain mash, resulting in the first distillations of modern whisky (Online from Bottleneck Management).

Why should the homesteaders on Chapman Mountain be deprived of the golden elixir?!

Chapman Mountain

 

Trees have been eating barbed wired since the fencing breakthrough first received a patent in 1874. Nail or staple a wire to a living tree…and watch the tree inexorably consume the wire. This fence-eating oak is along an old fence line at the preserve. I frequently find long-abandoned wire fences across northern Alabama, cutting across what many would consider an undisturbed forest.

Chapman Mountain

 

I normally like to see old trash removed from recreational land. However, I applaud the Land Trust for preserving the very real evidence of wildland domestication to tell the story of past land use. Nature is the ultimate healer. She will eventually erase the direct evidence. The old forest access road will meld into the forest. Even the old automobile will rust into oblivion. Only the rock fence will withstand centuries, (perhaps millennia) of weathering.

Chapman MountainChapman Mountain

 

I have made reading the forested landscape one of my focal points for my wanderings and then writing these subsequent blog posts. I’ve said often that every tree, every forested parcel, and every landscape has a story to tell. I am intent upon learning more about the language Nature employs to leave her messages. Here I remind you of my five essential verbs.

  1. Believe — I know the story is there; I believe that it is written in the forest.
  2. Look — I cannot walk blindly and distractedly through the forest; I must look intently and deeply. The truth will not leap from the underbrush.
  3. See — I must look deeply enough to see; to see the story Nature tells…and keeps hidden in plain sight.
  4. Feel — I insist upon seeing clearly enough to evoke my own feelings of passion for place and everyday Nature.
  5. Act — My passion needs to be intense enough to spur action: my writing, speaking, and doing what is necessary to promote informed and responsible Earth stewardship.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these reflections:

  • Rarely are our north Alabama forests untrammeled by the hand of man.
  • Today’s forests tell the story of past use, particularly the influence of post-European attempts at domestication.
  • Understanding the forest past adds to my Nature inspiration and appreciation.

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

 

 

Spring Visit to Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve; Fierce Competition in the Forest Canopy

April 3, 2021 I revisited Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve, just east of Huntsville, Alabama. See my November 28, 2019 Great Blue Heron Blog Post for previous reflections: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2019/11/28/happy-thanksgiving-chapman-mountain-nature-preserves-terry-big-tree-trail/

From the Land Trust of North Alabama website: Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve is a 472 acre property located just to the east of Huntsville on HWY 72. While we have plans for 10 miles of trails, a little over 3 miles are currently open and ready to explore. Like all of our public preserves, Chapman Mountain is open dawn to dusk and access is free. These trails are not just for hiking though. Mountain bikers and horseback riders are also welcome and an 18-hole disc golf course is now open to play.

With this current Post, I offer reflections on the intense inter-tree competition for sunlight, and the consequences of that fierce struggle within the forest, and pose some observations about the interplay of natural and human history on this…and nearly every…forested property in northern Alabama. I’ll begin by mentioning the forest diversity across the Nature Preserve.

Forest Diversity

 

Evergreen tree species on-site include loblolly pine (below left), eastern red cedar and shortleaf pine (further below). Hardwood forest  (typical stand below right) species include: yellow poplar; black, chestnut, northern red, white, and chinkapin oaks; shagbark and pignut hickories; green ash; black walnut; persimmon; American elm; osage orange; honey locust; red and Ohio buckeyes; and dogwood. The list may not be exhaustive.

Chapman MountainChapman Mountain

 

Eastern red cedar is another of our common evergreen species. This individual is one of the very few I saw thriving in the main canopy. The species is a pioneer. Birds disseminate the seeds widely by consuming the fruit and passing the hard inner-seed, scarified by digestive juices, as they forage for insects and seeds in areas disturbed by fire, timber harvesting, or grazing. Cedar often remains in maturing stands like the Chapman Mountain forests, but often as residuals under the topmost canopy.

Chapman Mountain

 

Although situated off-trail, I found this shortleaf pine, with its circumferential bird-peck-agitated bark deformity, reaching high into the hardwood canopy. Note its narrow crown relative to the adjacent hardwoods, especially the wide-spreading white oak at the lower left of the image. I will say more about relative density, a forestry term that indicates the variability of crown space demanded by species. For any given tree base diameter, shortleaf pine expresses a lower relative density than white oak. On identical sites, a fully stocked stand of 12-inch-diameter shortleaf will have more stems per acre than a stand of 12-inch white oak.

Chapman MountainChapman Mountain

 

Battle for Canopy Space

The relative density discussion around the shortleaf pine above sets the stage for transitioning into the battle for canopy space. Think about the essential factors for tree growth and development:

  • Rooting volume (soil depth)
  • Soil moisture
  • Soil nutrients
  • Sunlight
  • Temperature (soil and air)

My doctoral dissertation evaluated the effects of these factors (and surrogates for them) for Allegheny Hardwood forests of NW Pennsylvania and SW New York. We can’t see direct evidence of the fierce belowground competition for soil volume, moisture, and nutrients. I am beginning to focus greater attention on the upper canopy battle for sunlight.

We saw the very narrow shortleaf pine crown relative to the adjacent white oak. In contrast to the white oak, the green ash (below left) and southern red oak (below right) have narrow crowns.

Chapman MountainChapman Mountain

 

The white oak crowns below are massive. This species demands a lot of aerial space. Thus, its relative density is high.

Chapman MountainChapman Mountain

 

Below are adjacent white oak and red oak crowns, with white oak (lower half of frame) commanding far greater space. If I limited my examination to only eye level, I would see the two individuals at roughly the same diameter. Like the blind men and the elephant, we cannot limit our forest assessment to only one facet. I’m learning more and more. And, the more I learn, the less I realize that I know. That is a fact of life for the inquisitive…the student of life and living.

Chapman Mountain

 

Black walnut stands adjacent to a white oak in the image below. Keep in mind that this stand is even-aged, regenerated following a disturbance, probably continuing fuelwood production up to the time of farm abandonment. All of the trees are likely within a 10-15 year age range. The walnut and white oak began their vertical development concurrently. Importantly, black walnut is shade intolerant. The USDA Agricultural handbook No. 271, Silvics of Forest Trees of the US: “In mixed forest stands, it must be in a dominant position to maintain itself.” The black walnut below (left side of image) is in the main canopy, but the white oak has muscled the walnut, forcing its crown far to the left, struggling to maintain its main canopy position. I wonder how much longer the walnut will remain in the stand.

Chapman Mountain

 

American beech, like white oak, demands lots of crown space. This 30-plus-inch diameter individual commands the canopy, keeping adjacent trees at bay.

Chapman MountainChapman Mountain

 

A dead, bark-stripped tree stands to the left (in both images) of the beech. Every battle for crown space yields casualties.

Every Battle Yields Casualties

 

This recently dead black oak still carries a Terry Big Tree Trail number. All of its fine branches have already fallen. The neighbor trees are closing the canopy void left by the black oak.

Chapman Mountain

 

As I’ve observed repeatedly in these Posts, death is a real and continuing component in the life of a forest. This substantial oak snag bears testimony. I saw no outward evidence of physical trauma (lightning or wind) that may have resulted in death. Instead, I will presume that it failed in the competitive battlefield.

