conservation Archives - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

Mid-November 25-Year Return to Alabama’s Chewacla State Park

February 18, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Having arrived in Auburn, Alabama on Thursday evening November 13, 2026, fellow retired forester (and Auburn University forestry graduate) Chris Stuhlinger, my grandson Jack (18), and I visited the College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment’s (CFWE) Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve and Nature Center, spent all day Friday at sundry engagements on AU’s campus, and hiked several trails Saturday morning at AL’s nearby Chewacla State Park. I invite you to join us as we hike the Upper Chewacla Trail System.

I had last visited the park 25 years ago, before I left my Auburn position as Director, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, heading to NC State University. I was pleased to revisit Chewacla in good company.

I welcome these autumn days of comfortable temperatures. I contend that our southern winter is a gradual transition from fall to spring, with an occasional cold spell thrown in for good measure.

Sauntering along the Mountain Laurel Trail and Return on a Ridgetop Trail

We parked at the Mountain Laurel Trailhead and worked downstream to the falls. We enjoyed pleasant temperature and morning sun as we strolled through the mixed hardwood forest along the toe slope.

The open understory presented a parklike scenario, and evidenced a high deer population effectively browsing the understory.

The stream flow corroborated the persistent autumn dry period that preceded our trek. A great morning for reflecting and reflection!

No heat, excess humidity, biting, sucking, or irritating insects — only the welcome crunch of early leaf-fall, a few bird calls, a scampering squirrel, and an occasional acorn dropping. Peace, serenity, and tranquility suggesting that all is good! Sauntering the gentle trail and soft fall woods with friend and family, I think of John Muir’s classic quote:

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.

Here’s my 60-second video from the Chewacla Creek channel.

Above the dam, the channel expands to a calm lake. A persimmon loaded with fruit leans over the water. I believe the mood and word of the morning is tranquil.

I recorded this 56-second video where the stream flattened to the lake.

Saw palmetto is common from central Alabama south to the coast. From 1981-85, I served as Union Camp Corporation’s Land Manager, responsible for the company’s 325,000 forestland acres (500 square miles) in Alabama, 100K north of the black belt (prairie soil divide just south of Auburn and Montgomery) and the remainder to the south. Seeing saw palmetto sparked deep memories of those years of action-packed industrial forestry!

I suppose I could elucidate what ecosystem factors at Chewacla signal deep within me the feeling that I am in the deep south, starting with the saw palmetto! North Alabama, although still in the South, has a more northern feel.

Curiosities and Oddities along the Way

I discover and appreciate tree form oddities, curiosities, and mysteries wherever I roam. This sweetgum sports an agrobacterial burl three feet above the ground.

A red maple streamside bears burls from its base to the live crown. When I took forest pathology in 1971-72, I would have termed the tree’s condition as diseased, attributing its abnormal growth to an infectious organism (fungal, bacterial, viral).

A Google AI Overview offered:

A tree disease is a harmful deviation from a tree’s normal function, typically caused by pathogens like fungi, bacteria, or viruses, or by environmental stress, leading to symptoms like discolored leaves, cankers, wilting, or stunted growth, and can ultimately weaken or kill the tree. These issues disrupt water, nutrient, and energy flow, often targeting roots, stems, or foliage, with factors like drought, soil issues, or physical damage increasing susceptibility.

One-half century ago, my forest pathology focused on tree health relative to timber products, i.e. commercial value. This maple has no value for lumber production, yet it may have novelty commercial value. My point is that diseased in this case, may not be a cause for alarm.

Like so many tree form anomalies, this sycamore suffered a crushing blow from above years ago, bending the tree to 30 degrees from horizontal, then sending a new short vertical. The form is distorted; the cause is clear; the future is affected; a disease organism is not involved,

Make what you will of this dragon-headed Ostrya virginiana (ironwood), its mouth agape in grin (left) and its eye piercing and nostril flared (right). Once again, injury from above explains the origin of disfigurement.

The same cause and effect explain this hickory abnormality, not a face but a large caliber muzzle.

I wanted to make a head/snout/face out of this Ostrya burl, but nothing comes to me. Do with it what you will.

Simon and Garfunkel’s America (1968) came to mind as I struggled for a descriptive totem for this particular burl.

Laughing on the busPlaying games with the facesShe said the man in the gabardine suit was a spyI said “Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera

I suppose it’s okay to be just a burl!

Other Notable Feature

Vaccinium arboreum (aka sparkleberry or farkleberry) is the only tree form of the native blueberry genus. I appreciate its mirthful common names, showy bark, interesting shape and texture, and its evergreen foliage.

How could I trek the Mountain Laurel Trail without posting mountain laurel photographs?!

We spent little more than 90-minutes at Chewacla. I wanted to showcase with this photo essay what a short morning saunter can reveal about the magic of everyday Nature.

