I am pleased to add the 48th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.
Happy Halloween!
I wander (and wonder) in North Alabama’s forests during daylight hours. Even in full sunlight, I encounter spooky sights, sounds, and situations. Were I marauding the sylvan haunts in darkness, I might be more unsettled, deranged, and addled than I already am! Take a stroll with me among some of the weird forest demons, ogres, wraiths, and ghouls I’ve photographed since retiring to North Alabama.
I see an oaken dragon’s head — an eye, its ear, a smiling mouth, and a nostril. A friendly daytime image…but what visage materializes when we transition into deep dusk?
In the age of Harry Potter, a Whomping Chestnut Oak!
From my term as NC State University Vice Chancellor (2001-04), I see a red oak Wolfpack mascot!
A hickory-carved African tribal mask, its stern glance, forebodingly rigid brow, and flared nostril. Nothing amiable in that countenance!
A not-so-happy white oak’s wide mouth. How dare I trespass through his glen!
Reflecting the dark mood of the forest, one of Gary Larson’s best!
Trees can be unabashedly hostile, demonstrating their evil intent by devouring the human insult of posting metal signs. Beware!
A ram’s head awaits the unwary passer-by. Don’t bend over to tie that loose boot-lace!
This angry cycloptic black locust, glaring across the 200-year-old Mooresville Cemetery, sent a chill down my spine midday! There is no tolerance in that singular occular portal…malice prevails! My soul trembled.
I shivered standing within reach of the threatening smoke tree along the Green Mountain Halloween Forest Trail!
Fine literature expresses magic in words far more effectively than my photos and feeble narrative. Consider Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
There is nothing like the silence and loneliness of night to bring dark shadows over the brightest mind.
Startled by this bigfoot oak tree at Lake Guntersville State Park in 2018, I returned for a fresh photo on October 23, 2025, but could not find it. Where did it go? When might it reappear? Have any park guests been reported missing?
Grandson Sam and I risked life and limb under this creepy crawling oak carcass on Monte Sano State Park.
Most of these apparitions appeared when I’ve been alone. Would they have ventured forth were I sauntering with others? Perhaps being alone signals a confidence and power of which I was not aware. To be honest, I see far more when I wander alone. So much is hidden in plain sight. Companions can be a distraction…or at other times a visual catalyst. I embrace the wisdom in this poster. As a lifelong certifiable introvert, I accept the power and comfort of being alone!
I know that I am never truly alone in Nature. A mature white oak offered a branch stub stegosaurus head to greet me as I drifted past!
Among the strangest sights I’ve encountered are the bearded tupelo men in the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary tupelo swamp.
Wherever my life and living have taken me, I’ve cherished the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of woodland Nature. I find myself again and again.
Contrary to the dark Halloween theme, I prefer the mood and tone of Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
Closing
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.
I cannot offer a quote more poignantly apropos than Washington Irving’s from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveler.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_6602.jpg-03.08.25-Mooresville-Cemetary.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-10-31 07:47:502025-10-31 07:47:50Brief-Form #48 : Demons, Ogres, Wraiths, Ghouls, and Other Halloween Forest Spectres!
I am pleased to add the 46th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.
I frequent forest wildness wherever my excursions take me, searching for the beauty, magic, mystery, wonder, and awe that lie hidden in plain sight. This Post derives from years of experience, study, and contemplation, inspired by some recent discoveries (August 15 and October 14, 2025). My focus is on two examples of specialized tree roots.
Adventitious Water Roots
I published a GBH Post on September 17, 2025, chronicling a mid-August visit to Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary (the Sanctuary), reporting:
We found a puzzling phenomenon, 100-feet from the shore and out of our reach, on the upstream section of Jobala Pond. Two clearly living red maple trees (Acer rubrum), standing in water, called out to us with a pinkish circumferential ring 2-4″ immediately above the water line. I magnified the image up to the limits of resolution clarity, showing the fibrous nature of the feature. I shared via social media, generating speculation. Chris and I agree with several persons who suggested that the trees, attempting to survive the saturated soil environment, sprouted air roots above the water for supplemental aeration.
Niether of us, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I, had previously seen such a curiosity. I scoured the literature and found no succinct explanation. Note: Scoured the literature may be a little overstated! I looked, but it wasn’t like I was preparing my doctoral Literature Review. Shall I say, nothing relevant jumped out at me.
Then, lo and behold, just two months later while solo-exploring the dry-season water tupelo swamp on the Sanctuary, a Eureka moment surged from among the mosquito-infested early autumn dampness!
This three-foot diameter (dbh: diameter breast height) water tupelo, standing in persistent water in the dry-season swamp, evidenced that the winter water level reaches more than two feet higher. Although this stem stands out of my reach in my upland hiking boots, other nearby tupelos stood on dry season upland. And what a surprise to see a band of fibrous air roots ringing the high water marks.
Perseverance does indeed reward the patient and persistent Nature enthusiast. I did not visit the swamp intent on discovering the phenomenon; I went only to seek what delights might be hidden in plain sight! Even the literature opened slightly to my focused stealth…inquiring specifically of water tupelo air roots. I found:
LENTICEL AND WATER ROOT DEVELOPMENT OF SWAMP
TUPELO UNDER VARIOUS FLOODING CONDITIONS
DONALD. HOOK, CLAUD L. BROWN, AND PAUL P. KORMANIK
Forest Service, USDA, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, Athens, Georgia 30601; School of Forest Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30601; Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, Athens, Georgia 30601
Plant physiology is a is not a subject for the faint of heart, or well-suited to an old retired forest generalist. Suffice it for me to conclude:
Experts confirmed the existence of such a phenomenon.