Chapman Mountain

 

Here’s another dead oak with its accompanying canopy void.

Chapman Mountain

 

Often the evidence of physical trauma is apparent, whether windthrow (below left) or wind snapping the trunk at its base (below right).

Chapman Mountain

 

Site resources are finite. The competition for those fixed assets is a zero sum game. Some trees continue to grow and thrive at the expense of others.

To the Survivors Go the Spoils

 

Simply, to the victors go the spoils. Multiple windblown individual main canopy oak trees (below left) resulted in a large canopy opening (below right). A windfall (pardon the pun) of sunlight for the survivors. Adjacent trees will vie for the bounty of sunlight. Until the void closes, sunlight reaching the forest floor will generate a flush of vigor for herbaceous and woody growth in plants who patiently await just such disturbance. The entire ecosystem knows perturbance and sustains itself on the process of life, death, stability, and disturbance. The forest changes and persists.

Chapman Mountain

 

 

 

 

 

Disturbance yields more than sunlight. Downed trees and branches decay quite rapidly in our warm and moist climate. Moss drapes the log below left. Fungi sprouting the devil’s urn mushrooms (below right) are just one of the innumerable species of decay fungi returning organic matter and nutrients to the soil.

Chapman MountainChapman Mountain

 

The decay process is certain and predictable. The downed log below left will eventually decay to the more advanced condition below right and, in time, will incorporate fully into the soil organic matter.

Chapman MountainChapman Mountain

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these reflections:

  • Forest diversity offers a richness worth noticing.
  • Life and death dance without end in our forests.
  • To the victor go the spoils.

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

 

Happy Thanksgiving — Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve’s Terry Big Tree Trail

It’s Thanksgiving 2019. I am thankful… for Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe right here in my backyard; the neighborhood; the County; across the southeast US; nationally; and globally. Take a quick peek at my roughly 50 2019 Great Blue Heron Blog Posts (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/). Nature abounds and rewards, whether it’s the three National Parks I visited and wrote about in southeastern Kazakhstan, or our own Yellowstone and Teton National Parks. Or our magnificent Alabama State Parks.

Chapman Mountain Forest Preserve

Or one of the natural treasures preserved and managed locally by the Land Trust of North Alabama (https://www.landtrustnal.org/). November 6, 2019 I visited a new trail on one of the Land Trust’s tracts (https://www.landtrustnal.org/properties/chapman-mountain-preserve/):

Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve, our 7th public preserve, is a 371 acre property located just to the east of Huntsville on HWY 72. While we have plans for 10 miles of trails, a little over 3 miles are currently open and ready to explore. Like all of our public preserves, Chapman Mountain is open dawn to dusk. These trails are not just for hiking though. Mountain bikers and horseback riders are also welcome.​

My companions and I walked the Terry Big Tree Trail: Named for the family who donated the property, this one mile journey takes you to the northern end of the property and back again. Along the way you’ll see large hardwoods, mossy rocks, and an old roadway.

Allow me to introduce you to the Terry Trail with photos and reflections.

 

Terry Big Tree Trail

 

I love the Land Trust’s tagline: Conservation in Action! As a former four-time university president, I hold that application adds value to knowledge. Applying knowledge (driven by dedication and passion) brings action to bear. Without applying action to conservation, humanity, communities, and individuals practice only a shallow and meaningless conservation inaction. Amazing how removing that one space changes the entire essence. Talking alone can amount merely to conservation virtue-signaling. The Land Trust gets it done! I applaud its action, guided by a succinct and noble mission: The Land Trust preserves land and its legacies for conservation, public recreation, and environmental education to enhance quality of life in North Alabama now and for the future.

 

Environmental Action

Good to see that education is an explicit underpinning of the mission. I’ve long held that understanding Nature enhances our appreciation and deepens our commitment to stewardship and action. Knowledge enables and inspires action. The Tree Big Tree Trail masterfully incorporates education in a way that enhances the experience without “burdening” the hiker with learning. Who can resist Fun Facts!

 

I am addicted to many facets of Nature, including tree bark. Ah, to be ant-size and explore these green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) furrows! In this case, feeling is a major component of seeing. Reach out and touch a tree!

 

My intent with this Post is not to offer an exhaustive documentary of the Terry Trail. Instead, in this time of Thanksgiving, I want to introduce you to one example of the Land Trust’s efforts and results, urge you to visit, applaud the dedicated staff and volunteers, and urge your involvement. I am grateful for my fellow citizens who practice Conservation In Action!

I’m a maple syrup purist — don’t expect me to eat a pancake or waffle without the real stuff! And while I seldom find persimmons that are just the right ripeness, I do love the tree’s distinctive blocky bark. Again, a feature hard not to touch.

Chapman Preserve

 

 

Some Magic Along the Way

I accepted Dr. Callie Schweitzer (US Forest Service Research Scientist) and US FS Research Forester Ryan Sisk’s invitation to hike the trail with them. They are both located here in the Forest Service’s Huntsville office. They know the tract (and their craft) quite well. We marveled at the size of the twin white oaks (Quercus alba) below… and appreciated the yellow-tinted fall forest. Recall Robert Frost’s words in The Road Not Taken:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Chapman PreserveChapman Preserve

 

I am not sure whether these paths represent the complex metaphor Frost contemplated in his epic poem:

Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve

 

I always appreciate imaginative place names. Although absent water, the jumble and tumble of mossy boulders in seeming cascade certainly evoked the moniker.

 

We found several junctures where two roads in fact diverged in a yellow wood. I liked the notion of a Whole Planet Trail. Where does it start? End? Better pack lots of food and water for such a trek! I think I’d prefer the Moonshine Trail, which brings to mind a warm still-fire in a secluded cove, a lookout with eyes peeled for revenuers, a strong toast or two, and lots of colorful stories of dark woods and narrow escapes.

 

The Magic of Nature’s Tree Form Oddities

Below left is the Terry Trail’s official representative black oak (Quercus velutina), meeting the requisite size and regal criteria. However, I found greater satisfaction and appreciation for the black oak specimen below right, raising its arms in glorious praise of Nature’s magic. It brought joy to my heart — Hallelujah!

Chapman PreserveChapman Preserve

 

Seeing the expressive oak transported me back 50 years, when Neil Diamond released Brother Loves Traveling Salvation Show:

The room gets suddenly still
And when you’d almost bet
You could hear yourself sweat, he walks in
Eyes black as coal
And when he lifts his face
Every ear in the place is on him
Starting soft and slow
Like a small earthquake
And when he lets go
Half the valley shakes
It’s love, Brother Love say
Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show
Pack up the babies
And grab the old ladies
And everyone goes
‘Cause everyone knows
‘Bout Brother Love’s show

From this day forward, I will know this oak as Brother Love!

And how about the substantial hickory (Carya sp.) burl below left. Think of it as a kind of tumor. And the wonderful circumferential welts stimulated by yellow belied sapsucker bird pecks. I suspect both unusual growth patterns involve fungal and/or viral agents.

Chapman Preserve

 

Look closely at the twin white oak. The two stems have grown closed, except for a thin strip of separation remaining below the seamed callous where they are conjoined. No healing for the large hickory wind-throw along the trail. The blow-down will bring full sunlight to the forest floor where the tree has left a sizable canopy gap. Although I won’t offer an in-depth discussion now, I am concerned about how a certain ubiquitous invasive will impact succession on this tract. Shrub honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) is already capturing much of the understory, for example the green shrubs beyond the downed hickory.