Chewacla Falls

Without further elaboration, I give you the falls.

I recorded this 58-second video at Chewacla Falls.

I remind you of my third book, co-authored with Dr. Jennifer J. Wilhoit, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature. Without deep thought or deliberate intention, my series of ~500 Great Blue Heron weekly Posts has trended to six consistent theme elements:

Stories of passion for place and everyday Nature emerge wherever and whenever I wander (and wonder).
Nature-inspired life and living color and direct my living, learning, serving, leading, and praying.
Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe lie mostly hidden in plain sight.
Look deep into Nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. (John Muir)
In every walk in Nature, one finds far more than he seeks. (Muir)

Certainly, there is more, yet these six simple themes cover most of my Nature musings.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), 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:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. (John Muir)
A short autumn morning saunter can reveal volumes on the magic of everyday Nature. (Steve Jones)

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: “©2026 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

Brief-Form Post #54: Second Autumn Afternoon Near the Lodge and Cabins at AL’s DeSoto State Park!

February 11, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I attended an Alabama State Parks Foundation Board morning meeting on Thursday, November 6, 2026, at the DeSoto State Park Lodge. I had hiked extensively at the park the previous afternoon. Following the board session, I hiked the Chalet Trail from the Lodge and circuited the nearby cabins area. I am seldom disappointed by the magic a short saunter reveals, if only one looks deeply enough to discover what lies hidden in plain sight.

Come along with me to see the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe I spotted. The lodge deck overlooking the canyon of the West Fork of the Little River proved a good place to begin my trek. A brilliantly red sourwood tree stood at eye level, peering through the now-leafless yellow poplar (left). A smaller sourwood shrub topped a sandstone ledge near the deck (right). As a run-of-the-mill guy who knows only the basic rainbow colors, I referred to sourwood’s fall cape simply as red. Online leafyplace.com relied on more color-proficient descriptors: vibrant shades of crimson red to burgundy and purple.

The canyon reached ~250′ from stream to rimrock. Summer foliage hides the opposite ridge, now visible with leaf-drop.

I recorded this 58-second video from the Lodge deck.

Intent on uncovering more of the forest’s secrets, I walked from the Lodge to the Chalet Trailhead.

Afternoon along the Chalet Trail

A hike doesn’t need to be long and daunting to offer rewards. A perfect afternoon for leisurely sauntering is ideal for recovering mentally from a Board meeting, and for preparing physically for the required two-hour drive home.

I recorded this 59-second video within the forest along the trail.

Periodic prescribed fire has eliminated understory trees and shrubs, creating an open-grown grassy impression. Some refer to the appearance as park-like, a condition that many persons queried in surveys prefer.

I chose the Chalet Trail to focus on the benefits and consequences of prescribed fire as a parkland management tool. Note that the sign is sanctioned by: Alabama Prescribed Fire Council; National Wild Turkey Federation; The Nature Conservancy; and The Longleaf Alliance.

The understory is open, with no brambles or thickets impeding walking and, ostensibly, hiding snakes, critters, and other scary woodland denizens. I speak in jest of scary woodland denizens, yet I, too, prefer parklike stands in an area heavily trafficked around picnic tables, campgrounds, and cabins.

I recorded a 60-second video of the stand managed by fire and evidencing charred trunks.

I observe in nearly every Great Blue Heron photo essay that death is a big part of life in our forests. Whether a wildfire or controlled burn, dead and down woody debris is part of the ground-level fuel. Occasionally even a intentionally administered prescription fire will burn intensely enough to damage cambium at the base, opening a court of fungal infection. The kickory tree at left bears a catface, a hollow resulting from heart decay. The rot extends upward, eliminating any commercial timber value and weakening structural soundness. However, in this park cabin area management regime, timber value is of little consequence. Instead, squirrels, snakes, birds, and other critters value tree cavities! All the better for park wildlife enthusiasts.

Fall colors, open canopy, an orchard stocking level, and a welcoming understory tell me that controlled fire is an effective management tool.

Charred trunks and nearly bare forest floor evidence employed fire success.

Across my 12 years practicing forestry in the southeastern US for a Fortune-500 paper and allied forest products manufacturer, I control-burned tens of thousands of acres of company-owned forest land. Whether site preparation or established stand burning, the tool is essential to meeting our seeming insatiable demand for pulp, lumber, poles, chips, and miscellaneous other probucts. For the record our South Alabama crews once ignited and safely managed a rough-reduction, aerial ignition day when we covered 4,300 acres, a banner accomplishment!

Many surprises in Nature lie hidden in plain sight, including this groundhog head. A burl on a water oak trunk trailside. The critter sports a moustached mouth, abbreviated proboscis, two eyes (its right one with a lichened, overhanging brow), and a plated forebrow. It’s okay to employ a little imagination when searching our forests for obscure mammal residents.