The authors observed, Water roots developed primarily under continuous flooding in moving water, some apparently originating beneath the phellogen of a lenticel and others within the phellogen or its derivatives.
Chris and I correctly explained the curiosity we observed two months prior on the red maple trees standing in water at the edge of Jobala Pond.
I discovered another facet of delight. Dr. Paul Kormanik, the third listed author, was an acquaintance during my forest industry research period (1975-79), a half-century ago.
Leonardo da Vinci relied on observation and experience to inform reason. He would have applauded Chris and me:
Wisdom is the daughter of experience.
Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.
I recorded this 59-second video of what I termed incredible adventitious air root beards.
I loved the incredible adventitious root beards! Shall we call these trees the old men of the Tupelo Swamp? I plan to revisit when winter rains fill the sloughs.
Another Variety of Air Roots
Muscadine grape vines drape the bottomland forest at GSWS. I photographed these curtains of air roots south of the tupelo swamp. I’ve encountered the phenomenon in other wetland hardwood forests across northern Alabama. I presumed their purpose was to reach the ground (as these do), take root vegetatively, and provide propagation of their genotype. Now I am less than certain.
Once again, my uncertainty spurred additional literature scouring, if you will. A Mississippi State University Cooperative Extension on-line bulletin amplified my uncertainty:
Aerial root formation in Vitis has been documented on different grape species; however, the driving forces behind the formation of adventitious roots are not well understood.
So, where does that lead me? I have yet to document a case of the air roots sprouting regenerates when contacting the forest soil. I can suggest alternatively that thess drapes capture moist air condensation (swamp fog) to supplement aeration when soils are saturated. I pledge to continue observations and exploration, in the spirit of Albert Einstein:
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
One cannot help but be in awe when [one] contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
In my realm of forest Nature exploration, I conclude: The more I learn, the less I know!
Closing
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.
I cannot offer a quote more poignantly apropos than Albert Einstein’s:
One cannot help but be in awe when [one] contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
I add my own bullet of Nature wisdom:
The more I learn, the less I know! (Steve Jones)
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_9412.jpg-GSWS-East-Side-10.14.25-Water-Tupelo-Aertion-Roots.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-10-27 08:52:162025-10-27 08:52:16Brief-Form Post #47: Strange Bearded Tupelo Trees -- Air Root Mysteries and Curiosities!
On November 23, 2024, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I co-led an OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Alabama in Huntsville) hike at Hickory Cove Nature Preserve near Huntsville. Owned and managed by the Land Trust of North Alabama, the preserve encompasses 146 acres of second-growth hardwood forest, rocky ledges, wet weather springs and falls, and a historic spring house. I previously visited the preserve in late July 2024 (just before my total right knee replacement surgery) accompanied by my two Alabama grandsons (see my September 10, 2024, Great Blue Heron photo essay: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/09/10/trees-of-the-hickory-cove-nature-preserves-legacy-loop-trail/).
Because Chris and I designated this trek as a Hike, our pace did not accommodate the sauntering that John Muir insisted upon and that my photography, videoing, and observations required. As a result, I caught up with the group only occasionally when they paused and at the end! Once in a while, someone would lag with me. I valued their presence but am accustomed to and comfortable with solitary treks. The group hiked (I sauntered) the 1.75-mile Legacy Trail, a delightful forest exploration from 860 feet elevation to 1,010 and return. Come along with me as I offer observations, reflections, 19 photos, and four brief videos.
The deck overlooks an old stone spring house. Justust 100 feet dowstream a stone water trough engineered after decades to still collect and hold water to the brim. Autumn does not barge into north Alabama. Even within a week of December, the crowns are not yet bare. The spring houuse tells part of the land domestication tale. Somewhere nearby, the wooden residence and farm structures served by the spring house lay in ruins (ashes?). Perhaps closer inspection would reveal a long-abandoned and decaying still.
A sauntering pace permitted me to seek and spend a little time with tree form curiosities and oddities. This white oak spoke to me, “Slow down old forester. Pay attention. Ponder why I am so large, aged, and of coarse limb.” I heeded his request (was it a demand?). Evidence and hints within the forest suggested former attempted domestication, including roughland tillage and pasturing. The white oak is considerably older than the forest we traversed. It enjoyed many years open grown, its coarse branch stubs indicating that it did not mature within a tightly packed closed forest. Was it a shade tree at the old homestead or within a hillside pasture? On my next visit I will search for clues.
Woody vines, like this supplejack, are a component of the overstory canopy in most of our north Alabama second-growth forests. Birds drop gut-scarified seed among the brush of a new forest, and ride on the growing stems as the eventual tree winners ascended 60, 80, and 100 (or more) feet above. Most commonly I find wild grape (muscadine and scuppernong); supplejack and wisteria also find their way into the canopy by the same route. English ivy (not native) and Virginia creeper may also be present but seldomly reach beyond mid-canopy.
I like the smooth green bark of supplejack. An online source offers high praise for this native woody vine:
Supplejack is a plant that provides food for wildlife. Its fruits are high in calcium and are eaten by songbirds, wild turkey, northern bobwhite, raccoon, and gray squirrels. The plant supports local ecosystems without disrupting them.
