Mid-August 2023 Aerial Exploration of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

/in /by

On August 20, 2023, a friend took me aloft in his Cessna 182. We departed Pryor Regional Airfield, Decatur, Alabama at 7:00 AM under cloud-free but hazy skies, with the threat/promise (depending upon perspective) of expanding heat index…arriving long after our scheduled return to the airfield. Our flight plan encompassed exploring the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. I focus this Post on our aerial exploration of the Refuge.

Redstone Arsenal

The Redstone Arsenal, a major Huntsville, Alabama landmark, covers 35,000 acres stretching south from Huntsville to the Tennessee River. The Refuge extends eastward along the River from Decatur, overlapping the Arsenal by 4,085 acres. Snapped flying westward south of the River, the two photos below capture the Arsenal and the Refuge’s overlapping acreage, indistinguishable from the greater Arsenal. Just as property lines do not appear from the air, wildlife visiting and resident to the Refuge pays no heed to boundaries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blackwell Swamp

My Refuge wanderings often take me to Blackwell Swamp (summer at left; winter to the right).

 

I’ve spent many hours airborne (fixed wing and helicopter) during my 12 years practicing forestry with Union Camp Corporation (1973-85), as well as over my higher education career at nine universities across 35 years. During my 21 years in senior administrative roles at seven of those institutions, I somehow always managed to sweet-talk my way to a local aerial excursion. Lift me a couple of thousand feet above terra firma and I see features with a clarity not available to my earthbound eye. I know it sounds like a 1960s weed-effect, but soaring into the sky expands my mind. So much lies hidden when I am road-bound. Sure, detail leaps at me when I saunter within our forests, but strange as it may seem, when I am on the ground, I simply cannot see the forest for the trees, much less the broader landscape and terrain.

Here’s Blackwell Swamp from the south (left) and the view from north to south (right). The Tennessee River runs across the image (right) a quarter of a mile below the swamp. The swamp from tip to tip extends about three miles.

Blackwell

 

Here’s my 22-second aerial video of Blackwell Swamp.

 

Rockhouse Bottoms Road

 

Jolly B Road runs north/south along the west side of Blackwell Swamp, extending south to the river, where it turns to border the river to the west several miles, the river to the south and Cooperative Farmland to the north.

 

The paired May 2023 photos above came from lower left corner of the image below at left. The image at right shows Jolly B Road emerging from the north (lower right in the photo) and meeting Rockhouse Bottoms Road along the river.

 

 

 

Buckeye Impoundment lies north of the Tennessee River and nearly two miles west of Blackwell Swamp. From the air, one might wonder why these open fields carry the Impoundment moniker.

 

However I photographed Buckeye Impoundment several winters prior, the views to the south and north northwest, respectively. The Fish and Wildlife Service manages water levels by way of control gates, flooding dormant season habitats for waterfowl overwintering on the Refuge.

Buckeye Impoundment

 

Diverse habitats encourage both seasonal and year-round wildlife. My aerial reconnaissance raised a curtain on the complex integrated ecosystem that the Refuge manages for wildlife.

 

Limestone Creek Bay (left) lies just east of I-65. Its year-round water derives from Lake Wheeler backing into the Limestone Creek Basin. Likewise, the Lake backs into the northeast side of the Bay, where Beaverdam Creek enters the Bay (right). The Beaverdam Creek National Natural Landmark lies upstream in the upper left corner of the photo at right. When on the Boardwalk Trail I’ve wondered what lay downstream from the end-of-trail deck. Now I know.

 

Other Refuge Features

 

The image below (left) looks west at the I-65 Bridge and the city of Decatur lying beyond. The second photo peers north. The Refuge borders the river on both the north and south shores.

 

I recorded this 0:37 video of the bridge and the mixed forest, fields, and impoundments on both shores.

 

I’ve stopped by the Visitors Center scores of times. When there, I feel as though I am in a wild area, surrounded by tens of thousands of sandhill cranes (November through mid-February); as many as a dozen whooping cranes; untold hundreds (thousands) of ducks and geese; and diverse mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, trees, flowers, fungi, and other lifeforms…on and on! And yet, there is a negative element of such aerial perspective, revealing that within a broader context, my sense of wildness diminishes with the reality that roads, houses, and commercial properties are nearby.

The Visitors Center (parking lot and a few buildings lower left center below left) is just one-half mile from a primary state highway…and two miles from I-65. The two-story observation building is at the left edge of the copse of trees (right photograph). This is clearly not wilderness, yet when I view the flooded flats on a cold and blustery January day, viewing and hearing the cacophonous flocks of cranes, ducks, and geese, I am in a metaphorical wilderness, as distant from civilization as one can wander here in the southeast USA.

 

I delighted in seeing this near-urban refuge from 2,000 feet. I thank my friend (and pilot), Ted Satcher, for lifting me above the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and opening a window to enjoy a new perspective on a national treasure right here in our greater Huntsville backyard!

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations from my aerial flight and the breath-taking perspective from 2,000 feet above the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge:

  • Although this is not remote and distant wildness, the Refuge is a metaphorical wilderness, as distant from civilization as one can wander here in the southeast USA..
  • On such flights, the whole notion of my taglines…Nature-Inspired Life and Living; Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!…come alive in crystal clarity.
  • I am mesmerized by flying above a natural landscape, where beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration reach into my soul.

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

 

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

 

A 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 by 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 understand their Earth home more clearly.

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 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 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 with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

 

Mid-August 2023 First Time Visit to Forever Wild Shoal Creek Nature Preserve

/in /by

August 18, 2023, while in Florence, Alabama taking photographs in preparation for my October 13, 2023 presentation at the city’s 27th Annual Horticulture and Tree Conference, I stopped by the nearby Forever Wild Shoal Creek Nature Preserve, my first “wildland” venture since triple bypass surgery eight weeks prior. I admit to a bit of trepidation as I wandered from the trailhead. I didn’t penetrate the 298 acres for much more than 15 minutes, turning well short of Shoal Creek, a future destination when I return.

Shoal Creek Preserve (dedicated by Forever Wild resolution as the Billingsley-McClure Shoal Creek Preserve) allows visitors to explore 298 acres of fallow fields, mature upland hardwood stands and scenic creek bottoms in Lauderdale County. Waterways on the tract include Indian Camp Creek, Lawson Creek, Jones Branch and Shoal Creek.

The tract was purchased in part through a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant awarded by the Alabama Department of Economics and Community Affairs, as well as through financial and in-kind contributions from the City of Florence and Lauderdale County.

