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

Loop Trail from Cabins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reflections on a Beaver Colony

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

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

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

Some Unanticipated Wonders

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

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

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

Tree Form Oddities and Curiosities

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’ll close with another Muir quote:

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

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

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

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

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

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

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

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring in Nature
• I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
• I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
• I don’t play golf!
• I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
• Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
• And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maggie’s Glen is surely one of those places.

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

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

Mystery and Fascination along the Trail

Mosses, Fungi, Algae, and Lichens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spiral Wood Grain

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

This one has a gentler spiral, still clockwise.

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

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

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

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

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

• Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
• And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. (John Muir)
• Nothing exceeds the magic, inspiration, and sacred spirit of a quiet morning forest and a gurgling stream amid the mists of a new day.

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

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

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring in Nature
• I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
• I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
• I don’t play golf!
• I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
• Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
• And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I am excited to offer the second of my new GBH Brief Form Post format (Less than three-minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit long-winded with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So I will publish the brief Posts regularly on at least a trial basis.

Brief-Form Post on Mysterious Loblolly Pine Tree Form Oddity

Two Loblolly Tree Form Oddities on Joe Wheeler State Park

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

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

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

My Speculation

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

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

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

Observation of note from Albert Einstein:

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

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

I am excited to introduce a new GBH Brief Form Post format (Less than three-minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit long-winded with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So I will publish the brief Posts regularly on at least a trial basis.

Brief-Form Post on Wetland Restoration

Recent Conversion at the Sanctuary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Observations of note:

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

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

Miscellaneous Housekeeping

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

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring in Nature
• I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
• I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
• I don’t play golf!
• I actually do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
• Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
• And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.