I recorded this 52-second supplejack video:
Once in a while the sauntering old forester caught up with the hikers just in time for them, well rested, to resume their faster pace. Some stretches of the preserve’s forest were better stocked, supporting taller mixed upland hardwoods (at right) still holding fall foliage.
I recorded this 44-second video of the group resuming its quicker pace, leaving me once again to my business of gathering fodder for a photo essay.
Fallen, standing dead, and failing live Eastern red cedar throughout the preserve evidenced past land use. Cedar is a north Alabama pioneer species, one of the first woody plants to colonize abandoned fields and pastures, as well as cutover forestland. You’ve heard the familiar refrain — birds deposit the scarified seeds in emerging brush. The seed sprouts, the seedlings thrive in the sun-rich environment, cedar dominates the stand’s first three to four decades, and then cedar begins to fade as the surrounding longer-lived hardwoods persist.
I recorded this 41-second video of the scrubby forest and a handsome ash tree, as a woodpecker tapped nearby:
I like the uniformly deeply furrowed pattern of green and white ash bark. Everything about the two species is regimented: the exceptional bark, the straight bole, and the species’ regal bearing and vertical posture. Ash trees remind me of the polished cadet corps at a military academy. In stark contrast, the shagbark trees are akin to a gathering of beach bums, their hair unkempt and their clothes and posture of little self-concern. The ash generates a glance of admiration and respect. The shagbark pulls me close for deep contemplation, whimsical imagination, and curiosity about the relative evolutionary advantages of the two forms.
The questions and musings aren’t suited to the hiker; the burden of discovery and investigation falls to the saunterer.
The group paused on the other side of a wooden bridge crossing a wet weather spring. Once again well rested, the group accepted my arrival as a trigger to resume their hiking.
Nearby, I recorded this 54-second video of two relicts (white oak and shagbark hickory) from a previous stand:
As with the white oak near the traihead, both of these indviduals bear coarse branching, large size, and a high crown ratio.
I discovered another tree form curiosity. A mockernut hickory stands within the grasp of a ground-forked sugar maple.
Will they prevail as a threesome? How intense is their competition for crown space (i.e. sunshine), soil moisture and nutrients, and even space for trunk expansion?
Although I have read some fanciful scientific recitations expounding on the wonderful and commonplace reciprocity, comensualism, and cooperation of Nature’s lifeforms, I resist such utopian scenarios. The sugar maple and hickory embrace above is not one of love and endearment. It’s one of coping with the unusual circumstance of both seeds germinating within a few inches and the two plants (the sugar maple I believe is a single forked tree) securing enough of life’s requirements to survuve for six to eight decades. They are engaged in fierce competition for those finite life resources. However, all three stems appear healthy; they are producing seed; their immediate future appears bright. I see no competitive advantage to such close proximity. I don’t anticipate out-living their proximal relationship. I can pledge only to spend more time with them on my next visit. Perhaps they will enlighten me in their own way.
I seldom compose my reflections and observations from these woodland rambles without generating more questions than answers. Rather than closing these pages with words of deep wisdom, I leave you with an image of pleasant woodland surroundings fitting for a late November midday…an invitation to return seeking insight and understanding from the forest. Every tree, every stand, and every forest have stories to tell. I’m still learning the language.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Questions and musings aren’t suited to the hiker; the burden of discovery and investigation falls to the saunterer.
Every tree, every stand, and every forest have stories to tell. I’m still learning the language.
Ash trees remind me of the polished cadet corps at a military academy. In stark contrast, the shagbark trees are akin to a gathering of beach bums, their hair unkempt and their clothes and posture of little self-concern.
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.
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 Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four 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 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
Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I hiked the Jones Branch Trail on December 9, 2024, at the Shoal Creek Nature Preserve near Florence, Alabama. The preserve’s website:
The Shoal Creek Nature 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.
The preserve encompasses less than one-half square mile, yet we sauntered roughly three miles through what seemed like a far more extensive property, experiencing diverse terrain, varied cover, several small streams, and one stretch overlooking the Shoal Creek arm of Lake Wilson (Tennessee River). I attempt with this Great Blue Heron photo essay to introduce you to the preserve, sharing its story as I read it in the forest, the land, and human artifacts. Come along on this interpretive journey.
I first visited the preserve in August 2023, just eight weeks after my triple bypass. I ventured just a few hundred feet into the property, my photo essay reporting only on the abandoned fields: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2023/11/01/mid-august-2023-first-time-visit-to-forever-wild-shoal-creek-nature-preserve/
I focus this current essay on the forest cover, predominately second growth hardwood naturally regenerated on abandoned pasture or rough tilled cropland. The forest tells the history, even as it hints at the future. Both of these images contain beech saplings, clinging to marcescent leaves, this past summer’s foliage that will hold until spring. Understory beech tolerates shade and can persist there for decades until the overstory gives way to disturbance (e.g., ice, wind, disease, or old age), bringing sunlight to the beech, which will respond to emerge as a major overstory component in the next stand.
The trigger for release (whether beech or some other species in the understory or intermediate canopy) may come as a widespread blowdown or the loss of a single tree, like this 30-inch diameter red oak, whose massive crown covered more than a tenth of an acre. The crown opening will trigger a race to fill the void. The competitors? I have observed that the adjoining upper canopy occupants will close the gap faster than any understory or intermediate canopy trees can rush upward to fill the void. Stand replacement will require more than single tree disturbance. Trust me, the beech is in no hurry.