Two trails totaling 4.3 miles give hikers views of Shoal Creek, Indian Camp Creek, Lawson Branch, and Jones Branch, all on this small 300-acre property.

Jones Creek at the entrance road to the property, SW corner of the 298-acre NP, drains into Shoal Creek where backwaters of Wilson Lake swell Shoal Creek. Shoal Creek enters the Tennessee River at Turtle Point Yacht & Country Club

 

I felt fortunate to reenter Nature, albeit cautiously, just eight weeks from open heart surgery. The sky could not have been more welcoming…cerulean blue with puffy cumulus. I’m a softy for trailhead signage, especially when graffiti and trash don’t mar the scene. My compliments to those maintaining the area.

 

I like the red roof over the entrance marquis. Here’s the view from 100 yards within the trail, looking back to the red roof.

 

Trails at Shoal Creek NP are well marked, a necessity for first time trekkers, and a comfort to those who are returning infrequently.

 

The interpretive text I quoted earlier mentioned acres of fallow fields. Importantly, nothing in Nature is static. A fallow field transitions in our moist temperate climate rather rapidly from meadow to woody brush to young trees to forest and finally to old growth forest. The photo below shows a meadow still dominated by herbs and forbes, a mixture of annuals and perennials. Come back at ten-year intervals and you won’t believe your eyes!

 

No one can dispute the beauty, wonder, magic, and awe of Nature’s richness and her grandeur. Can you imagine a yellow more vibrant and rich than the blossom of this partridge pea, a native legume common in such early successional habitats? I wonder, how many partridge pea plants per meadow acre is sufficient? Ideal? The same can be asked of any plant, animal, insect, or life form in an ecosystem. Is there a mathematical formula to derive the optimum mix of taxa? In simplest terms, there is no correct answer. Nature doesn’t need a species diversity comptroller to track and enforce ratios, minima, distribution, variances from norms, and standard deviations.

 

And yet, today’s societal leanings are embracing a mindset that places great stock on monitoring, categorizing, and meticulously controlling metrics related to human Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as though some bureaucratic class understands the optimum admixture for human affairs, varieties, races, genders, ethnicities, and predilections. Nature, on the other hand, cares only about the function and outcome from a proven, timeless, and extraordinarily successful sorting mechanism — an effective meritocracy. In human endeavors, some bureaucrat may deem five partridge pea plants per acre as ideal. Nature simply does not care…that hapless staffer knows nothing!

The fallow field below will convert to forest if left to Nature’s devices. I admit, however, to a bias toward mixed habitat. Were this already a closed forest, the lovely sky would lie hidden beyond an enveloping canopy. Bluebirds, grasshoppers, meadow voles, and harriers would yield to species common to the mature forest. We maintain the early successional cover only through active and deliberate management! Prescribed fire is one obvious tool. I don’t know what managers of the preserve plan. I’ll watch with anticipation.

Shoal Creek Nature Preserve

 

Among other plants thriving within this section of meadow are Eastern red cedar, blackberry, thistle, sweet gum, poison ivy, and many other woody perennials, shrubs, and trees. A new forest is emerging.

 

Because still photographs fall short of revealing a cogent reality, I recorded this 1:00 video with narration:

 

Panicoideae grasses, large native perennials, dominate this area. Panic grasses are deeply rooted. Without active management (usually in the form of prescribed fire), forest will succeed. The olde truth prevails…nothing in Nature is static.

 

Shining sumac is a small, early successional tree. This thriving specimen is producing a full seed crop, attracting meadow-habitat birds that will consume the fruits. Digestive juices will scarify the hard seed, encouraging germination when the birds deposit the seed elsewhere in the meadow. Again, I ask, how many shining sumac individuals is enough? Optimum? What is the ideal number of seeds per acre? How many goldfinches are needed to properly disperse the seeds? Perhaps when we know how many angels can sit on the head of a pin we can answer such questions about Nature and her ideal species numbers and distributions. I shall remain a species comptroller skeptic, just as I will forevermore fail to see real value in business, industry, government, and universities bloating with DEI staff and administrators.

 

I am certain of my own bias to rich and varied habitat, like this image from the Shoal Creek Nature Preserve website.

SCNP Website

 

I’m curious to see what the future holds. Does the Preserve have a management plan? Does it prescribe treatments for maintaining habitat diversity? By what means? I feel a little guilty posting this photo essay on the basis of my very preliminary and shallow explorations post-surgery. However, my elation at stepping back into Nature overshadowed my guilt. I plan to return and I will dig more deeply.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Nothing in Nature is static.
  • As in our own lives, successional stages carry us from youth to maturity to our senior years.
  • Experiencing a new (to me) Nature Preserve whets my appetite for deeper exploration and understanding.

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: “©2023 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.

I now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

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

 

Early September Potpourri at Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park!

/in /by

I returned to Joe Wheeler State Park on September 6, 2023, to meet with Renee Raney who had recently been appointed as the Alabama State Park System’s first Chief of Education and Interpretation. Appointed from within the System, Renee is a consummate nature devotee, experienced naturalist, and committed champion of the System’s three-part mission of conservation, recreation, and education.

Introducing Alabama State Park System’s Chief of Education and Interpretation

 

Here is the 58-second video I recorded on September 6, and posted on my YouTube channel to introduce Renee:

 

I’ve known Renee since retiring to Alabama in 2017. She and I will be co-teaching a winter term OSHER Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) course on Connecting Nature and Wellness at Alabama’s State Parks at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. We took advantage of our wanderings at JWSP to brainstorm ideas for the six-week course. Rather than focus on the course, allow me to present this 44-second video promoting the course, and then move on to the potpourri of Nature delights we encountered in our Park sleuthing:

 

Potpourri of Park Delights

 

I enjoy the signs across the state welcoming me to our state parks. Shortly after entering Joe Wheeler, Wheeler Lake reached out to greet me.

JWSP

 

 

I am an avowed soft touch for clouds, water, and forested shoreline. The view from the boat launch did not disappoint. If I had not entered forestry school, I may have pursued meteorology. I admit to a lifelong addiction to and fascination with all things weather. In fact, forestry is inseparable from weather: tree planting and soil moisture; prescribed fire and wind, humidity, and smoke dispersal; road maintenance and storm forecasts. The fair weather clouds in the photos below don’t portend an incoming storm, although a local isolated thunderstorm did drop 1.31 inches at my home (40 miles to the east) that evening. Since then, I have measured just 0.40 inches over the intervening 48 days!

JWSP

 

I recorded this 0:32 video from the dock at the First Creek inlet boat launch.