Albert Einstein observed:

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

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection.

Aldo Leopold, a preeminent mid-Twentieth Century ecologist, is my conservation hero, and his writing, A Sand County Almanac, is a lyrical conservation classic. Leopold encouraged informed and responsible land management, employing an arsenal of effective, bold practices informed by experience, wisdom, and hard work. He professed:

Prudence never kindled a fire in the human mind; I have no hope for conservation born of fear.

Crispy-Leafed Early Autumn at Leebrook Park in Pennsylvania’s Franklin Park Borough

February 6, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Judy and I visited our son, Matt, and his family in late September 2025, at their home in Butler County, Pennsylvania, 20 miles north of Pittsburgh. We explored several parks and natural areas, including Leebrook Park, located in Franklin Park Borough, Allegheny County. Come along with Matt, Judy, Hannah, Nate, and me as we view memorable Leebrook Nature attractions on an autumn afternoon.

I always appreciate well-marked trails and informative signage.

Upper Roadside Parking Entrance

We entered by a trailhead distant from the main parking lot, primary entrance, and recreation fields. The second-growth mixed hardwood stand occupied a long-abandoned pasture.

I recorded this 60-second video as we traipsed through the former pasture forest.

This sugar maple, likely the same age as the overstory trees, sports a massive canker, infecting the entire trunk, and accounting for the tree’s distortion and stunted growth.

Nate provided scale.

Eight to ten inch diameter black cherry and red maple trees stand side by side. Germinating decades ago six inches apart, they have closed the gap. Inosculation is the term describing trees that seem to grasp one another, growing eventually as one.

Hannah (18) and Nate (12) stood atop a dead and downed trunk before leaping to the leaf-littered ground. Not a big deal, you say, but in the sunest years of their grandfather, it is a moment worth cherishing.

Rather than hike into the lower forest and needing to climb back to the car, Matt relocated us to the lower, richer slope with a far more interesting forest.

Lower Trail at Playing Field Entrance

Larger trees, greater variety of tree species, and wrinkled terrain drew my interest.

The bowl-shaped ravine supported a stand of cove hardwoods: mixed oaks, sugar maple, black cherry, a single sycamore, shagbark hickory, and yellow poplar, among others.

My 60-second video captured the special essence of the cove.

Trees reach more than 110 feet skyward. Such sites are characterized by deeper soils, greater soil moisture, denser shading by virtue of their lower slope position, and protection from ridgetop winds. I love the look and feel (shade and microclimate) of Appalachian hardwood coves.

The centered tree above (left) is a colorfully-patterned sycamore:

I recorded this 36-second video focusing on the three bird or mammal cavities in the towering top of the sycamore.

Shagbark hickory is as happy and comfortable on the hills of west-central Penn’s-woods as it is on Alabama’s Cumberland Plateau.

Always alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, I had to capture the image of this main canopy sugar maple. Suffering a decades-old upper crown injury, the old denizen has a snout and eye where the stem broke. Two large forks ascend in a prominent U-shape from the snout. The odd creature appears to stand sentry above the sylvan cove.

I find enchantment in such peculiarities, knowing full well that there is a story to be told. A heavy burden of snow or ice decapitated the younger tree? A thunderstorm gust brought its top down? I can only imagine the year, month, and causal agent.

Spiral Grain and Woodpecker Excavation

Spiral wood grain fascinates me. I see it often in downed hardwood trees after decomposition sheds their bark. When I discuss spiraling with others, nearly everyone insists that the spiraling should be apparent in the bark of a living tree. I insist, contrarily, that the phenomenon is completely hidden beneath the bark. Finally, I found direct evidence. This spiraled, standing dead oak has lost much of its bark, revealing the grain (right). The still clinging bark above (right) evidences no external indication of the structural spiraling!

Works of Nature’s creative sculpturing abound. Woodpeckers hungry for grubs and adult insects are assisting decomposition of this standing trunk.

A brief three-generation, leisurely family stroll reveals many secrets, mysteries, and magic in a place close to home, publicly maintained, and accessible free of charge. As I draft this narrative, I am halfway through teaching a six-week adult education course on our US National Parks. At the outset, I offer a Warning/Caution/Alert: Don’t be so smitten, enamored, and captivated by our incredible 63 National Parks that you ignore and shun the incredible beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of local special places and everyday Nature. LeeBrook Park is one such example — much closer, less expensive, and less crowded than Yosemite, Yellowstone, or the Grand Canyon! Enjoy pancakes at home, have a sandwich in the park, and be home for dinner.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

A brief three-generation, leisurely family stroll can reveal many secrets, mysteries, and magic in a place close to home, publicly maintained, and accessible free of charge. (Steve Jones)
I find enchantment in tree form oddities and peculiarities, knowing full well that there is a story to be told. (Steve Jones)
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. (Albert Einstein)

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: “©2026 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

Curiosities, Oddities, and Mysteries In a Sanctuary’s Bottomland Hardwood Forest!