The hollow red oak appeared healthy and strong, but it no longer had the structural strength to withstand the undefeated forces of physics and gravity. The second-growth forest stands of northern Alabama bear the torment of widespread decay infested by old wounds from prior logging or farmstead activities.
I recorded this 45-second video at the crash site!
Nothing in Nature is static. Within two years the tree top will collapse from decay, beginning with twigs and small branches, and by year ten, only a deeply decayed trunk will remain.
We found a species of oak not familiar to either of us: blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica), a shrub to medium-sized tree found in central and eastern USA in fields, woodland edges, and dry ridges. It prefers better drained soils and is often found where other trees will not grow due to poor soils. We vowed to pay closer attention on our next visit to learn more about the species, its abundance and distribution on the preserve, and its site preferences..
Eastern red cedar is an early successional species, colonizing abandoned agricultural land, old fields, and cutover forests. They are relatively short-lived, unable to compete effectively long-term with the hardwood neighbors. We found ubiquitous dead and dying cedar as it drops out of these 60-90 year old second growth hardwood stands. The one below is dead and is among the larger individuals we encountered.
The cedar confirm my supposition that human disturbance and past use drove the direction of forest succession. Cedar wood is decay-resistent. This standing deceased individual may offer critter cover and nesting sites for decades.
As I’ve often observed, death is a big part of life in the forest. This old stump snag caught my attention. Like the toppled red oak, this snag is hollow. The ground beyond is littered with dead and downed woody debris. The carbon cycle is active.
Occasionally in my GBH photo essays I ruminate on tree spiral grain. Not all trees have it. This bark-free dead hardwood (species?) spirals clockwise at about 30 degrees. The spiral and staining create an atractive pattern. I have yet to find definitive answers to the spiral mysteries in the literature. A recent online article (The Gymnosperm Database, 2024), Why Do Trees Form Spiral Grain? edited by Christopher J. Earle adds to my own uncertainty:
Spiral grain is the helical form taken by xylem tissues in their growth along a tree trunk or limb. Spiral grain is often conspicuous in snags that have lost their bark, as shown in the photos on this page, and people love to speculate about it… Personally, I am skeptical… Finally, there doesn’t seem to be much known about how all this happens: what physiological stresses trigger which growth hormones, for instance, or what causes a reversal in the direction of the spiral. On balance, I still have a sense that the field is data-poor, and it’s possible to generate lots of plausible hypotheses.
Unless someone directs me to refereed evidence to the contrary, I will stay with my conclusion that spiral-grained wood is stronger, therefore offering a competitive advantage evolutionarily.
Regardless, spiraled clockwise or counter or straight grained, all trees will succumb, decay, and return to the forest soil. These colorful turkey tail mushrooms are the reproductive, spore-producing orgams of a decomposing fungus whose mycelia are feeding within the log.
Another fungus, this one a pathogen growing on live wood, black knot disease, infects black cherry, a native tree species across the eastern US. The tree seems to tolerate this particularly large knot.
If we had not read in the forest obvious indications of past disturbance and human influences, this long-abandoned ~1960 Ford station wagon would have told the tale. Left decades ago at the edge of a spent agricultural field or pasture, the carcass (pardon the pun) now is located in the forest interior.
We crossed many old farm paths and road beds. I imagine the preserve’s character 70-80 years ago, a failing farm with a few acres still tilled, large marginally productive pasture acreage, visible soil erosion, and extensive abandoned fields naturally regenerating to herbs, shrubs, and early successional tree species.
Water Features
Several streams pass peacefully through the reserve. Fittingly, I’m standing at the sign for Jones Branch Trail. Behind me a massive white oak fell across the trail this past summer.
I recorded this 54-second video at this pleasant location:
We walked along other stretches that rewarded us with gurgling water and a soothing setting.
I recorded this 57-second video of another stream section:
We enjoyed the views of the Shoal Creek arm of Wilson Lake (Tennessee River impounded by Wilson Dam) from the bluff 150-feet above lake level. The view is restricted to dormant season.
My predilection favors woodland exploration during the November through early April period when understory and main canopy foliage is absent, heat and humidity are memories, and nuiscance insects are inactive. I admit, however, that when spring wildflowers are abundant, I will gleefully embrace that season of renewal. And I will enthusiastically relish summer mornings and welcome the coming autumn. I simply love immersion in Nature’s wildness. Life is too short not to flourish in her beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration, whatever the season.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Every forest (or Nature Preserve) tells its tale to those able to read its language. (Steve Jones)
In every true searcher of Nature there is a kind of religious reverence. (Albert Einstein)
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Einstein)
Death is a big part of life in the forest (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
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 Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2024) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four 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 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
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5723.jpg-12.8.24-SCNP-Cedar.webp15441158Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-02-26 09:07:192025-03-02 15:55:57Early December Circuit of Jones Branch Trail at Shoal Creek Nature Preserve
I am pleased to add the 42nd of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit wordy 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.
On November 7, 2024, a fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I trekked the short Maggie’s Glen Trail at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, Alabama located just south of Birmingham. We were already at the park, having been there for two other ventures, so I thought I would introduce Chris to Maggie’s Glen, one of my favorite spots at Oak Mountain. The Glen is a protected streamside cove in deep forest at the base of a north-facing slope.