 

White morning glory hung tightly to the marina railing near the Joe Wheeler State Park Lodge. Finding Nature’s many gifts and delights does not require incursion deep into the park backcountry.

JWSP

 

We appreciated the late summer frost flower in full bloom.

JWSP

 

Renee and I found both kousa dogwood, an Asian ornamental dogwood resistant to anthracnose fungal infection, and Carolina buckthorn near the Lodge, both bearing ripe fruit..

JWSP

 

I’ve photographed this unique loblolly pine tree on prior visits to the park. I wanted Renee to see some of Nature’s hidden magic. The horizontal ridges result from sapsucker bird pecks introducing some type of organism (fungal, bacterial, or viral) that triggers swelling and ridging along the axes. I have never seen such raised ridges on hardwood trees,

JWSP

 

We also found several downed logs heavily infected with Trametes fungi. These wood decay agents are strictly dead wood consumers, one of the many organisms that return dead and down woody debris to the forest floor. Renee carries a tiger stuffee to serve as a frame of reference for forest critters, novelties, and all manner of delights.

JWSP

 

We photographed the tiger on the sweetgum roots below. A strong wind leaned the tree 20 degrees downwind, lifting the windward roots until the tree found sufficient support on a downwind neighbor. A future blow may uproot the tree…or the sweetgum may resist the pressure for many decades. Nothing in Nature is static.

 

JWSP

 

Much of the woodland extending from the Lodge to the Day Use area and campground shows clear evidence of having been pastured when the COE and TVA acquired the impoundment buffer lands 90 years ago. Evidence of such past land use includes black locust exiting the present forest and large muscadine vines fully enveloping the 90-year-old main canopy. I snapped the image below right during a March 2023 LearningQuest tour I led in the same stand in March 2023.

JWSP

Joe Wheeler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black locust is an aggressive pioneer species, rapidly colonizing abandoned pasture across north Alabama. The species commonly declines when the stand reaches age 70-plus years. I included these two images of dead black locust in this same stand from a January 2022 nature photography course I co-led at the park. Here’s the Great Blue Heron photo-essay I published about the declining black locust stand in March 2022: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/03/22/black-locust-decline-and-two-champion-trees-at-joe-wheeler-state-park/

Joe WheelerJoe Wheeler

 

The evidence of the former black locust stand occupying this area of Joe Wheeler State Park is slowly disappearing…with mortality and subsequent decay and organic matter recycling. I have championed the idea of systematically establishing permanent photo-points within all 22 Alabama State Parks to document and chronicle changes every 5-10 years. The demise of the black locust forest would be memorialized in the historic photo record.

Chimney Memorial within the Campground

 

Renee and I examined this old chimney on a hilltop within the campground. Like every tree within a forest stand, the chimney has a story to tell. Its tale will become part of the education and interpretation narrative at Joe Wheeler State Park.

JWSP

 

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • I am so pleased that the Alabama State Park System has appointed Renee Raney as Chief of Education and Interpretation!
  • Every tree, every stand, and every forest within our State Parks has a compelling story to tell.
  • Albert Einstein understood the wisdom of Nature education and interpretation: “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

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: “©2023 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 BooksJoe WSP

 

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 now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

 

 

Brief-Form Post #20: Aerial Tour of Blackwell Swamp at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

/in /by

I am pleased to offer the 20th GBH Brief Form Posts to my website (Less than three minutes to read!). 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 these brief Posts regularly.

 

Brief-Form Post on my August 20, 2023, Aerial Overflight of Blackwell Swamp within the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

 

On August 20, 2023, a friend took me aloft in his Cessna 182. We departed Pryor Regional Airfield, Decatur, Alabama at 7:00 AM under cloud-free but hazy skies. Our flight plan encompassed exploring the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and cruising the Tennessee River from Guntersville Dam downstream to Wheeler Dam (and Joe Wheeler State Park). I focus this Brief-Form Post on our aerial exploration of one of my favorite on-the-ground destinations: Blackwell Swamp within the Refuge.

I snapped this photo at 7:59 AM over the north end of the Swamp looking south deeper into the Refuge and the Tennessee River (Wheeler Lake). The Swamp stretches roughly three miles from end to end.

Blackwell

 

 

I recorded this 0:22 video as we circuited the southern end of Blackwell.

 

The view below to the northwest reaches across County Line Road (running diagonally from lower left to upper right) separating Limestone County (left) from Madison. The Huntsville Airport appears north of the Swamp at center right.

 

The summer (left) and winter views from the SW corner of the Swamp signal no indication that we are anywhere but in the wild interior of the 35,000 acre Refuge. No sign of the nearby agricultural fields, the landing and takeoff patterns for the airport, or recreational boats and commercial tugs and barges plying Lake Wheeler. I am sure that a Native American plucked from the 15th Century and placed on the Blackwell shore would have heard, smelled, and felt the presence of strange and peculiar forces. I am grateful that I can still sense the wildness of the refuge.

 

Summer’s peace and tranquility often include egrets, herons, owls, ducks, geese, an occasional eagle, ospreys, songbirds, frogs, manifold insects, and other teeming wildlife. Nature doesn’t seem to notice a dearth of wildness.

Jolly B

 

Spring is a season of special joy for me. I appreciate the eternal spring of youth, epitomized here by grandson Sam.

 

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Today, I borrow a distinct reflection from Aldo Leopold, one of the great minds of conservation, wildlife ecology, and environmental antiquity:

  • A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

 

NOTE: I place 3-5 short videos (15 seconds to three minutes) on my Steve Jones Great Blue Heron YouTube channel weekly. All relate to Nature-Inspired Life and Living. I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE! It’s FREE. Having more subscribers helps me spread my message of Informed and Responsible Earth Stewardship…locally and globally!

 

 

Steve’s New Book Emerges from his Dutton Land & Cattle Land Legacy Project!

/in /by

My Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story copies arrived September 25, 2023. Its 58 pages, with my observations, reflections, and many of my own photographs (130 images), tell the remarkable Earth stewardship tale of a dedicated family resurrecting abandoned strip-mined land to premium beef production and luxury off-grid lodging! The Dutton land is located in southeastern Ohio.

The small paperback displays nicely among my other three books. Its typeface is small; the tale compact; its color photographs densely chronicle the two years that I periodically visited the Duttons across the seasons. A centuries-long story requires deliberate verbal distillation, concerted historical research, and countless hours of fieldwork. I cannot say any of my labor of passion fell short of absolute joy.