Chapman PreserveChapman Preserve

 

A fall woodland scene on the Chapman Forest Preserve appears so peacefully serene in the photo below, yet in truth a fierce battle is at play. The understory green is the invader, slowly capturing the site, consuming all dappled sunlight that would otherwise sustain spring and summer ephemerals and forest regeneration. For now, focus on the beauty of the scene below. I’ll save deeper discussion of this invasive here in northern Alabama for a future Post… a broader examination of a serious threat.

Chapman Preserve

 

And it’s easy to leave you with the positive. The yellow wood sets the mood for a fitting end to my first hike on the Terry Trail. The lowering sun offers promise, inspiration, and a soon-to-settle season of rest and renewal. It signals the generosity of those who donated the land, and the selfless dedication of Land Trust volunteers and staff.

Chapman PreserveChapman Preserve

 

The Trail evidences that Conservation In Action is essential to creating a brighter tomorrow.  Visit the web page. Get involved. Act!

 

Thoughts and Reflections

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. All three are available on Amazon and other online sources.

Here are the four succinct truths I draw from this Blog Post:

  1. Conservation In Action can…and will…change the world, one special place at a time
  2. Conservation of all wildness is an act of selfless resolve and harnessed passion
  3. We can dedicate ourselves one step at a time… progress is normally incremental
  4. Be thankful for every small step… celebrate every victory

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

 

 

Mid-August Hike — My First Visit to Wade Mountain Nature Preserve

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August 16, 2022, I hiked the Racetrack Trail at Wade Mountain Nature Preserve just north of Huntsville, Alabama. Jim Chamberlain, friend and fellow nature enthusiast (below left), led the way on our early morning venture. He had hiked the preserve multiple times; this was my first visit to Wade Mountain. Like all of the Land Trust of North Alabama preserves, Wade Mountain is a cooperative venture (below right).

 

I’ve photographed two other Land Trust of North Alabama Hug Me trees on two other Land Trust of North Alabama properties (Bradford Creek Greenway and Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve). I appreciate the welcome to reach out, touch, and toast a fellow forest denizen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although we spent just a single morning on the preserve, I view the hike as two distinct segments. This Post encompasses what we saw on the more typical forest we hiked on our trek to the actual ridgetop racetrack, which circuits a limestone glade, a unique floristic community.  I’ll offer separate reflections, observations, and photographs on the glade for the subsequent Wade Mountain Post.

 

Pleasant Forest Trail

 

The early, lower slope trail transits an old field forest of loblolly pine and mixed hardwoods. I’ve learned that much of northern Alabama forestland saw attempted agricultural domestication during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Virtually every acre of original (at time of European settlement) forest experienced at least one round of timber harvesting, often leading to cropland or pasture. The cropped non-bottomland acreage fell victim to erosion, loss of fertility, bankruptcy, or other causal abandonment. Nature effectively regenerated the failed agricultural land to successional pine and hardwood. Some of the pine in the photos below may have been planted; most lands regenerated naturally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ash below stands tall and straight. I’ve been a big fan of ash since my forestry undergraduate days and well into my early forestry career. Both green and white ash (both native here) prefer more fertile sites, reaching vertically with clear bole, competing effectively for space in the upper crown. Its wood is highly prized for furniture. I’ve used it with preference for firewood. It splits ever-so-easily and burns with high BTU generation. This individual measured about 18 inches DBH and reached branch-free 50 feet.

 

Like all public access Land Trust of North Alabama preserves, the trails are clearly marked, well-maintained, and have occasional benches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the 2:45 video I recorded midway to the ridgetop limestone glade:

 

 

The video provides a nice example of what is a gentle hike through a forest typical of upland northern Alabama.

 

Special Features

 

Many special features caught our eye, most of it hidden in plain sight. This mockernut hickory, a species common along our route, evidenced continuing yellow bellied sapsucker bird-peck. Bird peck generally does not reduce tree vigor. Sources indicate that wounds occasionally serve as infection courts for wood decay fungi.

 

While in most cases not harming the tree, bird peck results in lessening the commercial value for wood products. My first exposure to bird peck as a lumber defect came in undergraduate forestry studies. Here’s a photo of bird peck as a lumber grade defect from an online Mississippi State Cooperative Extension publication.

 

The defect took on much greater significance during my early career when I purchased standing sawtimber to supply my employer’s hardwood sawmill in Waverly, Virginia (Union Camp Corporation) early in my forestry career.

I’ve mentioned repeatedly in these Posts that life and death operate in tandem within our forests…and that nothing in Nature is static. This 15″ DBH (diameter breast height) red oak toppled across the trail within the past 2-5 years. I know it was living when wind (most likely) brought it to the ground. How do I know? See the root ball, evidencing that pliant roots were still grasping the soil, obviously wrenched free by the violent action.

 

How do I know that the leafless tree is a red oak? The chainsawed cross-section has open pores; white oaks have closed pores, filled with tyloses. Thank heavens for closed white oak pores; without them, barrels would leak, which for example would not be good for Jack Daniels or for those of us who enjoy such fermented and aged libations!

 

This oak died standing. When physics brought the tree to its horizontal resting place, its roots had already decayed. Roots had long since become brittle and weak, no longer able to hold the tree against even gentle forces of wind and gravity. Nature has many secrets to share with those who have learned her ways.

 

Jim stands beside a hollow white oak. My forensic forestry observations tell me that this tree began life as a twin. At some point decades ago the twin on this side crashed toward the photo point in a storm, leaving a gaping wound welcoming decay fungi that have since hollowed the trunk. Note in the closer look (below right) a mushroom within the hollow. I suppose it is associated with the decay fungi or other fungi working on jettisoned organic matter within the cavity.

 

I use that white mushroom to segue from special features of the forest to special finds within the forest’s fungi kingdom.

Special Fungi Kingdom Finds

 

I grow increasingly fascinated with fungi, owing in part to my retirement pursuit of wild edible mushrooms and, in large measure, to now having time for learning more about all facets of our forests.

This is Coker’s amanita, a spiked globe when just emerging (left). The top flattens considerably as it spreads, and the spikes appear as scales. Our visit coincided with a particularly showy time for this species.

 

Jim Chamberlain’s photo below shows me taking the image above left, providing a sense of scale…and giving proof that I can still get on my knees in pursuit of mushroom close-ups.

Jim Chamberlain Photo

 

This pallid bolete likewise presented as newly emerged and fresh. My bookshelf and online references are not in full agreement on its edibility. Therefore, I have not ventured into testing. I plan next season to pay greater attention to the local boletes, learning to distinguish those that are table-worthy.

 

In contrast, I have full confidence in collecting and consuming summer oysters. However, I do not collect on Land Trust Nature Preserves. I simply collected the images.

 

I’ve found this to be a spartan season for mushroom observation and collection. The weather? The natural cyclical nature of mushroom reproduction? I don’t know. The mushrooming internet sites I occasionally visit have likewise reported a generally disappointing summer.

 

Rock Features

 

Nature does indeed abhor a vacuum, this lichen-covered rock serving as a prime example. However, I must offer a caveat. In our human terms, the rock offers a most hostile environment. In contrast, the evidence, a dense crustose lichen colony, carries the day. Obviously, the lichen is quite happy with the surface. I’ve observed before in these Posts that lichen requires little, and the rock offers quite a bit of just that!

