Arriving in Auburn on the evening of November 13, 2026, fellow retired forester (and Auburn University forestry graduate) Chris Stuhlinger, my grandson Jack (18), and I visited Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment’s (CFWE) Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve and Nature Center. I invite you to join us as we tour this fabulous education and interpretation facility.

I snapped these photos when Chris and I visited Kreher in November 2023. See my photo essay chronicling that visit: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/03/06/iron-bowl-visit-to-auburns-kreher-preserve-and-nature-center/

 

I have a special attraction to Kreher. During my 1996-2001 term as Director, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, I held a tenured Full Professor position in the CFWE unit before it became a College. Among other interests at Auburn, Jack is considering a program in CFWE. Chris continues to support the College; on Friday, he delivered a guest lecture on Urban Forestry. Jack and I observed.

Moreover, Kreher follows a mission (Promote a sense of stewardship towards nature through quality environmental education…) that aligns beautifully with my Retirement 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.

These interpretive signs signal Kreher’s commitment to author Richard Louv’s tenets from Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder and other of his books:

We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense.

Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our chidlren’s health (and also, by the way, in our own).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Auburn’s CFWE celebrated the Environmental Education Building grand opening on December 7 and 8, 2024 (https://kpnc.auburn.edu/eeb/). The new building is an education and interpretation wonder located near the entrance of the 130 acre preserve.

 

Relevant websites extoll the building and associated elements extensively. Chris and Jack wandered within the unique outdoor classroom.

 

My objective with this photo essay is to disclose the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration revealed in our 90-minute traverse along two miles of preserve trails. We had only limited time to explore before heading back to North Alabama. Importantly, we wanted to get a sense of the place, knowing that we would someday return for a deeper dive when staff could tour us through the new building and guide us along educational trails.

Perhaps stating the obvious, I am not a photographer. Yes, I take photographs of things, objects, and scenes I love and understand. My equipment is an iPhone, which is, in, fact, a remarkable tool. I’m learning how to do more with it. Loblolly pine trees in the former farmland reach at least 100 feet. The photo at left struggles with their height, presenting them with an exagerated lean to a vertical vanishing point. Aha, I thought, I can edit to eliminate the distortion (right). Not so fast! I believe I prefer the unedited photo — that’s how it looks in real life. But, what do I know? Yet, maybe I do know best. I’m 53 years beyond earning a forestry degree…more than half a century of gazing into the firmament through tree crowns.

 

I realize that I created the original distortion by aiming the camera at 45 degrees, intending to emphasize the exceptional tree height. I’m learning, albeit slowly. The eye-level photo at right makes the trees look squatty rather than towering.

Managers employ prescribed fire routinely to reduce fuels, manage understory vegetation, and maintain a parklike appearance, ideal for an education landscape populated with wandering young learners (of all ages!). Charred trunks are common. I am a longtime proponent of prescribed fire. I love the look, and the effect!

 

 

Tree Form Oddities and Curiosities

 

Not all the property’s trees reached for the heavens. I believe this old water oak stood at the edge of an open field that is now occupied by the vigorous young pine forest. Its tortured form suggests age, physical abuse, and exposure to the vagaries of storms without the protection of a closed forest. The bole is hollow and split. Healthy, protected, and vigorous oaks don’t present views from on side to the other!

 

 

Wind severed two-thirds of its top decades ago. See the open wound at the top where its vertical trunk once extended. The huge right-lateral branch likewise left the tree from a powerful gust. The tortured canopy remains sustained life, even at the cost of surviving without vigor…simply hanging on to life. The photo at right suggests further mutilation and humiliation (Do trees suffer humiliation?). Long ago, a wind blasted the tree away from the camera, lay it flat. I survived that blow, appearing to craw away, sending a shoot to vertical, only for a future gale to curse its crown.

 

Despite the frantic and persisten efforts of the water oak, the old field pine stand flourished and continues to thrive.

 

Another oak, much older than the old- pines, bears a curious burl. My imagination transformed the bulbous creature to a sad hedgehog peering around the trunk. See its tight mouth, broad nose, morose squinting eyes, and furrowed brow.

 

Albert Einstein, the 20th century’s foremost theoretical physicist, appreciated the fine art of curiosty:

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

The true wonders of Nature lie hidden in plain sight. I wonder what Einstein would have see if he had wandered along the Kreher trails with us?

A society’s competitive advantage will come not from how well its schools teach the multiplication and periodic tables, but from how well they stimulate imagination and creativity.

I love forest visits with my grandkids. I try to kindle their imagination and creativity.

 

A building plaque recognizes dear friends, Emmett and Vi Thompson. Emmett is a former CFWE Dean.

 

A Bird Impact Prevention Window honors longtime Center Director Jennifer Lolley and recognizes her continuing legacy of nurturing curiosity and inspiring people to connect with the wonders of the natural world.

 

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

• I love forest visits with my grandkids. I try to kindle their imagination and creativity. (Steve Jones)
• We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense. (Richard Louv)
• A society’s competitive advantage will come not from how well its schools teach the multiplication and periodic tables, but from how well they stimulate imagination and creativity. (Albert Einstein)

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

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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