 

Here are the appropriate credits and acknowledgments:

  • Edit and design oversight by Brandi Waligura, Dutton Land & Cattle Marketing Manager and Designer
  • Freelance editing by Keri Cahill
  • Cover design by Chris Dutton, Dutton Land & Cattle
  • Printed by Knepper Press

My greatest abiding fulfillment came from getting to know the Duttons, including John and Rita below, and the entire family of children and grandchildren. Theirs is an intergenerational embrace of land stewardship…a land legacy story rooted in the past…and reaching far into the future.

September 2020

 

John and Rita’s Preface, which I had not seen in advance, lifted my soul and reminded me that this project mattered, perhaps unmatched in satisfaction by any professional endeavors across my career in industry and higher education:

When we purchased and settled here on the original property, our dream was simple: Raise a big family on a farm. We couldn’t have imagined the farm would be what it is today – a generational model of regenerative agriculture, with premium beef production and luxury off-grid lodging. In some ways, we still can’t believe it.

Steve’s book—and his entire creative process—allowed us to reflect on what we’ve created throughout our 40 years here. It is more than a testament to our commitment to land, and our place here in this corner of the world; it places in perspective the effect (profound or otherwise) that we have on our own landscapes as a society—in this case, rural Ohio. It takes work, and it takes time. It takes trials, and it takes errors. It takes good decisions, and it takes learning from bad. We’re proud of each just the same.

We’re grateful for Steve’s commitment to this story and guiding us through this project. His eagerness to dive into the history of land use in our region yielded a thorough and comprehensive “reference tool” for generations to come. Quite frankly, it was wonderful to see such incredible interest in perhaps a “too soon forgotten” piece of our past.

Much of what we’ve done here on the property—along with the businesses and projects that contribute to the farm—have been collaborative efforts with dear friends, and hardworking hands over the years. We consider so many of these folks our family, and we’re endlessly grateful to each of them.

Lastly, we want to thank our kids. Each of them participated in Steve’s research, and as noted, each of them has contributed their own efforts and skillset to the farm. But, much more importantly, we want to thank them for making our life, our journey, and yes, our land, so absolutely worth every minute. Together with our grandchildren, they are our true legacy.

My Recollections: Three Prior Posts

The entire landscape in both photos below saw the action of massive strip mining equipment that sequentially cleared the topsoil remaining after decades of abusive agriculture, removed the overburden, excavated and transported the underlying coal, reshaped and recontoured the land, redistributed the topsoil, and re-established vegetation. The photo below left shows the lake (a remnant of strip mining) that fronts one of the luxury cabins (AKA the Family Escape Cabin), and served as my home away from home when I visited the property. I actually learned something about the art and science of premium beef cattle (Akaushi breed) production (below right).

September 2020

September 2020

 

I provide below a portal to my three prior Great Blue Heron Posts chronicling the emergence of the Dutton Legacy Story. Because the Duttons self-published the book, we are not yet certain how to arrange for purchasing. I will advise in a future Post. Meantime, these three Posts will present the gist of this incredible land legacy story.

April 2019 Post

Mid-March Revelations on “Worn-Out” Land!

 

November 2020 Post

Late September Wanderings and Ramblings on my Ohio Land Legacy Project Site

 

August 2021 Post

Dutton Farm May Skies and Viewscapes

 

I don’t need to remind you that COVID turned our world upside down coincident with my May 2021 visit, resulting in an extended period between that visit and the September 2023 book publishing date.

 

A Sampling of My Favorite Photos

 

I traversed nearly every square foot of the property’s 1,100 acres. I have myriad “favorite places,” including that depicted in this highlight portfolio of special haunts. The family escape cabin below left faces the dawn lake photo shown above the three Posts. The thick forest above (and north) of the cabin regenerated on an unconsolidated spoils heap. Some trees reach 100 feet tall. Until I entered the equation, all individuals associated with the land assumed the trees had sprouted from seeds. However, I discovered rows of main canopy sweetgum trees where reclamation crews had hand planted seedlings. I’ve said often in my Posts that so much in Nature lies hidden in plain sight. My role, in part, was to serve as a Land Legacy sleuth. Each secret revealed served as reward for effort.

Land Legacy

 

 

 

 

 

Another reward came in form of discovering the rich biodiversity of life across the property, like the milkweed with seedpods and a monarch butterfly caterpillar on land so severely disturbed by the hand of man. Below right Chris Dutton is, with my assistance, marking trees by species on a future interpretive nature trail we were establishing across the spoils debris pile above the cabin. The red oak where Chris is standing may or may not have been planted by crews as a seedling…or as an acorn cached and subsequently neglected by a squirrel or jay.

September 2020September 2020

 

I was glad that workers did not reclaim all evidence of strip mining. The high wall (below at left) illustrates the scale and violence of the operation. The coal seam is apparent about halfway up the face. As the hill continued to rise above the seam, the overburden depth rendered continuing the recovery uneconomical. I appreciated having this harsh example as reminder of what had been masked elsewhere by reclamation.

 

This 21-minute 1969 film, The Ravaged Earth, produced at Cleveland State University, opened eyes to the environmental consequences of strip mining:

 

The documentary led to more effective and comprehensive regulatory measures in Ohio and nationally. Those regulations helped ensure the rehabilitation of what is now the Dutton land.

I often saw whitetail deer, squirrels, groundhogs, hawks, ducks, and geese…and heard owls and coyotes. The property…this abused and decimated land in the eyes of some…is a rich sanctuary of abundant life and commercial beef production. Beaver had recently colonized a pond just upstream from the cabin.

 

The Land Legacy Story, I am convinced, is a tale meriting a much wider audience. In fact, I view the two-century (several millennia when we include the land’s Native American history) portfolio as globally significant, rich with lessons for stewarding the Earth through responsible and informed decision making.

 

 

Most Memorable Quotes

 

I’ll offer broadly and succinctly that embracing and practicing Earth stewardship is reward and fulfillment in and of itself. I discerned four distinct lessons from developing this Post:

  • Nature knows disturbance — learn to harness her wisdom.
  • Very few things are as they first appear.
  • So much in Nature lies hidden within.
  • Earth stewardship is a multi-generational commitment of passion and action.

Carl Sagan reminded us of our absolute dependence upon our Earth…our One Earth…when photos from beyond Earth orbit first appeared:

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

The Duttons understand and appreciate their role in tending this corner of our pale blue dot.

John and Rita may not have recognized their embrace of a land ethic, yet they are now acutely aware, I hope in some small way because of my discussions with them. I talked about mid-twentieth century conservation scholar and philosopher Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac): All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, or collectively the land. John and Rita know that their 1,100 acres is a diverse interconnected and interdependent community.

John Muir: Earth has no sorrow that she cannot heal.