 

The lichen-crusted rock offers much to the dedicated and observant Nature enthusiast — a gift of beauty and marvel!

Water can be very creative and artistic with limestones, working its magic with physical and chemical weathering. I wondered what special forces aligned to create this perfectly cylindrical hole. We had a little fun with it, but could not offer an explanation for its formation. I’ve learned that reward in exploring Nature sometimes derives from not having all the answers. The universe…and the forest…is replete with phenomena beyond our understanding. I’ve observed often that the more I learn the less I know.

 

The forests I wander are home to countless such special features.

Way Down Yonder in the Paw Paw Patch

 

I grew up in western Maryland just 30 miles from Paw Paw, West Virginia. Paw paw trees (lower and mid-canopy) were common in the central Appalachian forests. I had not anticipated seeing the species here in northern Alabama, yet I see them frequently, usually as an understory shrub. I just liked the notion of sharing these photos of Way Down Yonder in the Wade Mountain Nature Preserve Paw Paw Patch!

 

 

 

Every place in Nature has a unique character and special features. Learn to be ever-vigilant in your search for both. You will never be disappointed in what you discover, often hidden in plain sight.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these thoughts:

  • First visits to a new Nature Preserve offer special rewards.
  • Each place in Nature has a unique character and tells its own story.
  • Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir, whether on an initial exploration or during each return visit!

 

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2022 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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 grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
  • And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

Steve's Books

 

 

 

Jim Chamberlain’s Photo

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cumulus Conspiring to Create a Downpour!

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I am a lifetime addict of weather-watching, study, and appreciation. I shamelessly address my addiction from time to time in these weekly photo-essays on Nature-Inspired Life and Living. Wednesday evening, August 10 found me enraptured on my Madison, Alabama patio, captivated by a few energized cumulus developing upwind of me across a 200-degree arc, from east through a few degrees north of due west. They began to draw my attention about 6:30 PM. I will attempt to chronicle their development, approach, consolidation, and the rain eventually offered. One note worth mentioning is that while my iPhone captures some spectacular sky images, I struggled to convey with these photos the massive vertical reach that the clouds presented. They towered above me, yet I could not make clear that some of the images called for me to aim a good 70-80 degrees above the horizon.

I snapped my first image at 6:41 to the SSW of my position. A minute later I pulled the handsome cumulus closer with the telephoto, reaching beyond the lower level cumulus scudding across the foreground. Note the airliner heading south on its final approach to the Huntsville Airport.

 

Rapid vertical growth characterized this beauty. I offer a wild estimate that it was ascending at hundreds of feet per minute. I snapped these images at 6:44 and 6:45 PM, just under an hour from the day’s 7:42 PM sunset.

 

With magnification at 6:46 PM, I caught its top unobstructed. The cloud itself captured my attention. I had little appreciation at the time for the purity and intensity of the firmament above it.

 

 

By 6:47 this view (below left) shows the ever-evolving top once again, and the full profile from base to summit right.

 

I snapped the final photo from the SSW perspective at 6:49, just five minutes before I recorded a two-minute video, presented later.

 

 

I will now shift my observation view to WSW, this one at 6:47 PM. The descending sun more directly backlights these twin towers.

 

 

Just two and three minutes later (6:48 and 6:49 PM), three distinct rising profiles define the view.

 

They’ve reached much further above the pine tops by 6:52 and 6:53 PM. Again, I want to stress that the photos do not clearly depict the height of the clouds nor how closely they were approaching.

 

At 6:50 PM, I am now peering to the SSE at the flank of a cumulonimbus (already dropping rain and sounding thunder). The cell to the SSW is off to the right of this image.

 

 

Here is that same view just two and three minutes later (6:52 and 6:53 PM). I managed to capture the tops as the darkening undersides advanced at a pace that would soon have obscured the still sunlit tops.

 

At 6:54 I began recording this short video. It better captures the conspiring cumulus and their relative proximity to me.

 

After recording the video I retreated to my patio, under roof (6:57 and 6:58 PM), still viewing SSE at the thunderstorm on the left side of what I am facing, converging toward my position.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Less than ten minutes later (7:06 and 7:07), the cumulus I had photographed to my SSW and WSW were dropping consolidated curtains of heavy rain, in these images merging with the rain shield from the aforementioned thunderstorm. I love the idea that we are able to observe the rain-free world beyond the closing curtains! So much in Nature is shrouded by mystery. I wonder how few people even bother to look. Did anyone else watch the show I just witnessed, free of charge?

 

By 7:20 and 7:21 PM the curtains enveloped my domicile. I measured 0.34-inches, a nice summer afternoon dousing.

 

I would have paid money for these 40 minutes of absolute joy and fulfillment. Except for the existing cell to the SSE, when I began observing, none of the clouds to the south through WNW had dropped any rain. Before my eyes, they grew rapidly and ultimately conjoined across the entire 200 degree arc. There was no assurance that their merger would reward my patience. Had the CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) been less robust, their rising may not have reached a point of consummation. I am grateful that the conspiring cumulus achieved (for me) a level of culmination (cumulo-ination!). I know, the cumulus had no objective. It was my desire that sought the closure I witnessed.

Nature seldom disappoints those who are students of her ways and fans of her results. I know, too, that my appreciation that evening was far deeper than the aesthetic. Understanding the science of atmospheric physics and meteorological dynamics fueled my passion for what I witnessed. I watched with wonder, fascination, and appreciation. I’m a cheap date, finding deep satisfaction in Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe!

I often ponder when observing Nature, what lessons for life and living does she offer? I’ll offer a few points available for exploration from this post on conspiring cumulus:

  • All things in life and living (whether business, family, or leisure) involve employing energy, passion, and purpose to the service of reason.
  • There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment, Leonardo da Vinci.
  • Life lives best when we can achieve order from apparent chaos.
  • Life’s rewards seldom derive from long trips, major undertakings, and expensive ventures. Nature’s richest gifts are often at-hand.
  • Life rewards most handsomely when one finds pleasure from what is hidden in plain sight.
  • Digital distractions mask what is within day-to-day life and living.
  • Every lesson for life and living is either written indelibly in or is inspired powerfully by Nature.

Awaken to the mystery and inspiration of Nature — she is an indefatigable Force for enriching life and living.

John Muir captured Nature’s essence:

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.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these thoughts:

  • Nature is an indefatigable Force for enriching life and living.
  • Life rewards most handsomely when one finds pleasure from what is hidden in plain sight!
  • Nature seldom disappoints those who are students of her ways and fans of her results!

 

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2022 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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

Steve's Books

 

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.

 

Snippets of Nature from Two July Overnights at a Cave City, KY Hotel

/in /by

July 27-29, 2022, Judy and I, along with Alabama grandsons Jack (14) and Sam (8), spent two nights at Cave City, Kentucky to visit one of my bucket list National Parks, Mammoth Cave. Although the world’s most extensive cave (420 miles of mapped passageways) provides lots of fodder on Nature-Inspired Life and Living, that is not my purpose with this Post. Instead, I offer a few snippets of Nature gleaned from our two overnights in Cave City. My point is that Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe can be found wherever one cares to look.