Several trails diverge from the covered marquis.
Autumn’s thinning crowns brought sunshine to the ground amid the bench-welcoming and resting site, reminding me of William Wordsworth’s observation:
Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher.
A massive ancient beech, greeted me once again to this cherished site that reminds me of where I grew up wandering the central Appalachians hills of western Maryland. Oh, would I love to hear the tales this tortured and convoluted sentinel could tell from it 150-200 years along the creek!
I recorded this 59-second video at the old beech:
I bestow the significant designation of character tree for such grizzled veterans that I’ve encountered over my seven decades of woods-wandering. Age, size, perseverence, distress, hollows, and contortions aggregate to earn the title. Sunlight hitting leaves within the hollow trunk warrant points. The gnarled roots contribute.
A view from within the hollow trunk that finds sky far above scores high, as does the open crotch at right that allows the sky portal 30 feet from the gound.
The beech stands guard at the wooden foot bridge that during our extended late summer and early fall drought carries little surface water. Only a reflective pool evidences the lively stream flowing during wetter seasons when I’ve enjoyed visiting the Glen. I felt as though I was peering into another world, one that embodies the essence of the spectacular Glen to which I am accustomed.
The Glen includes an odd tree-couple growing side by side…a fat loblolly pine growing straight and tall…and a diminutive sourwood with its species-distinctive corkscrew reach into the intermediate canopy.
I imagined how underwheleming a rapid hike through the forest might be if the wonders I discovered in plain sight were unseen. As Henry David Thoreau observed:
I have no time to be in a hurry.
The older I get, the stronger my feelings about not wanting to miss anything. Fourteen months with five surgeries (July 2023-August 2024) reminded me that time…my time…is finite!
Although still early afternoon (2:38 PM), the sun was alreadt setting deep in the Glen, representing the special Nature of one of my favorite places at Oak Mountain State Park.
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. William Wordsworth captured Nature’s magic in simple beautiful verse:
Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher.
Feeling the Glow of an overdue return to Nature!
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IMG_5317-1.jpg-11.07.24-OMSP-Maggies-Glen-2.36-PM-.jpg20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-02-18 08:12:092025-02-18 08:12:09Brief-Form Post #42: A Short Afternoon Trek to Maggie's Glen at Oak Mountain State Park!
On Monday, November 25, 2024, Alabama grandsons Jack (17) and Sam (11) hiked the Devil’s Racetrack Trail with me at the Wade Mountain Nature Preserve near Huntsville, Alabama. The 935-acre preserve includes the 1,453′ elevation Wade Mountain summit. The racetrack loop circles a lesser peak at 1,050′. We covered just under four miles…not bad for an old forester recovering from two total knee replacements in 2024 (left in January; and right in August).
I posted two photo essays from my 2022 visit to Wade Mountain:
Those two posts focused on the Nature of Wade Mountain. I chose a different theme for this one: the magic of sharing Nature with grandkids. I frequently turn to Albert Einstein, the 20th Century’s greatest intellect, for wisdom far beyond theoretical physics:
Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.
Do not grow old, no matter how long you live.
Look deep into Nature and then you will understand everything better.
We arrived mid-morning (8:30) at the trailhead. Three months after total right knee replacement surgery I felt confident in my strength, stability, and endurance to cover the distance and navigate the trail. The boys knew I would not maintain the pace they might prefer to keep. I was surprised and pleased that I managed a full-saunter rate. Jack climbed into the basket of a three-stemmed white oak while Sam posed on the trail. I will recall moments like this until my final breaths. My hope is that they will remember the essence of our outdoor ventures deep into adulthood.
Wooden benches offered resting opportunites; fallen trees provided bridges into toppled crowns, and imagination portals to other worlds. Albert Einstein would have approved:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Boulders and rock ledges beckoned climbers. I was content to capture images of their ventures, knowing they would have offered helping hands if I asked to join them. With no small measure of melancholy I recall Sam enjoying hikes perched on my shoulders.
My trek with the boys brought to mind a quote of John Muir’s:
I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness.
I had not realized until now that he struck clearly on one of the pricipal themes of my retirement wiriting, teaching, speaking, and contemplating.
The rounded portal in the trailside limestone ledge invites all passersby to peek through for a photo-op (Jack at left; Sam to right)!
I posted myself on the trail and passed my camera to one of them on the far side. A clearer perspective, don’t you think? A lesson for life and living — perspective changes with where you find yourself in a landscape…or on an issue…or along life’s journey.
I viewed the boys through their sunrise portal, they in the bright light of youth. Retrospectively from my 15-month five surgeries period (June 2023 through August 2024), I saw their view of me as their Pap approaching a sunset. Perhaps a bit too macabre, I again quote John Muir:
Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.
I enlightened them, as we walked, about the cycle of life and death in the forest.
The Magic and Wonder of Trees
Grape vines reach into the main canopy of many of our north Alabama hardwood forests These two individuals ascended simultaneously with the twin-boled hickory.
I love finding and catologuing tree form oddities and curiosities. This persistent Eastern red cedar was decades ago slammed to the ground by a fallen branch from above. It recovered with a new stem reaching vertically (more or less) into the intermediate canopy. Like many of the remaining cedar trees, it is fading, outcompeted by the overtopping hardwoods.
Most other cedars have already succumbed, leaving their decay-resistant carcasses behind to haunt the scrub forest near the summit sandstone glade.