Louis Bromfield, an Ohio-born novelist and playwright who devoted his life to rehabilitating the soil on his old worn-out farm (Malabar) near Mansfield, summarized a zeal and ethic embraced by the Dutton’s:

The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished… The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work.

 

 

The adventure at Dutton Land & Cattle is by no means finished! Some clearly identified and essential steps remain short-term. My hope is to participate to some extent in seeing them to fruition:

  • Interpretive Nature Trail: I assisted Chris Dutton in laying out the trail, identifying tree species, and contemplating interpretive elements. I want to see the completed trail, assist with developing an interpretive brochure, and publish one of my photo essays on the trail.
  • Permanent photo points: I hope to help the Duttons establish 20-25 permanent photo points for a long-term photo record, retaking photos in cardinal directions at special locations every 5-10 years over the long reach of time.
  • Distribution of the book: The Dutton Legacy Story is globally significant. I plan to assist in finding a way to tell the tale far beyond locally.
  • Developing PowerPoints: I want to create a series of 10, 30, and 50-minute PowerPoint packages for telling the Dutton Land & Cattle Legacy Story.
  • I see the need for recording 10-12 short videos on-site to tell the Legacy Story.

There may be other needs…ones I can’t identify without returning to the property.

 

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations, from a single Louis Bromfield quote (Pleasant Valley):

  • The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here.
  • The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it…
  • To die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work.

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

 

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

 

A 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 by 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 understand their Earth home more clearly.

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 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 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 BooksSeptember 2020

 

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 with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

This Post introduces my fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

 

 

 

 

 

Mid-July Afternoon, Evening, Sunset, and Sunrise from the Lodge at Lake Guntersville State Park!

/in /by

Thirty days following triple bypass surgery, I ventured forth to my first professional meeting since the grand opening (of my chest cavity!). Judy drove us to Lake Guntersville State Park, a little more than an hour from my Madison home. The Alabama State Park Foundation Board gathered on July 19 for an evening social and dinner at the Park Lodge. The next morning we departed after breakfast for our July 20, Foundation Board meeting in the conference room within the actual entrance to Cathedral Caverns State Park, a naturally air-conditioned venue!

Because I was not yet trail-ready, I present with this Post a series of photographs from our Lodge balcony in the afternoon and at sunset on July 19, and from a morning Lodge-vicinity stroll and balcony dawn/sunrise on July 20, 2023. Sky appreciation seldom requires a deep-forest hike. In fact, our full-canopy summer forests are not conducive at all to cloud and sky observation or photography.

Late Afternoon

We checked in to our Lodge accommodation mid-afternoon on July 19. By 5:00 PM the balcony offered a late afternoon view of high clouds, a sweeping Lake Guntersville vista, and the accordant summits of the Cumberland Plateau geography, all draped in second-growth hardwood forests. The viewscape below transects from WSW (left) to ENE (right).

Lake GSP

 

The LGSP campground sits dead-center of that continuum, directly below (350 vertical feet) the Lodge and our balcony.Lake GSP

 

As I increasingly remember to do, I recorded this early evening 30-second video, multiplying the power of the still photographs.

 

Sunset

We enjoyed our Lodge social and dinner. I excused myself from our good company at sunset, drawn to the broad Lodge concrete overlook at 7:55 PM. What can I add to the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration with my feeble words?! This view amplifies the power of one of my two taglines: Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing! I remain on a number of recovery prescription medications. However, no capsule or tablet can match the recovery benefits of such an evening perspective. I watched with fascination and deep appreciation for both my repaired heart, courtesy of modern medicine, reliably coursing blood through my body, and enabling me to relish Nature’s gift of yet another priceless evening.

Lake GSP

 

Once more, as I did earlier from our balcony, I captured still images to the WSW and ENE at 7:56 and 7:59 PM, respectively.

Lake GSP

 

The sky and its lake surface reflection, without paying heed to cardinal direction, served as my primary attraction at 8:02 PM!

Lake GSP

 

 

Again, I captured the moment with this 42-second video at 8:03 PM!

 

If quizzed, how would I respond to the question, “Which do you prefer? Sunrise or sunset?” My answer depends on whether at the moment I am welcoming a new day…or bidding adieu to one just ending. Similar to a query asking which of the many places we have lived did we like best. Our answer, in full and honest disclosure, is where we happened to be living at that time. We’ve bloomed wherever we were planted. The same holds true for morning’s dawn and evening’s gloaming. I’ll accept whatever joyous day-transition is presented, embracing the moment!

Dawn

 

Dawn came soon enough, this photo from a roadside observation overlook just a quarter-mile from the Lodge at 5:41 AM, well before sunrise. The campground lies immediately below.

Lake GSP

 

Just five minutes later, a doe and her yearling greeted us across the road adjacent to the golf course parking lot.

Lake GSP

 

True to my commitment, I recorded this 22-second video at 5:47 AM.

 

The golf course, a far-from-wild element of the Park landscape, offered a big dawn sky backdropping a lone loblolly pine and a grove of Virginia pine at 5:50 and 5:53 AM, respectively. Pinked-topped dawn cumulus would not have been visible were it not for the golf course.

Lake GSPLake GSP

 

 

 

 

 

With age, I am no longer a wildland purist. Give me an occasional State Park golf course with its open skies, edge habitat, meadow rough, and even its manicured greens. Sure, I remain a woodland enthusiast, yet I embrace a varied landscape.

 

Sunrise

 

The rising sun, even before it breaks the horizon, brightens the overhead sky, flooding our Lodge balcony firmament with intensifying blue at 6:17 AM, looking once more to the WSW.

Lake GSP

 

As with yesterday’s afternoon and sunset photographs, here’s the 6:17 AM view center-transit to the campground (below left) and to the ENE (below right).

Lake GSP

 

I recorded this 30-second video from our Lodge room balcony at 6:22 AM.

 

Slowly, inexorably, dawn shifts to sunrise from 6:18 to 6:33 AM. At the risk of repeating the obvious, Nature enriches those of us willing to avail ourselves of her everyday gifts, with abundant beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration…with unlimited Nature-Inspired Life and Living; and Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!

Lake GSP

 

I shall always remember my post-surgery return to an Alabama State Park, rich with aging and healing relevance!

 

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although 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, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.
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:

  • Nature enriches those of us willing to avail ourselves of her everyday gifts, with abundant beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration.
  • With age, I am no longer a wildland purist. Sure, I remain a woodland enthusiast, yet I embrace a varied landscape.
  • Neither sunrise nor sunset is superior — each is a work of creative spiritual genius! 