The Park itself offers free admission; visitors pay for the various structured cave tours, one of which we took the next afternoon. I captured the two image below the first day when we toured the museum and interpretive center.

 

I won’t report on our underground experience. Suffice it for me to observe that Nature can do a lot with a few hundred million years of deposition, compression, uplift, and within-limestone-strata chemical and water action! Four hundred twenty miles of mapped passageways. A lush mixed hardwood forest occupies the cove site (left) as the trail descends to the cave entrance (right).

 

Our First Evening: An Atmospheric Show

Our first evening we left the Park with thunderstorms moving in from the west. Rain fell as we ate dinner. We returned to our hotel in time for me to photograph the departing line of storms to our east. I apologize for including the commercial buildings, yet I had little choice. Please do as I did…focus on the incredible clouds, not the foreground. The first image is an 8:03 PM view to the east.

 

These are at 8:05 and 8:07 to the NNE.

 

I recorded a 20-second video of the very active eastern sky. In retrospect, I should have extended the run:

 

Even as the action retreated east, the massive thunderstorms produced a spreading anvil, with thunder still rumbling within the anvil, directly overhead, miles above me. The setting sun underlit the anvil and highlighted trailing mammatus to the west. This brilliant sky appeared behind me at 8:04 PM when I took the photos above. These same storms (and more behind them) generated the torrential deadly rains that inundated eastern Kentucky later that evening and overnight. Nature can combine captivating beauty with unfathomable power and fury. Flooding rains have pummeled eastern Kentucky since (and before) the first tectonic plates crashed to create the alpine-like early Appalachians…long before the first internal combustion engines. Frog-stranglers, cloudbursts, gully-washers, and other epic flash floods will continue long after the Appalachians are forever flattened. Climate change — No! Climate — Yes!

 

Pastel blue trailed the anvil at 8:05 and 8:06 PM. Like with so many natural phenomena, we are rewarded when our gaze shifts along a continuum, whether within a single forest stand, or across an entire landscape or the firmament from west to east, and back again. As I’ve said repeatedly, viewer appreciation increases exponentially with understanding. Without knowing the atmospheric physics and mechanics of thunderstorms, I would have enjoyed the superficial prettiness, but would not have seen the real beauty that emerges only with comprehension.

Leonardo da Vinci concurred:

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

One has no right to love or hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you know it but little you will be able to love it only a little or not at all.

 

Another cluster of storms passed overnight, rousting us from sleep, with no opportunities for capturing images. Those storms, too, were eastbound to add tumult to misery, taking at least three dozen lives. I think often of the Nature of catastrophic weather events…perhaps odd to phrase it this way, but the flip side of disaster can be absolute stunning gorgeousness. Think of the satellite images of Katrina spinning with grandeur before landfall. The magnificent supercell thunderstorm profile at distance in full sunlight, even as it spawns an EF-5 tornado raking an Oklahoma or Missouri community. The sunlit anvil trailing a thunderstorm cluster destined to flush human infrastructure and lives from east Kentucky hamlets 170 miles from Cave City. The Beauty and the Beast of weather! The Nature of weather and climate since time immemorial. Since long before man contemplated climate change as an existential threat.

John Muir observed that all of Nature is a continuum…a never ending loop:

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

Our Morning of Departure

 

I arose at dawn July 29, our day of departure, to stroll around the land surrounding the hotels. A thick layer of low stratus dampened the air and softened the morning light. I found a few Nature items worthy of photographing. Purple passion flowers have an unsurpassed intricate structure and eye-popping beauty. They displayed proudly this damp morning.

 

Northbound en route to Cave City, I had noticed tree of heaven in full seed along the interstate. My morning stroll presented a close-up photograph opportunity. Nature’s wonder hidden in plain sight. The dual miracles of photosynthesis and reproduction.

 

Shining sumac showcased its winged compound leaves and dense flower heads. I wondered whether sunlight would have enhanced or lessened the effect of my three plant subjects. Perhaps there is an aesthetic reason why I long for occasional rainy summer days that may or may not enhance beauty, but certainly elevate my appreciation of Nature.

 

The morning’s low stratus deck above our hotel served as a fitting context for our brief stay and my early wanderings.

 

Nature is, in fact, with few exceptions, where we seek to find it. Although Mammoth Cave National Park was our primary destination, I found fulfillment around our hotel, a place far removed from traditional wildness.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding (da Vinci).
  • Nature is, in fact, with few exceptions, wherever we seek to find it.
  • Nature shared with those we love enhances appreciation of her wonders.

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

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2022 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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

Steve's Books

 

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.

 

 

 

New Forest in a Jurassic World

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Along with our two Alabama grandsons (Jack and Sam), Judy and I spent the nights of July 27 and 28, 2022 in Cave City, Kentucky. Our primary purpose was to visit Mammoth Cave National Park, just ten miles from our hotel. Because Dinosaur World is right there at the Cave City interstate exchange, we could not resist. The T-rex with billboard overlooks I-65. Sam (the smaller one) stands to Jack’s right.

 

The boys (and their grandparents) enjoyed touring the forested grounds, especially Sam, who is a dinosaur aficionado! I thought the entire exhibit presented well, showing the full-scale reproductions in a natural habitat. Of course, the natural habitat is modern, a far reach from the habitat they occupied 65+ million years ag0.

 

Although we had a blast exploring the meandering loop trail, I decided that our Jurassic stroll offered fodder for yet another of my Nature-Inspired Life and Living Posts. I searched on-site for landscape and natural hints about the history of the Dinosaur World site and its forest.

 

These two seem to be a bit puzzled…not recognizing a single vegetative specimen in this strange modern forest!

A New Forest Home for Our Jurassic Friends

The theme park opened in 2003. The website’s stock photo collection dates to September 2020. I was hoping to find photos from the grand opening that would allow me to assess forest growth and development over the nearly two decades since. The evidence I found suggests that 19 years ago the site supported previously abandoned pasture reverting to forest, with early successional hardwood species and eastern red cedar, a composition common to such transitional pasture/shrub/forest progression.

Black cherry (left) often colonizes abandoned agricultural land and cutover forests. Birds consume the tasty fruits, scarifying the pits (the hard seed within) and disseminate the future seedling via their droppings. Hackberry likewise produces a fruit attractive to birds that deposit seeds where chance dictates germination and survival. Although I had no way to validate my assumption, I believe that most of the individual trees in Dinosaur World are within ten years of the same age, 30-40 years.

 

I often find box elder along forest edges and roadside, and in disturbed areas. It is a colonizer, its seed principally wind-dispersed and occasionally by animals. A fast-growing but relatively short-lived (50-70 years) forest species, box elder appeared quite content in our Jurassic preserve, its bark showing deep widely-spaced fissures, indicative of fast growth.

 

Eastern red cedar is a premier pioneer species across its range, especially aggressive on alkaline sites like the limestone derived soils around Cave City. The species competes effectively short-term until hardwood trees begin overtopping the cedar. The cedar crown below right is feeling the squeeze from adjacent hardwoods.

 

Black locust is a consummate pioneer, among the first tree species appearing as disturbed sites transition to forest. Throughout the north Alabama forests where I spend a lot of time, the relatively short-lived locust is fading from our our 60-90 year old forests. The locust below left is already showing signs of decline, its bole split, heart rot evident within. The trunk at right remains vigorous.