February 2, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On October 14, 2025, I had nearly two hours to roam before meeting with a colleague to prepare for a scheduled joint seminar the next week. I visited the tupelo swamp on the northeast side of Huntsville’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary. I had no objective beyond seeing what may lie hidden in plain sight during the dry autumn season. Never disappointed by my routine impromptu explorations, I discovered a portfolio of interesting features.

A Big Oak Topples into the River

Sometime this past summer, this 2.5-foot diameter water oak toppled violently into the adjacent Flint River, blocking at least half of the river’s width. The crown clings to the brown leaves that were in full flush when the tree fell.

I recorded this 58-second video of the toppled water oak.

I wonder whether the crown will hold in place when winter rains swell the river to bankfull and beyond. The force will be powerful. Only Nature knows her limits, yet cares nothing of the consequences. I’ll keep an eye on her antics and impacts.

I observe in nearly every Post, death is a big part of life in our forests.

Another Big Oak Decomposes and Decays

Across eight years of permanent residence in North Alabama, I am learning better how to estimate the pace of decomposition and decay based on observation. Marian Moore Lewis, author of Southern Sanctuary, and I encountered a recently uprooted red oak on November 18, 2020 in this same bottomland forest. Fine roots were still evident; the root ball soil remined intact; bole bark and crown appeared fresh.

The massive root ball is clearly weathering away in my October 14, 2025 photo. Only the largest woody roots remain, yet even they are rapidly decaying. Trunk bark is shredding and stripping. Five years leave a striking mark on a large oak. My eye is calibrating. I am confident that I can estimate time since windthrow within 2-3 years, through the first 20 years. By then, the soil incorporation is in control.

I will continue to Monitor…and Learn.

A Rich Species Mix

With litte necessary narrative, here are some of the tree varieties I encountered.

A nice crop of walnuts beneath a 24-inch diameter black walnut.

A sycamore and an attractive natural forest floor arrangement of peeled sycamore bark, a dropped leaf, and a seed ball.

Sycamore’s peeling bark is one of its distinctive features.

During my frequent Nature interpretive walks, more than half of participants recognize sycamore, provided I offer some hints and prompts.

Carpinus caroliniana is an understory to mid-canopy hardwood that has been a favorite of mine since my undergraduate student days. I learned its common name as musclewood. It resembles the sinewed fibers of a muscled arm. Other common monikers include American hornbeam, blue beech, and ironwood. I photographed two individuals.

I’m a lifetime fancier of tree form oddities and curiosities.

An Attractive Fungal Resident

A twin water oak nestled aged resinous polypore brakets in its fork.

I recorded a 58-second video at the infected twin water oak

Again, death is a big part of life in our forests. The twins are diseased. Mycelia are decomposing and decaying the twin. Death is underway. Although macabre, the truth is that the end begins at the start…for all life on earth.

Answer Me This

Just ten feet from the infected twin, I spotted this galvanized nail in another water oak. Yet another story that I cannot but weakly ponder. Did it mark a survey point? Is it related to transfer of the private property to the city to create the Sanctuary? A scavenger hunt or geocaching site? Pardon the pun, but I am unable to nail the reason!

I will continue finding riddles I cannot solve.

Water Tupelo Swamp

I grew up and attended forestry school far north of the natural range of water tupelo, which may explain my fascination with this forest type. I’ve published at least a dozen Posts about my adventures in this forest type, including several in the Sanctuary. I will offer only an album of photographs without detailed narrative. These buttressed tupelo draw me. The dry season standing water and soil saturation hint at the deeper water ahead in the winter.

You don’t need much beyond my 60-second swamp tour video overview.

Strange tree forms and a haunting aspect dominate.

This is far removed from the upland hardwood forests I wandered in my youth.

I recorded a 48-second video of a massive water tupelo. I estimated its ground-level diameter as 12-14 feet!

I relish the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration!

What is the hairy, grizzled, bearded old man of the tupelo forest!?!?

See my related Post (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/10/27/brief-form-post-47-strange-bearded-tupelo-trees-air-root-mysteries-and-curiosities/) for the answer!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Tupelo forests are far removed from the upland hardwood forests I wandered in my youth. (Steve Jones)
Death is a big part of life in our North Alabama forests. (Steve Jones)
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Albert Einstein)

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: “©2026 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

They’re back — Sandhill Cranes Return to Alabama’s Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

January 27, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I visited the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center on December 19, 2025, my first venture since the winter cranes returned a month prior. I parked in the Center’s lot within 30 minutes of leaving my driveway. Think of it…a world-class wildlife and Nature destination just 20 miles to the WSW. My heart-and-soul bond with these magnificent birds rekindles when I hear the clamorous bugles, rattles, and croaks of 10-15,000 sandhill cranes celebrating their winter feeding and trumpeting their social frenzy in our southern climes.