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: “©2023 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 BooksLake GSP

 

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 now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

 

 

Old CCC Camp Tranquility at Oak Mountain State Park

/in /by

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I visited Oak Mountain State Park on June 8, 2023. I focus this Post on our exploration of Camp Tranquility, constructed by Civilian Conservation Corps artisans to house the work crews assigned to build infrastructure at the Park.

The 1930s photograph below left depicts a youthful group at the entrance sign. The sign indicates Oak Mountain State Park even as it references the National Park Service and the US Department of the Interior. The crew below right is clearing and grading Peavine Road in the 1930s. Note the cutover forest, which in time developed into the typical second-growth forest that covers most of the Park’s 11,600 acres.

OAK MSP

 

Camp Tranquility housed the CCC crews through the 30s. Once WWII absorbed the Corps workers, the Camp eventually transitioned to the Boy Scouts of America after the War.

Although this was my first visit to the site, I had previously spent nights at the Park’s Tranquility Lake cabins. The lake lies just 100 vertical feet below the Camp summit, on the hill at left in the image below right.

Oak MSPOak MSP

 

The CCC’s stonework is notoriously permanent, in this case appearing unweathered 90 years after being laid around the flag pole. This cabin stands at the hilltop peak, clearly the main building for the Boy Scout camp. I wonder what morning reveries sounded to greet the new day during CCC days…and subsequent to them.

Oak MSP

 

I recorded this 39-second video to capture the timeless hominess of the camp.

 

What incredible workmanship these stone masons exhibited! I puzzled with how many coats of forest green paint preserve the cabins. How many young scouts wandered home from camp with green paint accenting their camp uniforms? How many rich memories persisted into adulthood?

Oak MSP

 

Did those scouts appreciate that an entire generation of CCC stalwarts learned their life trades building the Camp and the park, then ventured into WWWII saving the world from absolute evil? Late at night atop Tranquility Camp Hill, do the echoes of thousands of hard working young men and adventuresome scouts brighten the darkness? Are memories alive in these woods?

Oak MSP

Oak MSP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe I felt their presence. We strolled through the Camp, musing about the past. Only the buildings reflect the 90-year-old Camp. The forest, while some trees date back to those long-ago days, does not resemble the forest surrounding the Camp in the 1930s. Individual trees and the forest they reside within change over the years and decades.

 

The photo below depicts a cluster of scouts reviewing a scouting Handbook. The photo is faded, yet I can only speculate when the shutter exposed the image. The haircuts and manner of dress place the image around the time of my youth, but I am far less than certain. Lets say 1960. Note the tree to the right and the stem in front.

Oak MSP

 

Here is the same cabin the day we visited. The tree in front is gone. The one to the right is now 18 inches in diameter. The forest around the cabin is much matured, a deep forest. Oh, to have CCC-era photos of Camp Tranquility! I am now ever-more committed to sleuthing the interconnected human and natural history of our state parks and the Civilian Conservation Corps. I want park naturalists and interpreters armed with historic facts and photographs charting the pace of forest development since the 1930. Then I wish to see each park establish permanent photo points now to systematically monitor development at those points from this day forward.

Oak MSP

 

These two images provide a human interest snapshot in mid-summer 2023, including an Eagle Scout footnote from 2012. What will remain in 2033? In 2043? What of the tree that I’m leaning on above? Let’s find a way to memorialize some of the stories that are yet to be told.

Oak MSPOak MSP

 

Oak Mountain State Park contains a rich on-the-ground library of tales and remains from the 1930s CCC era. Let’s capture that history with current photos, descriptions, GPS coordinates of features like this old CCC-constructed culvert.

Oak MSP

 

Just seven days after my Oak Mountain SP visit I failed my stress test, leading to my June 19, 2023 triple bypass surgery. I am writing these reflection August 24, a little more than nine weeks after surgery. I feel confident that I will regain strength, endurance, energy, and general wherewithal to continue pursuit of this mission. However, none of us can guarantee even a single tomorrow.

 

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition of my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.
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 to provide 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, from a single Louis Bromfield quote (Pleasant Valley):

  • The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished…
  • The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here.
  • The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it,
  • to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better it better by wisdom, knowledge, and hard work… 

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

 

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

 

A 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 by 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 understand their Earth home more clearly.

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 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 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 with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

 

 

 

 

Four Natural Tree Sculptures at Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary

/in /by

May 26, 2023, I lectured at the Residences at WellPoint Community in Hampton Cove, Alabama. I wandered the nearby Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary after lunch for 2.5 hours. I present four special trees…three of which I had not previously photographed. Each is unique, standing as Nature-created sculptures worthy of award and acclaim.

I observe often that I most appreciate photographs that remind me of paintings, and the reverse…paintings that look like photographs. The four trees I present stand as superb creations of Nature…not because the photographs excel, but because the subjects are so extraordinarily photo-worthy. I include 4-6 still photos and a roughly 90-second video of each.

Dead Elm Sculpture

 

This first individual is a long-dead elm stem, spotlighted by the morning sun. I saw it from a distance, beckoning me as a beacon would signal a seafarer. She called to me with her warm light. I wandered closer, immediately deciding to capture first a series of stills, then follow by circuiting the trunk with with my video camera.

I see little need for reflections and observations beyond these stills and the respective video — enjoy while you marvel at the incredible creative power of life, death, and time. Know that the images capture merely a point in time, which marches on one hour/one day/one week/on and on. The creative work will reduce these particular sculptures to rubble and dust…new marvels will emerge over and over again, whether a future retired forester will ever see them. Nature cares little about who appreciates her handiwork. She does little for the cause of appearance.

 

Leonardo da Vinci saw Nature through eyes practiced in art and science. He observed flawlessly the essence of Nature’s ways:

While human ingenuity may devise various inventions to the same ends, it will never devise anything more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than nature does, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.

Nature’s artwork is a byproduct of her endless cycle of life, death, decomposition, and renewal. My own appreciation for Nature’s creative magic stems from lucidly understanding her fundamental purpose.

1:30 elm video:

 

The snag will soon lie flat, yielding to the inevitable bugs, larvae, fungi, and physical agents. We’ll have caught it at its temporal artistic peak (and peek).

 

Dead Eastern Red Cedar Sculpture

 

A tortured dead eastern red cedar beckoned next as I wandered north through the riparian forest…a forest formerly farmed, abandoned, and naturally regenerated 70-90 years ago. Red cedar accounted for the early forest invasion troops, its berry-like seeds disseminated by marauding jays and other avian seed-eaters foraging in the brambles within the abandoned farmland transitioning from meadow to forest. Dead cedar, a short-lived pioneer species, stand throughout the now maturing forest.