 

 

According to a USDA online reference, slippery elm grows best and may reach 40 m (132 ft) on moist, rich soils of lower slopes and flood plains, although it may also grow on dry hillsides with limestone soils. The theme park is an upland site…with limestone derived soils. Slippery elm seed disperses by gravity and wind. Obviously there must have been a nearby seed source.

 

I was surprised to see sugar maple in a forest dominated by early successional species. Sugar maple is long-lived. Like elm, seed dispersal is by gravity and wind. Importantly, I must remind myself that although apex ancient predators roam the property, the location has been domesticated by European settlers for at least two centuries…settlers who farmed and established residential homes and commercial enterprises on and adjacent to the site. Multiple seed sources are likely nearby.

 

I saw no oak, which also surprised me. Perhaps oak are favored by the large reptilian herbivores? Mine was not a thorough inventory. I may have missed Quercus (oak genus) species because I could only recon near the trail. Afterall, my Nature observations were secondary to my grandfatherly interests and duties. We visitors could not venture off-trail. Who knows what I missed within the forest. Had this been a more intentioned woodland forensic journey, my observations and reflections would be more certain.

Near the park headquarters, a tree descendent contemporary with the dinosaurs presented itself. Ginkgo biloba, native to China, is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago. Fossils very similar to the living species extend back to the Middle Jurassic approximately 170 million years ago (source Wikipedia).

 

I enjoyed superficially examining the park’s forest and drafting these likewise somewhat shallow reflections. Yet, I admit that my true focus centered on the young men two generations my junior. My hope is that they will long remember our Jurassic ramblings after I no longer puzzle over the genesis of a particular forest stand. Judy and I shared our mid-summer mini-vacation with Jack and Sam, wishing to leave the mark of our fleeting existence indelibly upon them to carry forward. Perhaps six decades hence they will relate the story of our Jurassic venture to their own grandkids.

 

Life is good. Sharing Nature with with generations to come is a powerful life-lifting elixir.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Sharing Nature with generations to come is a powerful life-lifting elixir.
  • Nature can be discovered and explored in some unexpected places.
  • Nature’s best surprises lie hidden in plain sight!

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

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2022 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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

Steve's Books

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Turn, Turn, Turn at DeSoto State Park: Nothing in Nature is Static

/in /by

I returned to Alabama’s DeSoto State Park July 20 and 21, 2022 for an Alabama State Parks Foundation Board meeting. Arriving too late for an extensive hike the first afternoon, I managed only to hike down to the Azalea Cascade Boardwalk the next morning before the meeting and to stop by DeSoto Falls the second afternoon after the meeting.

 

Rather than offer a guided tour of what I saw, I’ll offer a few observations of how Nature changes over time. I’m teaching a course this coming fall for Huntsville’s LearningQuest. I’ve titled it Turn, Turn, Turn, which will examine how Nature changes day to day, across the seasons, and extending through longer and longer periods…from annual and beyond.

A Windthrown Oak

 

I hiked the trail in July 2018, just a few weeks after crews had repaired the boardwalk from a 30-inch diameter oak that had crushed it. The tree had uprooted, lifting its fresh root ball below left. At right the new railing and cut log are visible.

 

The replaced boardwalk section with chainsawed tree sections can be seen from the far side of the uprooting below left. The top, still holding onto its full crown is below right.

Nature’s decay and decomposition progress rapidly in our warm moist climate. The comparative evidence lies in my July 2022 photos. Much of the soil has washed from the large root ball and the trunk has lost its bark, exposing its decaying wood (left). Nearly all of the fine and medium branching has fallen from the crown (right). I found such photo-comparisons useful. As I woods-ramble, seldom do I have longitudinal photo-records. I might have seen the downed tree for the first time and been forced to guess at how long ago it was windthrown. Now, I have a certain observation, a fact not just an assumption — four years of documented change. I can begin to calibrate my eye, allowing better confidence in my estimations.

 

A New Park Beach

 

DeSoto State Park dedicated an additional 157 acres on July 15, 2021. The Board participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony (below).

DeSoto

 

These photos depict how the shoreline above the falls appeared then, grassy and unimproved for recreation (for reference, note the red boathouse on the opposite shore in the photo below left) .

DeSoto

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 21, 2022, just one year later, a beach now lies in the foreground. Note the same red boathouse across the river. Time makes all the difference, whether in how Nature decomposes a fallen tree, or how a well-run State Park manages and improves recreational amenities.

DeSoto

 

We in Alabama are blessed with our necklace of 22 State Park across the state, encompassing 48,000 acres from the Gulf coast to the Tennessee line.

 

A Powerful Falls or a Timid Trickle

 

Nature’s changes can be awe-inspiring and at scales beyond imagination. I visited the Park April 23, 2019 during a very wet period. DeSoto Falls literally roared.

 

In fact, every small run throughout the Park ran full. See my May 2019 Post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2019/05/15/the-magic-of-waters-thunder-at-desoto-state-park/

July 21, 2022, during a dry mid-summer period, the falls merely trickled, a whimper far short of a roar. Nothing in Nature is static!

DeSotoDeSoto

 

Changes at tremendous scale, yet with explanations based on observation and science.

Forest Responding to Prescribed Fire

 

July 14, 2021, I saw direct evidence that Park crews had run a prescribed fire through selected forest stands. Being a former industrial forester with Union Camp Corporation, a Fortune 500 company that owned 2.3 million acres in VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, and AL, I had directed or overseen many thousands of acres of prescription fire. So, I was excited to see the burn at DeSoto State Park. The fire was employed to control understory vegetation, reduce saplings, and open the forest to a more “park-like” condition. Tim Haney and I observed that the fire had run effectively across the forest floor. I wondered to what extent the objectives would be secured.

DeSoto

 

My July 21, 2022 stroll revealed success. Many of the saplings and some pole-sized stems succumbed. Within a couple of more years, the deadened stems will fall, creating a much more open look. Below right, some of the saplings are sprouting from the base, where litter protected adventitious buds.

DeSoto

DeSoto

 

I am pleased to see the Park practicing scientific forest management, employing fire to achieve deliberate stand objectives. I am ready to assist future burning at DeSoto or any of our Alabama State Parks. However, I can certainly appreciate why Park legal staff would frown upon a 71-year old (OLD) forester with two ailing knees from carrying a drip torch! Perhaps one day they’ll call on me to observe, capture a few photos, and relive old memories of a younger forester managing site preparation and rough-reduction burns on company-owned forest lands.

So, I bring closure by repeating that nothing in Nature remains static. I recall a quote attributed to Yogi Berra: Things today are more like they are now than they ever have been. The truism holds for politics, Nature, and climate, to name just a few.

Turn, Turn, Turn (The Byrds) is a thread that weaves through Nature and life:

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks. I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

The Foundation exists for the sole purpose of providing incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.

We are blessed in Alabama to have our Park System. Watch for future Great Blue Heron Posts as I continue to explore and enjoy these treasures that belong to us. I urge you to discover the Alabama State Parks near you. Follow the advice of John Muir:

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

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

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
  • Nature changes day to day, across the seasons, and extending through longer and longer periods…from annual and beyond.
  • Fire is a tool for meeting forest management objectives…and Park management goals.