Cycle fractals define so much in Nature: hydrologic, carbon, nitrogen, food, and life cycles. The same for the rhythms of seasonal, nutrient, migratory, and reproductive pulses, as well as our human birth, youth, maturation, reproduction, child-rearing, aging, sowing seeds, leaving memories, and saying goodbye continuum. Sandhill cranes commonly live 20-40 years. I first witnessed the winter Wheeler cranes 30 years ago (1995). Most of the cranes I saw on December 19, 2025, hatched since then, and yet the teeming flocks seemed unchanged. Such is the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of cycle, rhythm, and pulse fractals.

Reacquainting with the Cranes

Straight down the slope from the Center display and museum building, thousands of cranes crowded the marsh, pecking and scratching for food, cavorting, courting, leaping, communicating, fussing, and likely just plain extolling the glories of their blessed existence on God’s Green Earth. Every day that I visit from Thanksgiving to mid-February reveals carbon copy enthusiasm. I am sure, however, that their life is not so routine and simple. There are predators: coyotes, foxes, gators, snapping turtles, human hunters, and eagles. And hazards: automobiles, biting winds, arctic chills, and flooding winter rains. Surely the marauding cranes eventually deplete a mid-December marshland spot rich with seeds, roots, worms, and other invertebrate treats. For the moment, I observed a morning without need or threat. All was well…with the flocks and with me.

The cranes tell their tale far better than I. This 58-second video expresses their joy and jubilation with the great crane cycle of life!

I retreated the marsh-side, woods-edge observation point to walk the wooded trail to the observation building. Across my many decades of reveling in Nature, I have a storehouse of precious memories. Favorite places, experiences, and even some accomplishments. Listening to the cranes, I mused, what are among my noteworthy auditory memories?

I forced myself to make a list. Number one jumped forward, rising above all others. The unrestrained belly laughter of our infant kids and grandkids…so incredibly magnificent, and oh so ephemeral. Like a woodland spring wildflower, the time of infant and toddler contagious and limitless convulsive chortling is brief. We cycle past it. The memories remain, and resurface when we hear another’s child, bringing mist to our eyes as we remember that our son is 49 (1/25/77) and two of our grandkids are graduating high school in May. As I draft this text on the first day of 2026, I am reminded: To every thing there is a season.

Ecclesiastes (3: 1-8 KJV):

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Less sentimental, a second sound without contest is the great music of over-wintering sandhill cranes. A spring morning songbird chorus is among the top ten. When we lived further north, nothing surpassed the first geese migrating south in the fall…or north in the spring. Aldo Leopold said of Sand County Wisconsin geese:

One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring… A March morning is only as drab as he who walks in it without a glance skyward, ear cocked for geese.

A pack of coyotes deep in the night ranks high. I have never first-hand heard a wolf pack, yet I am sure it would be a contender. Not all grand sounds are of animal origin. Among them are rain on a tin roof. A gurgling stream. A soft summer breeze through leafy tree crowns. Distant thunder promising rain during a summer dry period.

Other sounds I love include squeaky snow underfoot at sub-zero temperatures. Muted blizzard gales through Alaska spruce. Oregon coastal waves blasting the rocky shore. The list is long. During my 20s and 30s, I ran distance recreationally and competitively, logging miles mostly pre-dawn to avoid stealing time from our young family. Many fellow runners trained listening to music. I loved Nature’s orchestral accompaniment.

I recorded this 59-second video along the trail to the observation building.

The observation building nearby brings the cranes indoors, where viewers are invisible to the birds. Microphones pipe in their raucous calls. A perfect day to offer bird images inverted in the water…and to encourage deeper mental reflections on having such a marvel within reach of where I am fortunate enough to live. I recall decades ago visiting Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Olympia, Washington. The Nisqually River Delta empties into the Puget Sound. Judy and I loved walking the miles of boardwalk, watching the tremendous tidal surge that rents the delta twice daily. I would love to return to spend a day, but it’s on the other side of the country. It’s not 30 minutes from my garage door to the Nisqually entrance. I will likely not visit again, yet I may check the internet for a video refresher. [Okay, I just watched a seven-minute mini-documentary — a nice break!]

I spotted one whooping crane near the opposite woods edge, an observation that one of the birders with a long lens verified. The cranes in this frame are in constant motion, a parallel to our individual human existence. We are in constant motion, but is it purposed movement?

The cranes are purpose driven. There is never a dull moment on the marshland.

I recorded this 59-second video of the clangorous cranes.