 

A cedar trunk sculpture worthy of a prominent feature position within a Nature museum.

1:45 cedar video:

 

Objects in art museums often beg the question, “What did the artist have in mind?” The answer in this case is simple. Grow the best functioning cedar possible; enable it to reproduce at least one next generation; allow it to decompose to fuel the next cycle of life.

 

Living Hickory Sculpture

 

A contorted still-living hickory emerged along my woodland rambling as sculpture number three. The tree suffered a severe blow decades earlier when it was a sapling or pole-sized stem in the developing forest. Another tree top or large branch crushed it at about the height of my trekking pole. Its multiple stems sprouted, securing its place in the intermediate canopy. This ugly duckling will never reach into the upper canopy. It won’t produce bushels of hickory nuts. Perhaps it will throw off a few viable nuts and through some stroke of good fortune aided by a wayward squirrel or Jay, find itself cached where it may germinate and succeed forward.

 

The tree is a jumble of stems, burls, and decay. A horizontal hollow stem is particularly artsy!

I recorded this 1:41 hickory video, providing a 360-degree perspective on this odd treasure.

 

Its magic requires sparse narrative.

 

This tree expresses a distinct personality…a tortured aspect reminiscent of ogres and gargoyles. Imagine being helplessly lost in this near-swamp part of the forest at evening’s glaoming, coming face to face with the branch-head below right!

 

Living Sweetgum Sculpture

 

My fourth specimen is a large living sweetgum tree adjacent to the Sanctuary’s main tupelo swamp. Beavers are the chief instrument creating this piece. Decades ago, beavers chewed the base of the sweetgum attempting to fell it for access to canopy stems, twigs, and buds. The tree prevailed, but not without permanent scarring and deep heart decay.

 

1:35 sweetgum video

 

Eventually the decay will lead to structural weakness combined with wind and the relentless forces of gravity that will bring the sweetgum to the ground.

 

The snaggle tooth, gaping mouth in this image may somehow echo the long ago chewing action of the rodent’s chisel-like incisors!

 

Nature exploration is fun, especially when science intersects with art.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Human ingenuity will never devise anything more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than nature does. (da Vinci) 
  • Forest images capture merely a point in time, which marches on one hour/one day/one week/on and on.
  • Nature’s artwork is a byproduct of her endless cycle of life, death, decomposition, and renewal.

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: “©2023 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.

 

My fourth book, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story, is fresh from the printer. Its 58 pages, with my observations, reflections, many of my own photographs, tell the remarkable Earth stewardship tale of a dedicated family resurrecting abandoned strip-mined land to premium beef production and luxury off-grid lodging!

Brief-Form Post #19: Aerial Tour of Joe Wheeler State Park!

/in /by

I am pleased to offer the 19th of my new GBH Brief Form Posts to my website (Less than three minutes to read!). 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 these brief Posts regularly.

 

Brief-Form Post on my August 20, 2023, Aerial Overflight of Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park!

 

On August 20, 2023, a friend took me aloft in his Cessna 182. We departed Pryor Regional Air Field, Decatur, Alabama at 7:00 AM under cloud-free but hazy skies, the threat/promise (depending upon perspective) of expanding heat index…arriving long after our return to the airfield. Our flight plan encompassed exploring the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and cruising the Tennessee River from Guntersville Dam downstream to Wheeler Dam (and Joe Wheeler State Park). I focus this Brief-Form Post on our aerial exploration of Joe Wheeler State Park.

I’ve enjoyed many on-the-ground hours at the Park, publishing 24 prior Posts focused on this State Park. Go to the Blog page of my website (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/), enter Joe Wheeler State Park in the search window, and read/explore the 24 Posts at your leisure.

I snapped this photo at 8:17 AM over the south end of Wheeler Dam looking to the northside lock, and the forested Park shoreline stretching northeast from the dam. Out of sight, a portion of the Park (southside cabins and the Multiple Use Trail) lies directly beneath me. Wilson Lake lies below the Wheeler dam, to the left of the dam and bridge.

 

From this aerial vantage point a couple of miles east of the bridge crossing the dam, the Tennessee River (and Wheeler Lake) stretches eastward. First Creek empties into the Lake from the left. Nearly all of the forest surrounding the First Creek embayment is central to Joe Wheeler State Park. I have spent hours exploring trails and woodland within the field of vision from 2,000 feet altitude. I marvel that such an aerially-compressed view can account for at least half of the Joe Wheeler State Park Posts I have authored.

Joe WSP

 

I recorded this 0:39 video at 8:19 AM, capturing the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of a very special place on the eastern edge of the First Creek embayment at Joe Wheeler State Park.

 

The view to the left includes the Lodge, part of the marina, a section of the golf course, the wastewater treatment facility, and the Day Use  picnic, beach, and recreation area along the inlet east of the Lodge (closeup below right).

 

Before departing the Park, we banked over that adjoining inlet, capturing a view of the Day Use area and campground.

Joe WSP

 

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Sometimes, Today, I borrow a distinct reflection from John Muir, one of the truly great minds of conservation and environmental antiquity:

  • When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

 

NOTE: I place 3-5 short videos (15 seconds to three minutes) on my Steve Jones Great Blue Heron YouTube channel weekly. All relate to Nature-Inspired Life and Living. I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE! It’s FREE. Having more subscribers helps me spread my message of Informed and Responsible Earth Stewardship…locally and globally!

 

 

Triple Bypass Surgery Recovery at Tennessee’s Lake Norris: Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!

/in /by

July 7-14, 2023, I luxuriated (and began deep recovery from major surgery) in the blessed balms of healing Nature and nurturing family on Tennessee’s Lake Norris (TVA impoundment on the Clinch River). I gratefully opened all five personal portals to the powerful elixir: body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit!

Shedding the Shrouds of a Major Setback

 

Readers and followers by now know my tiresome tale of an early June 2023 failed stress test, June 15 shocking catheterization result (I’m a former competitive distance and marathon runner, damn it!), and June 19 triple bypass surgery. My surgeon released me from the hospital on June 26. Eleven days later (July 7) Judy and I departed for a long-planned, family-gathering vacation week at a rental house. The surgeon reluctantly granted passage…with a list of caveats, in accord with I maintained fidelity. Our kids, grandkids, and a total of 19 family members awaited the arrival of the recent patient.

Judy drove. I sat on the back seat with my right leg (from which surgeons had harvested a primary vein for the bypass) elevated, stopping every hour for me to stretch and walk. I wondered whether I would be reduced to a blubbering old fool upon arrival and reunion. I’ve learned that major surgery (in some ways a reminder of mortality) is as much an emotional ordeal as it is physical. My maudlin frailty did not erupt, yet stayed close at hand, likely evident to loved ones.