Most trees (all in my previous experience) consume the normal tree diet of nutrients, moisture, and sunlight. However, this old hickory seemed well prepared and tooled to consume unwary trekkers. The boys chose to stay clear of the gaping maw!
Perhaps I will keep a distance from this spooky forest at evening’s gloaming. A long ago gale tore the crown from this ridgetop tree. The decapitated denizen recovered with fresh branches, appearing now as zombie-like, reaching blindly to our left.
Even without a gaping maw, this hickory (left) and oak are openly devouring trail signs.
The forest (all forests) holds tightly to their secret doings. This one made no effort to hide its mischievous secrets, and I felt the better for it.
Emerging at the Racetrack Summit
The racetrack encircles an ecotype previously unfamiliar to me — a limestone glade, which I defined and described in one of the previous photo essays referenced earlier. The boys and I welcomed escaping into sunshine beyong the closed forest.
The baldness is of edaphic (soil and site factors) origin.
My 59-second video tells the barren’s tale far better than an old forester’s prose:
I find the stark beauty and literal harshness attractive.
Cedars persist in distressed form, holding true to the halloween mood.
It’s a rough life on these infertile, shallow, and xeric glade soils.
A major power line at the ridgetop provides a refreshing vista to the north, and furnishes enough openess to support a colony of prickly pear cactus.
I recorded this 32-second video at the transmission line.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. (Albert Einstein)
Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. (Einstein)
I will recall moments like this until my final breaths. My hope is that they will remember the essence of our outdoor ventures deep into adulthood. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
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 Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four 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 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
I am pleased to add the 41st of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit wordy 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.
As a member of the Alabama State Parks Foundation, I assisted Chief of Interpretation and Education Renee Raney in envisioning the 2024 Outdoor Alabama Adventure k-12 program to orient school children to the Nature of Alabama. On November 7, 2024, I observed three busloads of Clanton, Alabama first graders participate in an Alabama Outdoor Adventure field workshop at Oak Mountain State Park near Pelham, AL. Conducted by Naturalists with the Alabama State Park System, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of AL’s The Caring Foundation funded this partnership effort that reached 4,000 AL K-12 students by the end of the 2024 calendar year. The buses arrived at 9:00 AM, and dislodged the eager students. State Park Naturalists Lauren Massey and AnnaRuth Davis led them to pavillions for the day’s hands-on instruction.
They could not have selected a day more conducive to learning about the Nature of Alabama.
Richard Louv is an American non-fiction author and journalist. He is best known for his seventh book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder (first published in 2005 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill), which investigates the relationship of children and the natural world in current and historical contexts. Louv created the term “nature deficit disorder” to describe possible negative consequences to individual health and the social fabric as children move indoors and away from physical contact with the natural world – particularly unstructured, solitary experience. Louv cites research pointing to attention disorders, obesity, a dampening of creativity, and depression as problems associated with a nature-deficient childhood. He amassed information on the subject from practitioners of many disciplines to make his case and is commonly credited with helping to inspire an international movement to reintroduce children to nature.
Louv’s philosophy guided our creating the program:
Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child.
Reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.
Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees.
I recorded this 59-second with AnnaRuth:
Albert Einstein, perhaps the greatest thinker of the 20th Century likewise saw the wisdom of connecting to Nature:
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Imagine if all classrooms encouraged such absolute joy in discovery and learning!
Here is my 58-second video as Lauren led her group:
Dr. David Sobel, a renowned American educator and academic, responsible for developing the philosophy of place-based education has written extensively about the broad benifit of children learning in Nature:
You can’t bounce off the walls If there are no walls: outdoor schools make kids happier—and smarter.
We tiptoed the tops of beaver dams, hopped hummocks, went wading, looked at spring flowers, tried to catcha snake, got lost and found. How fine it was to move at a meandery, child’s pace.
Here is my 58-second video of the Oak MSP lakeside setting with the sounds of kids joyfully learning in the background:
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. William Wordsworth captured Nature’s magical embrace of children in a simple beautiful verse:
Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher.
The Old Forester Welcoming the First Graders!
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IMG_5261.jpg-11.07.24-Alabama-Outdoor-Adventure-Clanton-Elem-School.jpg20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-02-07 09:01:532025-02-07 09:01:53Brief-Form Post #41: Outdoor Alabama Adventure Elementary School Field Trip at Oak Mountain State Park!
Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I co-led a group of 22 OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Alabama in Huntsville) members on a Nature Walk along Flint Creek Trail (Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge) on Sunday afternoon, November 10, 2024. Two days earlier the Sunday forecast predicted an 80 percent probability of rain. Nary a drop dampened us on a grand afternoon.
A Nature walk differs from what we term a hike. I insist that our walks be saunters, where we wander in the habitat, carefully discovering and examining what mysteries and wonders lie hidden in plain sight. Our hikes hurry through the ecosystem at a pace that limits revealing the wonder beyond a superficial glance. Like John Muir, who disdained hiking, I quickly lose contact with the hardcore hikers. I stop to probe, take photos, and record a brief video, or two. A fellow inquisitive hiker may lag with me to find what we may. I am a saunterer, dedicated to the end. I find it amusing that when my time stretched endlessly ahead in my youth, I rushed to destination after destination. Today when time rushes ahead, I’m in no hurry. I don’t want to miss anything.