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

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2022 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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

Steve's BooksDeSoto

 

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.

 

A Recent Dose of Nostalgia: Nature-Inspired Aging and Healing

/in /by

This Post serves as my retrospection on two recent serious health issues affecting my life and elevating my relationship with and reliance upon Nature: November 8, 2021 left shoulder replacement surgery and March 24, 2022 stroke. This Post represents the evolution of what I call Nature-Inspired Aging and Healing!

Shoulder Replacement Surgery

 

I began writing this Post November 20, 2021, just 12 days after my left shoulder replacement surgery. I saw this emerging Post as a reflection on Nature…and the nature of my life, veering from my standard photo essay format. Springing from those original thoughts, I will now attempt bringing the Post to closure, reflecting on my recovery from the surgery and including my March 24, 2022 stroke.

Sometimes the world spins on a wobbly axis, not at the literal global scale, but for each of us as individuals. The reality often hits us like a bolt of lightning. My personal realization storm reached a crescendo of sorts (November 19, 2022)…and a surprising dawn encounter the next morning began to clear the debris and brighten the sky. The thunderclap came in form of a middle-of-the-night revelation that my life is speeding into a new stage, when I am ever more vulnerable to the vagaries and decline of age. I admit to a spell of feeling sorry for myself. Woe is me, an old man attempting to regain footing after a complicated major joint replacement. Sleep eventually returned, the alarm sounded, and Judy and I performed our daily 1.5 mile early morning neighborhood walk. I still sensed the echoes of the middle-of-the-night awakening thunderclap. Dawn elbowed its way past darkness as we strolled. We live on a small lake (a big pond?), so it is not unusual to enjoy visits by one or two great blue herons. Twice that morning a heron flew directly over us in the still more dark than light sky. Both times, the bird alerted us with his distinctive croak, within fifty feet of the ground.

Allow me a brief step back. By mid-October, in counsel with Judy and my orthopedic surgeon, we scheduled full left shoulder replacement surgery for November 8. The original left shoulder had weathered and degraded beyond repair. October 30, without the aid of a left arm capable of assisting with trekking pole or grasping trailside saplings on steep, rocky, and slippery surfaces, I hiked a tough 11-mile circuit to the Big Tree (state champion yellow poplar) in the Bankhead National Forest’s Sipsey Wilderness. Thirty years ago, I would have completed the loop with confidence and near-ease. On this loop I felt genuine concern about whether I could make it back to the trailhead. This was a first for me. Sadly, I thought, maybe it was the final such trek, period. Here is my Post on that venture: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2021/12/08/an-eleven-mile-bucket-list-hike-to-the-sipsey-big-tree/

Big Tree

 

The day of surgery came and went. Except for some issues related to pain medication, I weathered the storm, beginning physical therapy with the same relish I had brought to any athletic endeavor across the previous seven decades. I loved playing intramural basketball in college, and in community leagues as a young adult. Although an average player, I had great stamina, a competitive spirit, and enough height and athleticism to touch the rim mid-fingers. November 19, eleven days after surgery, Judy and I took 7-year-old grandson Sam to basketball practice. I rebounded  (with one arm) while Sam shot at the ten-foot baskets before staff lowered them to eight-feet for official practice. I stood near the higher basket looking up solemnly at a rim impossibly out of my current reach. In fact, I felt a bit queasy thinking what it must be like to float high enough to slap my fingers against the iron ring.  Basketball relativism, I suppose, served as the trigger event for that night’s thunderclap.

I recall with fondness my long distance recreational running, recording my first log entry the day we brought our newborn s0n (January 1977) home from the hospital. On his 21st birthday I recorded my 31-thousandth mile. I loved running, mostly pre-dawn, in the states where we lived (Virginia; Georgia; Alabama; New York; Pennsylvania; and Alabama) and while on business travel in scores of other locations during that period. Running served as my mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual salve, lifting me to manage work, family, and life. Colleagues would say, “I don’t have time to workout.” I would respond, “I don’t have time not to workout.” An hour of running returned far more than 60 minutes of sharpness, energy, and mindset. People remind me that running may not increase your life at all. My stock response was, “I don’t run to add years to my life. I run to add life to my years.”

When we lived in Ohio, after rheumatoid arthritis ended my high-impact running, I trained for and biked 200 miles during a 24-hour fundraising event. I wrote in detail about that ride in my second book, expounding on the thrill of extreme exertion, rough weather, and a long night doing repeated ten-mile loops on a rural rails to trail. I suppose I have long been addicted to physical endurance exertion, particularly in the outdoors.

Perhaps that is a big reason I heard the November 19 thunderclap, a culmination of the gradual decline that led eventually to that night. Yet, the two heron overflights the next morning served as a clarion call that much good lay ahead. We ventured to the nearby Bradford Creek Greenway that mid-morning, bringing greater clarity to the recovery process and beyond.

 

I had a backlog on Post raw material when I entered shoulder surgery, and little need during recovery to gather new photos and observations. So, I concentrated on three-day-per-week intensive PT, publishing Posts from the backlog.

The Stroke

 

I recovered flawlessly from shoulder replacement, then the unthinkable reminded me that life can be fleeting and fragile. Not a middle-of-the-night mental thunderclap, but a mid-morning sure-enough stroke! The blow hit both physically and emotionally. I am now almost fully recovered physically, the only remaining effects being a little yet-to-be-overcome fine motor dexterity impairment in my right hand, yet even that is showing progress. Emotionally, I have learned to accept that both my neurologist and cardiologist tell me my current medications should (I would prefer “will”) prevent another stroke. My mental breakthrough came April 3, when our daughter and her two boys stopped by, lifting my spirits to new heights: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/05/18/an-early-april-day-of-spiritual-renewal/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I published three other Posts about my recovery from that slap in the face:

  • https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/04/27/sunrises-and-sunsets-over-the-period-of-my-stroke-convalescence/

Legendwood

 

  • https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/05/31/an-outing-one-month-beyond-the-equinox-and-one-month-after-my-stroke/

LGSP

 

  • https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/06/14/wells-memorial-trail-at-monte-sano-state-park-five-weeks-after-stroke/

Monte Sano

 

A video from that five-weeks post-stroke Monte Sano trek:

 

All Clear Ahead

 

I’ve learned a powerful lesson from both periods of dedicated convalescence: Nature is for me, along with the presence of Judy, an unparalleled elixir for Aging and Healing. I’ve created a Facebook group — Nature-Inspired Aging and Healing. I write often about Nature as a force for fueling body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit. I published two Posts on the soul-lifting 50th anniversary journey Judy and I made mid-July to the Biltmore Estate and the North Carolina Arboretum, both in the magnificent southern Appalachians near Asheville, NC:

  • Arboretum post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/07/13/nc-arboretum-people-plants-place-and-passion/

  • Biltmore post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/08/03/a-grand-intersection-of-human-and-natural-history-at-the-biltmore-estate/

 

Thanks to my sacred connection to Nature (and to Judy) I am far beyond my low point. Life is good; I am buoyed. Nature’s healing power for mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit (in a non-sectarian sense, a God Force) is beyond compare. I think of the Force in the words of John Muir:

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.

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

Earth has no sorrow that earth cannot heal.