The week worked wonders. I’ve been promoting the theme of Nature-Inspired Life and Living since I began publishing these photo-essays. When I suffered a minor stroke (another major blow to the old athlete!) in April 2022, I added a second theme: Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing! The Lake Norris week gave me a full dose that I will cherish forever. I won’t weaken your resolve to read more of these Posts by identifying all family members, regaling you with their exploits, or droning on about the swelling in my right leg, the agony of sneezing, the difficulty of sleeping, and my reduced appreciation for food, etc.

Instead, consider this Post a portfolio of the week’s moments in Nature that lifted my soul, stirred my heart, and spurred me to appreciate life, living, today, tomorrow, and the people, places, and things that matter.

 

Arrival Nature Infusion

 

Here’s our arm of the Lake when we arrived at 5:56 PM July 7. My heart leapt.

 

Without narration, I recorded this 30-second video shortly after snapping the still photo above.

 

A Thundershower Boost

 

The next afternoon at 4:58 PM, I recorded this 28-second video of a thundershower. I am a lifelong weather enthusiast, unable to resist the thrill of fat raindrops and a rumble of thunder.

 

Daybreak Immersion and Lift

 

I can’t recall the last time I missed dawn. Nature offers a gift every time the sun lifts above the horizon. July 9 at 7:00 AM a few wisps of ridge-riding fog draped the nearby shallow ridges. Alto-cumulus graced the firmament above our inlet.

 

The sun lifted from behind the low ridge to our east at 7:43 and 7:46 AM July 9. How could anyone be disappointed with days that began with such beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration!?

 

I frequently cite the timeless wisdom of John Muir, who often encapsulated my own sentiments in words far grander than I could ever achieve:

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.

Mid-morning the same day I photographed the striking blue flowers of chicory and the delicate foliage of mimosa.

 

Virginia pines stood as foreground to the ridge-view across the inlet at 9:21 AM. Clouds still clung to the Cumberland Mountains (right at ~2,500 feet) at 9:26 AM.

 

Venturing Onto the Lake

 

Still July 9, I ventured onto the lake in our pontoon boat. The clouds had thickened (non-threatening) by 9:54 AM. I love water, trees, and clouds…and a boat filled with loving family!

 

I recorded this 31-second video to add depth and substance to my still photos.

 

The days raced along. A green heron visited near the dock on July 11 at 10.25 AM. Although the great blue heron is my signature avian avatar, I love this second cousin. How kind of it to stop by, perch for several minutes, and then depart. Although I did not photograph any great blues, we saw a dozen or more during our week.

 

July 11, I ventured back onto the Lake, capturing these images at 11:06 and 11:13 AM. Dead-fall along shoreline on the left adds character and texture to the scene. My forester’s eye stays riveted both on the immediate shore, then lifts to the ridges near at hand and the mountains at distance. I find fascination with the manner in which tree roots anchor to the layered rocks at right.

 

Sunset Cruise

 

My early morning ramblings did not dissuade me from a sunset cruise July 11. On the west side of the Eastern time zone, at 8:12 and 8:29 PM, the evening sky remains bright just three weeks after the solstice. Shadows are lengthening and deepening by the latter window, in both of these views to the east.

 

Here are the same two times (8:12 and 8:29 PM) looking to the west, the sun dipping to the tree line on the right.

 

This 18-second sunset video sweep captures the sunset magic more effectively.

 

I mused often that just three weeks prior I lay deep within what a Mended Heart volunteer at the hospital described as a dark tunnel. A day or two out of the ICU, with chest drains still connected and the entire ordeal shrouded in mental fog, I wondered whether I would ever emerge. My visitor said, “You will see daylight beyond the darkness. Bright skies; warm breezes; birdsong; hope and promise. This current pit of mental anguish is temporary. Hold on; have faith; be strong; dedicate yourself to recovery.” The Lake at sunset proved him right. The coming night porteneded a far different nature of darkness than what the immediate surgery aftermath imposed.

I sensed a type of rebirth with the entire ordeal, including the surge of renewal that accompanied my week at the Lake with family. The views east and west at 8:32 and 8:35 PM brought the promise of a night enriched by the warmth of family, a campfire with s’mores, and a new dawn ahead.

 

I hold dearly to my photo-essay mantras: Nature-Inspired Life and Living; Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!

Once again, Muir captured the essence of my healing week:

The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.

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.

The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.

 

I am encouraged by the wisdom, knowledge, and passion of a handful of dedicated nature enthusiasts who are Naturalists with the Alabama State Parks System. Foremost among them is Renee Simmons Raney, Chief of Interpretation and Education. Renee posted the following on her FaceBook site this morning (August 15, 2023) as I drafted this photo-essay, which you have just perused, on my own healing journey:

Emerson said, “Happiness is not in another place — it is in THIS place. Not for another hour, but THIS hour.” We have a tendency to look ahead and we are driven toward tomorrow. I recall lessons on Cheaha mountain as a child at the knee of my Daddy. He taught me in the ways of our ancestors, Cherokee and Hebrew: to sit very still, to listen, to look, to smell and to be very ware…out of the stillness comes a symphony of life: all around me and within me. This lesson is for everyone in every moment no matter where you are or what is happening. Be still. Be ware. Find your peace. Discover your joy. Ease into your healing. It doesn’t depend on someone else. It is right there-a little spark inside of you. Cherish it. Nurture it. Breathe in and feel it grow. Be still and know that I AM. (Psalm 46:10)

My Great Blue Heron website extolls what I term the four levels of fitness:

  • Four levels of fitness – I urge readers to recognize the critical nature of their own four-dimensional fitness, even as they understand that capacity, performance, fulfillment, and enjoyment correlate with health and well-being. That maintaining fitness across all four fronts enhances a person’s ability to perform and draw satisfaction and fulfillment:
    1. Mental – acuity and sharpness
    2. Physical – health and vitality
    3. Emotional – friends, family, colleagues
    4. Spiritual – embrace of a presence larger than self

The four levels are critical, I’ve learned, to both maintaining the status quo…and to recovering from significant setbacks. Renee’s text amplifies the fourth level: Be still and know that I AM!

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Thanks to family and Nature, I’ve emerged from the post-surgery darkness of a foreboding tunnel.
  • The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls! (John Muir)
  • Nature’s “grand show is eternal.” (John Muir)
  • Be still and know that I AM! (Psalm 46:10)

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: “©2023 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.

I now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.