Flint Creek Bay
Flint Creek flows from the south into Wheeler Lake, a TVA impoundment…the dam 40 miles downstream on the Tenessee River. Entering the extended dormant season, The Corps of Engineers has already lowered the water level to allow greater flood control storage capacity for seasonal winter and spring rains. Mud flats are present where summer water stood.
A great blue heron hunts the shallow water bordering the mud flats.
I recorded this 24-second video as the heron took flight:
A pond cypress at the mudflat edge shows the summer water level stains. Knees also evidence the summer level.
I recorded this 58-second video encompassing the bay, the mud flat, and the cypress.
The riparian forest envelops Flint Creek Trail as our group exited the boardwalk. I’ve always enjoyed both the openess of boardwalks and closed forest trails — the best of both worlds at the Flint Creek Trail!
I recorded this 57-second video as we crossed the boardwalk to the wooded Flint Creek Trail:
Something about the boardwalk held us in place, urging us to enjoy the ironic attraction that holds people transfixed by an extensive mudflat, bird and woodland mammal tracks, and even human footprints.
Flint Creek Trail’s Riparian Forest
Allow your mind to reject the false impression that forests are forever. Picture this moist fertile field in corn and soybeans during the early 1930s, soon to be abandoned, seeding to windblown and bird-scattered germinants of annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees. A near jungle of vegetation yielded to forest, the most aggressive and faster growing trees prevailing. The winners in this stand are 100 feet tall.
Our group looks skyward. Chris redirects their attention to an understory paw paw tree below right.
The yellow poplar commands the dominant canopy and strikes an impressive pose below left. A Southern-region emblematic flowering magnolia seems content growing in full shade.
Special Woodland Treats
I’m a big fan of what I call tree form curiosities. We found a yellow poplar that had fallen horizontally decades ago, yet had retained vascular connection to its roots. Remaining viable, the prostrate stem produced several vertical shoots that developed as individual trees rising from the still-growing horizontal base. Enjoy these images of nine OLLI bumps on a log!
A special moment at a place of magic and wonder! Had we been hiking, strung out as the faster among us surged ahead, we might not have noticed and lingered at the natural living bench. By universal acclaim and smiling faces, this was a worthy and enjoyable stop.
Trees are not alone in partaking of full sunshine in the upper crown. Supple jack vines hitched a ride vertically as the trees began ascending 90 years ago from the fallow fields. Our major southern forest vines are the same age as the trees, and grow upward with the trees. Wrap and hold on tightly. Let the trees do the heavy lifting.
Sasafras roots are worthy of an inquisitive inhale — oh, the fragrance of root beer!
Again, a Nature Walk provides unlimited opportunities for learning and appreciating natural wonders.
Glimpses of the Fungi Kingdom
I’ve repeated in these Great Blue Heron photo essays that death and decomposition are a major element of life in our forests. We spotted several individuals of Coker’s Amanita, its bright white caps announcing its presence.
Steve Stewart snapped a nice shot of this pair and their beautifully gilled underside.
We discovered three edible species of wild mushrooms: honey mushroom, the beige individual at left; oyster mushroom held in the same hand; amber jelly mushroom at right.
Don’t take my word regarding edibility. Always do your own homework. I consume only species about which my knowledge is 100 percent certain, and then only when cooked.
We exited the trail via a return trek across the boardwalk. The clouds had broken, removing all hope that drought relief would bless our Sunday evening. We lingered, enjoying the evening and each other’s companny. Had our walk been a hike, I would have emerged from the forest after most had departed for home. John Muir abhored the word “hike”:
I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike’!
Muir, as he so often did, nailed the sentiment we all shared:
I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
This 50-second video captures our group recrossing the boardwalk to the parking lot as the sky cleared, erasing any hope that the promised drought-abating rain would bless our Sunday evening:
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
When my time stretched endlessly ahead in my youth, I rushed to destination after destination. Today when time rushes ahead, I’m in no hurry, content to saunter.
I love the trees reaching heavenward and the fungi intent on decomposing them.
So much in Nature lies hidden in plain sight, awaiting discovery by curious minds and searching eyes.
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
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 Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four 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 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
[Me with my hand on a sapling in group photo — courtesy of Chris Stuhlinger]
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IMG_5383.jpg-11.10.24-OLLI-at-Flint-Creek-Trail.jpg20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-01-21 07:42:132025-01-21 07:42:13Mild Fall Afternoon at the Woodland Flint Creek Trail on Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!
I am pleased to add the 40th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy 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.
Active Decay and Poofing Puffballs
Alabama State Park Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger and I hiked the Wells Memorial Trail at Monte Sano State Park on December 4, 2024. We found multiple woodland delights: massive grapevines, active decay (and incredible mature puffball mushrooms), and a landscape of sinks, pits, mounds, hummocks, and hollows. The aggregate would have overwhelmed a single Great Blue Heron photo essay. Instead, I offer three distinct Brief-Form essays, this one focusing on active decay and fanciful poofing puffballs.
I photographed this image several year ago. It’s the best photo representation of the magnificent Wells Memorial Forest.
This massive hickory tree toppled across the Wells Trail during the late summer of 2019, five years before my December 4, 2024 venture. I snapped the photo at left on November 16, 2019, before crews cleared a trunk section to provide passage. The April 22, 2020, view is from the stump side of the downed tree taken at the cleared trail. The tree shows no sign of decay; its wood is solid; the bark is intact; the root ball still holds its soil mass.