My own sorrow, aka self-pity, disappeared in the revelations, inspirations, and shear joy of life that became apparent to me as the mental debris of surgery and stroke cleared. I may be the most fortunate man on God’s Green Earth! Sometimes it takes a stretch of darkness (real or perceived) to open the window of light.

Michael Michalko, one of the most highly acclaimed creativity experts in the world, observed, Paying attention to the world around you will help you to develop the extraordinary capacity to look at mundane things and see the miraculous. I paid attention to the world around me…realizing that I reside in the realm of the miraculous!

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these thoughts:

  • Nature can be a powerful force in Aging and Healing.
  • May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
  • Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir!

 

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2022 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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

Steve's BooksLGSP

 

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.

 

 

Mid-July Circuit of the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail

/in /by

July 17, 2022, I hiked the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail at Madison, Alabama’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve. My intent was not to rush from start to finish, but to proceed slowly and deliberately…with eyes wide open, searching for what lay hidden in plain sight. This Post offers observations, reflections, and photographs from my three-hour stroll. My trek began at 1,100 feet, dropped to 750, then returned. The Preserve sits in the center of Madison, surrounded by subdivisions. The terrain is rocky, steep, and forested. Except for the traffic sounds and an occasional emergency vehicle siren, I could have been in rural wildland.

The Harsh Summit

The summit microsite is harsh. Soils are shallow, bedrock often at the surface, and the chestnut oak and eastern red cedar forest is scrubby, expressing the poor site quality.

Coarse-limbed chestnut oak trees dominate the summit plateau and rimrock edges. Desiccated resurrection fern carpeted most branches. I’ve walked these trail during wetter periods when the resurrection fern is lush and deep green. Temperature well into the 90s assure the scalded look. Cedar co-occupies this upland forest. The tree below right is one of the North Alabama Land Trust’s Hug Me! trees.

 

Just as the fern secures acceptable anchorage and nutrition on tree branches, lichens find safe harbor on exposed rock surfaces. I’ve often repeated the old wisdom that Nature Abhors a Vacuum. Imagine eaking out an existence on a bare rock. This crustose lichen requires little…and finds plenty of it on Rainbow Mountain!

 

Lichen appeared dry and drab on this mid-summer day. However, during the wet and cool dormant season, I’ve seen colorful lichen palettes on these harsh surfaces. The resurrection ferns below right, now seeming lifeless, also become vibrant during those periods.

 

Appearing similar to resurrection fern, ebony spleenwort, another fern, does not dessicate. It has found sufficient sustenance in the rock fissure below left. It deals with dry conditions by simply shutting down respiration when moisture is limited. Below right a dusty mullein grows from a crack in the exposed ledge. Any port in a storm, I suppose.

 

A prickly pear seems right at home along the rimrock.

 

I caught leafcup in full flower. Yet its seasonal growth window is closing. Below right, even as the leafy tops are flowering, the stems are desiccating from the base. They will soon pass into senescence unless rains appear within a few days of my ramble.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whitemouth dayflower provided some mid-summer blue and yellow. The bright color seemed to belie the harsh dryness that otherwise prevailed.

 

Summit Forest

When hiking, I’m obsessed with the subtle hidden beauty and magic around me. I often forget to capture a few minutes of video. This day I remembered. Although I don’t relish the sound of my own voice, I’m convinced that the video images tell a worthy tale, even if mingled with my voice! Here’s the first of two videos within this Post, this one (3:11) recorded in the harsh near-summit forest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ1sJiByseQ&t=3s 

 

This 30-inch diameter chestnut oak is growing amid the rimrock. Given its size and likely slow growth, the oak may be older than two centuries. On such shallow soil and harsh exposure, it must be tapping some soul-spring of vitality…securing moisture and nutrients otherwise hidden and unavailable. Sometimes success boils down to simply showing up…in the right spot! There are very few right spots atop Rainbow Mountain. Although of considerable girth, this individual reaches only fifty feet vertical.

 

Evidencing the limited surface soil, this ash (I don’t know whether it is white or green ash) has toppled over, tipping from the bare rock on which it had found purchase. The photo below left shows the tree lifting from the rock and leaning 45 degree to the right, dislodging virtually no roots from that downhill, rock-surface side. The tree is leaning to the uphill side, where its roots are still secure, furnishing moisture, nutrients, and some semblance of anchorage. The tree remains very much alive.

 

Another coarse old chestnut oak stands sentry at the rimrock. Beyond it in the first photo (and close up in the second) stands the skeleton of long-deceased tree of the same species. Nothing in Nature is static.

 

Nearby stands a gnarled, deformed, still-living cedar. Covered in dried resurrection fern, the tree presents a different mood during wetter days.

 

 

 

 

 

From March 2020, the tree bears vibrant resurrection fern.

Rainbow Mountain, Resurrection Fern

 

Eastern red cedar is a tree of deep character in our northern Alabama forests. A pioneer species, it is among the first, courtesy of bird seed-dispersion, to invade/occupy severely disturbed land (wildfire; abandoned agriculture; blowdown). Most of our regional forests naturally regenerated following disturbance. Cedar in many of our forests remains as scattered residuals, only seldomly reaching into the main canopy. Those cedar remaining, like the fern-cloaked individual above, often tell a tale in their form, bark, and disfigurement…as I term it, their character. This one appears to have a branch-stub pipe exiting its main trunk three feet above the ground.

 

And its two eyes (with subtle nose) gaze down from twelve feet above!

 

Because cedar wood is naturally decay resistant, its trunk and branches persist long after death, standing guard along forest paths.

 

I could not identify the species of this fallen tree and what I referred to as its driftwood root mass.

 

Dead and down woody debris serve as further reminder that nothing in Nature is static.

 

My wanderings brought me down to the 750 foot elevation of the spring. I offer this 1:32 video to introduce the better site quality below the harsh summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwKEiU6rQek

 

Interesting forest Features

Always on the lookout for tree form oddities and curiosities, I found this hickory turtle-head-burled-branch near the trail.

 

A black knot of cherry engulfing this four-inch diameter black cherry drew my attention.

 

One might wonder how forest cover sustains on this 400-foot rock pile in the heart of Madison. As I returned to the summit and parking lot, traversing the Wild Trail, I photographed this deep fracture in the limestone. Somehow, our climate slowly weathers bare rock to soil worthy of supporting varied forest ecosystems.

 

Along that same Wild Trail I encountered what for me is a new species, fragrant sumac. At first, I identified it as poison oak. Further reference examinations convinced me that this is fragrant sumac. I remain unable to confidently distinguish poison ivy from poison oak. They both contain the same toxic resin, urushiol, to which I am most assuredly allergic. I may never venture a close botanical examination to distinguish the two equally skin-toxic species!

 

I enjoyed my three-hour stroll. Four months beyond my March 23 stroke, I felt fairly secure and steady even on the steep and rocky trail pitches. My stroke-induced instability has abated. I have now returned to the new baseline of weakness attributable alone to having bone on bone in both knees. Once my replaced shoulder is at full strength, I will consider knee replacement in my progress toward achieving the dubious distinction of bionic naturalist!

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Wild places reveal new secrets every time we visit; their mysteries lie hidden in plain sight.
  • Sometimes wildness lies where one might least expect to find it.
  • Walking in the forest rewards far more than walking through the forest. Wander patiently…and with purpose!

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

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2022 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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

Steve's Books

 

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.