Leopold penned Marshland Elegy in A Sand County Almanac:

Our appreciation of the crane grows with the slow unraveling of earthly history. His tribe, we now know, stems out of the remote Eocene. The other members of the fauna in which he originated are long since entombed within the hills. When we hear his calls we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.

Leopold’s elegy arose from his concern that the days of viable crane marshes were at risk, perhaps already having crossed a threshold beyond recovery:

The sadness discernible in some marshes arises, perhaps, from their once having harbored cranes. Now they stand humbled, adrift in history.

Such, thank God, is not a sadness at our Wheeler NWR!

Cypress Pond Bonus!

Cranes headline Wheeler’s winter show, but the cypress pond near the Center always beckons this old forester. Slanting shadows, clean lines, tall stems, and needle-carpeted forest floor stir my sylvan soul.

I recorded this 60-second video along the boardwalk.

Cypress draws my eye skyward, where the columnar crowns respect each other’s space. The individual trees don’t touch. The branches are not interlaced. The technical term for the tendency to abide by no touching is crown shyness.

I recorded this 59-second crown shyness video.

These grand birds, with their prehistoric caricature, star in the WNWR winter show, but I consider the cypress pond as a year-long feature act, even though relegated to the sidelines during the annual crane Super-bird Bowl!

Reflecting on the cranes, I think of the sadness not of their demise, but of their seasonal departure by the end of February for their summer breeding grounds. I’ll miss them, but upon reflection I reject the notion of sadness. Instead, I embrace the notion that the cranes, in effect, are departing to a seasonally better place. This morning (January 4, 2026), we sang I’ll Fly Away at church:

Some glad morning when this life is o’er
I’ll fly away
To a home on God’s celestial shore
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away)

Just a few more weary days and then
I’ll fly away
To a land where joy shall never end
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away)

The cranes celebrate their annual return North To a land where joy shall never end…at least until next autumn, when chilling winds signal a migratory departure to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. (Ecclesiastes)
He [the sandhill crane] is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men. (Aldo Leopold, Marshland Elegy)
The cranes celebrate their annual return North to a land where joy shall never end…at least until next autumn, when chilling winds signal a migratory departure to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. (Steve Jones)

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: “©2026 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

The Stream at Pennsylvania’s Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area

January 21, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area, owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), is in northwestern Butler County, Pennsylvania, just 30 minutes from where my son and his family reside north of Pittsburgh. Matt, his dog Oakley, and I circuited the 2.35-mile trail on the morning of September 22, the first day of autumn. I focus this photo essay on Wolf Creek and streamside elements of the preserve.

Forest Portal to Wolf Creek

The ecotone where deep forest meets the stream corridor represents a sharp transition from shaded stillness, damp air, and relative silence to gurgling water, bright sunshine, and refreshing breezes.

The towering old growth hardwoods tap streamside soil moisture and fertiity available in the deep alluvial soils. Their streamside branches harvest full sunlight from the opening above the stream channel. The trees have nearly unlimited access the the essential resources necessary for maximum growth: moisture, nutrients, sunlight, and space.

I love the stark visual contrast of closed shade to open stream. The sun found a way to spotlight a leaf-covered patch of forest floor near the stream.

Too often I encounter southern streamside forests supporting thick understory cover of greenbriars, cane, and brush. I appreciate the parklike high forest and sparse ground cover along Wolf reek.

Wolf Creek Proper

The stream channel and canyon floor beckoned and embraced us. I vividly recall taking Matt accompanying me hiking along woodland streams 40 years ago. Along Wolf Creek, I sensed our roles shifting, feeling as though now I accompanied Matt as we circuited the Narrows trail system. I suppose such is the circle of life.

I recorded this 59-second video of Matt and Oakley along Wolf Creek.

The press of family visitation affairs limited the time available at Wolf Creek Narrows. I would loved to have lingered along our transit. Many places were custom made for leaning against a tree streamside, sipping coffee or hot chocolate, nibbling a cookie, or eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Funny, when Matt was young, it was I who endured busy days, time constraints, and the pressures of living. It is now I who has time for a liesurely pace.

I recorded this 59-second video along Wolf Creek.

We paused at the road bridge that marked our turn-around point. The orientation of clouds and sun created contrasting views of Wolf Creek. Bright sunlight highlighted the view upstream (left). Clouds darkened the sky and the stream as I snapped a photo downstream. Nothing in Nature is static. A heartbeat flits by and everything shifts.

We reentered the deep forest, leaving the road and stream corridor to enter what I term a a place of reverence…a streamside cathedral.

Streamside Cathedral

I felt the solemnity and said a prayer for those who loved Lucy Jeanne Chalfant and this special place. Lucy was born just four years after Judy and I entered the world some 100 miles south of here in western Maryland. As I stood silently, I felt Lucy’s presence. She walked on with me for a spell, and she returns as a vapor as I draft this narrative.