By December 2024, the root ball had begun to subside as the roots internal to it are decaying; the process of transforming the root ball to a mound or hummock is underway. The bark is sloughing from the trunk. The cut end of the overturned stump is fraying from decay.
I recorded this 58-video depicting the obvious state of decay:
I’ve watched time mark the decay process season after season. I noticed few indications of decay during the first summer. I witnessed an extraordinary blossom of oyster mushrooms in the second…bushel basketsful if foraging were allowed on our state parks. The oysters were few and far between the third year. Since then non edible leathery Trametes and other decomposers have prevailed. Most of the bark no longer remains. The surface sapwood is punky. Ashes to ashes; dust to dust.
Over the past several years of drafting these photo essays I’ve strived to hone my skills at estimating the passage of time since a live tree fell based on degree of decay. I am surprised by the rapid pace of decomposition for this grand old hickory. Abundant rainfall, mild climate, and favorable understory moisture environment encourage rapid decay.
Poofing Puffballs
We discovered another hickory, this one on the ground for less than a year. Mature biege puffball mushrooms sprouted from bark fissures. I believe their mycelia are growing surficially on the bark, and not penetrating into the wood. Other deeper decay fungi will colonize to begin the greater task of wood consumption.
I am a lifelong sucker for poofing mature puffballs, as the 32-second video attests:
After our puffball volcano venture, I recalled that in 2009, I suffered a severe case of Hispoplasmosis, a fungal infection common to the Miami River Valley where we lived during that period. I believe our common puffballs are innocent!
Who could resist the urge to puff these magic mushroom dragons!
Fungi are indeed fun in our incredible north Alabama woodlands. We covered enough ground that I considered our trek a good test of my August knee replacement recovery. However, we enjoyed a pace that allowed full exploration and discovery.
Closing
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. A single trek along a forested trail discloses only a brief moment in time, obscuring the decades prior and the future ahead, isolating us from the scope and scale of the grand forest cycle of life. Henry David Thoreau captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the Wonder of decay and renewal:
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5647.jpg-12.4.24-Wells-Mem-Trail-Puffballs-on-Hickory.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-01-15 15:48:552025-01-15 15:48:55Brief-Form Post #40: Active Decay in Monte Sano State Park Wells Memorial Forest
I often wander forest trails alone, content to saunter leisurely absorbing the sights, sounds, and feel of Nature. I relished having friends to share a November 7, 2024 hike with fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger, Tom Cosby, fellow former Alabama State Parks Foundation board member, and Dennis McMillian, an old friend from Fairbanks, Alaska now retired to his native Birmingham, AL. We explored the 2.8 mile Lunker Lake Trail at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, AL.
Dennis, Chris, and Tom left to right below left. That’s me in the vest below right. I’m ten weeks beyond my August 20, 2024, total right knee replacement. I maintained a pace that kept me within sight of the others! Lunker Lake and the trail stretch to the northeast behind us.
Three years earlier an EF-1 tornado ripped along the lake’s northwest shore.
Dennis and Tom grew up together and shared old stories with Chris and me as we walked. I believe many (some) of them were true! We paused at a tremensous upturned root ball, testament to the ferocity of the storm that spun off the tornado.
I am a student of tree form and bark patterns. Chris and I concluded that this hawthorne sported a particularly unusual and attractive bark, a design reminding both of us of Chinese elm. We wondered whether it is unique enough to propogate vegetatively as ornamental stock.
The old commercial industry forester within me never tires of seeing a fat loblolly pine with three clear 16-foot logs.
The trail leg leading us back to the parking lot ran along an old embedded farm road, entrenched through repeated dragging (scraping) to remove mud to three feet below the original ground level. Microtopography tells the story of past use to the inquiring eye.
Coral tooth fungus mushroom brightened our passage, clinging ornately to a dead branch trailside. This tasty edible enticed the forager in me, but I resisted the temptation given its presence along a well traveled route.
The open hardwood stand welcoed the early afternoon sun and the trekkers passing beneath. It would have been a glorious time and place to lean against a tall oak reflecting on the pleasure delivered by healing knees and a day of retirement releasing me from faculty issues, budget difficulties, enrollemt shortfalls, and miscellaneous nuiscances associated with leading a university. I labored with love over a rewarding career in higher education administration, yet I am enriched by the freedom of time without pressures, restrictions, and deadlines.
Henry David Thoreau captured the essence I felt:
Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.
Our path returned us to Lunker Lake, reopening our vista to placid waters and a cerulean sky adorned with scattered cumulus.
When I retired from my fourth university presidency, I worried about how I would handle retirement. Would I find challenge and reward. Would I stay busy in useful pursuits. I admit that shifting gears required adjustment. Yes, I missed the urgency, high-level engagement, and even the sense of imporatance and attention associated with being in charge. However, I adapted…learning in time to relish the freedom and luxury to focus on what is most important to me and the mission I have embraced:
Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Once again, I turn to Thoreau:
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
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:
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. (Henry David Thoreau)
Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify. (Thoreau)
In retirement I am enriched by the freedom of time without pressures, restrictions, and deadlines. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
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 Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four 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 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
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IMG_5312.jpg-11.07.24-Lunker-Trail-OMSP-Dennis-Near-End-of-Clockwise-Loop.jpg20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-01-09 13:13:162025-01-09 17:06:42A First Circuit of the Lunker Lake Trail at Oak Mountain State Park!