Lucy Jeanne Chalfant (1955-1993)

This trail is blessed in loving memory of Lucy, a daughter, sister, and friend. Walk in peace. Find serenity, courage, and wisdom. May the tranquillity of this place abide with her spirit and all who pass here.

I felt the peace, tranquility, and serenity. I pondered Lucy’s story. What took her from her parents, siblings, and friends at the fresh age of 38? I was four at Lucy’s birth, and I write these words 33 years after she ascended to a place of permanent and ultimate renewal. What makes me so blessed as to pass silently through the sylvan refuge where her memory persists? Who among those who loved her return? I can imagine no better place to rest, linger, and remember. Something touched me on the trail…and left a mark.

This special place reminds me of words Robert Service applied in his The Spell of the Yukon:

It’s the forest where silence has lease;

It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

I recorded this 56-second video of a moment of deeply spiritual reflection at Wolf Creek Narrows.

I wonder, are Lucy’s spirit mists rising within the canopy 120 feet above the forest floor.

As with any forest saunter, I found delights. A speckled sycamore trunk reached into the soaring crown. A hollowed stem opened 30 feet above ground, welcoming whateever critter occupies the sheltering interior.

I recall in my youth grabbing a World Book encyclopedia volume from the shelf and thumbing rendomly through the pages, discovering what treasures lie hidden within, awaiting my curious and eager mind. I’m struck now at age 74 by how similar is my woodland sauntering. I’m thumbing through the forest, gleefully sating my curiously eager mind, still discovering and learning as I wander…and wonder!

Magical Mystery Tour: Ferns and Toads

Sensitive fern (left) and Christmas fern, common here and back in Northern Alabama, greeted me along the way. I shall remain a fern aficionado as long as my stride carries me through dark woods.

Wood fern (below) and New York fern, ubiquitous across my doctoral research forests in NW Pennsylvania and SW New York, is not common in northern Alabama.

An American toad, hiding within a protective rock crevice, likely knows where he will wait out the coming winther.

I am completing this narrative two days before Christmas, a season when the Pennsylvania toad is tucked away, secure from winter predators and Pennsylvania’s piercing Arctic blasts. Madison, Alabama is forecast to experience upper 60s to lower 70s through Christmas weekend, and then drop into the upper teens the following week. What’s an Alabama toad to do?

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I thumb through the forest, gleefully sating my curiously eager mind, still discovering and learning as I wander…and wonder! (Steve Jones)
This trail is blessed in loving memory of Lucy, a daughter, sister, and friend. Walk in peace. Find serenity, courage, and wisdom. (Memorial stone for Lucy Jeanne Chalfant (1955-1993))
Nothing in Nature is static. A heartbeat flits by and everything shifts. (Steve Jones)

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: “©2026 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

Subscribe to these free weekly Nature Blogs (photo essays) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

Wandering Peak-Color Autumn Forests Afternoon at AL’s DeSoto State Park!

January 14, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I explored the Azalea Cascade, Orange, Blue, and Chalet Trails at AL’s DeSoto State Park on November 5 & 6, 2025. Perfect weather and peak fall colors elevate my pleasurable routine saunters to an extraordinary experience. It’s no wonder that I am addicted to Special Places and Everyday Nature! DeSoto State Park sits atop Sand Mountain at 1,600 feet above sea level in northeast Alabama, eight miles from Fort Payne, and not much further to the Georgia line. Come along with me on a gorgeous autumn afternoon.

As I began drafting this photo essay narrative (November 25, 2025), the ground in Fairbanks, Alaska, where we lived for four years, has carried a snowpack for six weeks, and the lows dip well below zero. I noticed on this morning’s news that portions of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are expecting 2-3 feet of lake effect by Thanksgiving. Lucky me — I am enjoying the prime outdoor season in North Alabama. Autumn, winter, and spring invite, welcome, and comfort me during these perfect days. Forget about frostbite, howling bitter winds, drifting snow, clouds of mosquitoes, insuferable chiggars, stifling heat, torrid humidity, and other natural tortures. This is heavenly!

Peak color, blue sky, bright sun, and a towering hardwood forest reached out, grabbed me, and dragged me along the Azalea Cascade Talmadge Butler Boardwalk. The deep alluvial soil and protected cove position spelled ample year-round moisture and a nutrient-rich, high-productivity site. The mixed hardwood forest stood greater than 100 feet tall.

I don’t see need for a lot of science-based narrative. Instead, I give you a guided tour along a series of trails during what may be the best day of the year, with perfect weather, a languid afternoon, a stress-free mind, and full autumn colors in a southern upland hardwood forest!

I recorded this 59-second video along the boardwalk.

Sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum) is a common intermediate canopy species in our North Alabama upland forests. It refuses to be either positively phototropic (growing toward the sun) or negatively geotropic (growing vertically opposite gravity). Instead, it chooses its own course, like this one leaning in no particular direction.

Most main canopy species reach heavenward, seeking the bounty of full sun high above.

The boardwalk leads to azalea cascade, where a small stream enters a reflecting pool through the boulders.

Here is my 29-second video of the spectacular autumn leaves reflections.

A birch tree clings to the rock ledge where its seed germinated decades ago, sending its roots to exploit mineral soil both uphill and beneath the ledge. Every tree has a compelling story to tell.

Several hundred feet above the cascade the trail crosses the stream on a rustic footbridge.

I recorded a 58-second video at the quaint woodland footbridge.

I’ll offer a little forestry lesson at this 30-inch-diameter yellow poplar tree. The species reigns supreme across Alabama’s most productive forest sites…well-drained bottomlands and upland cove sites. The species, unlike sourwood, insists on growing straight and tall. It has a low relative stocking density, contrasting it to white oak and American Beech, among some others. Note how little crown space this yellowpoplar occupies. A beech or white oak of this diameter would have a crown of at least 50 percent greater area, i.e. a greater relative stand density.

Rhododendron is a classic broad-leaved evergreen, thriving in moist, sheltered forest micro sites. Sourwood (right) bursts in deep color, rivalling the flaming sugar maple magic of New England autumn.

Brilliant emerald moss brightens this sandstone ledge along the trail.

Lost Falls served as my destination, its upstream brook reflecting the late afternoon sun touching the ridge. The dry autumn streamflow furnishes little of the excitement I’ve witnessed during the maelstrom of early April’s wet season.

Here is my 40-second video of Lost Falls.

Beyond the falls, a sandstone glade ecotype dominates for a while. Exposed sandstone bedrock, very thin and acidic soils, and extremely variable moisture conditions prevail, ranging from standing surface water in the dormant season to xeric in summer. Thick reindeer lichen, and obligate glade plants make for challenging and entertaining botanizing.

I recorded this 58-second video of the glade.

From the Azalea Cascade to the sandstone ledge forest to the glades, my trek traversed at least three major ecotypes. This stretch of the glade is other worldly.

Leaving the glades behind, I descended toward the Azalea Cascade, through a stand control-burned three years ago to reduce understory vegetation. The forest floor is no longer densely populated with understory trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. Bark-charred standing trees and burned woody debris evidence the burn.

Without offering explanation, I will simply observe that some hardwood trees have spiral grain, evident only when the stem is dead (de-barked by progressive decomposition), whether vertical or on the ground. I have not found definitive literature revelations on why trees spiral. When I find the answer, I will devote an entire photo essay to the explanation.

Returning to the boardwalk cove, the forest-yellow, pale blue late afternoon sky, and camo-green sandstone ledges bid me farewell.

The evening gloaming is descending, offering a late autumn kiss on the cheek.

Even the deer emerged along the road, another signal that the autumn day has run full circle.

My Nature wanderings come in many shapes and sizes. Judy and I wander our suburban neighborhood nearly every day. I find wonder and delight even in the everyday Nature within walking distance of my home. I venture into regional State Parks, the nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, Land Trust Nature Preserves, and other natural areas withinin 90-minutes of home once a week. Two or three times annually I seek out of state locations to eplore, requiring travel, overnight stays, and greater expense. Now that I am 74 years old, I believe my international Nature-Based consulting assignments may have ended, the last one in 2019 to Kazakhstan. Regardless, I will continue to find beauty, magic, wonder, awe, passion, inspiration, and spiritual renewal in special places and everyday Nature!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), 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:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Fall beauty is unbounded by life form. (Steve Jones)
I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
I will continue to find beauty, magic, wonder, awe, passion, inspiration, and spiritual renewal in special places and everyday Nature! (Steve Jones)

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: “©2026 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

Early Autumn Delights on Madison, AL’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve!

January 8, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On October 12, 2025, I led a scheduled Land Trust of North Alabama hike on the Rainbolt Trail, Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve in Madison, Alabama. I led 16 participants, ascending ~250 feet to the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail, then to the Balance Rock near the preserve’s summit, and returning to our trailhead. I knew as the leader and interpreter, I would have no time for photos, videos, and detailed personal exploration. Instead, I scouted the route three days in advance, sauntering to snap photographs and record brief videos to include in this Post.

I found multiple delights worthy of pointing out to the hikers. Fragrant sumac, often mistaken for poison ivy or poison oak, grows trailside on the Rainbolt Trail lower slope.

Carolina buckthorn, an understory shrub, is also common along the lower hillside.

Amur honeysuckle, an East-Asian invasive, is likewise common, unfortunately.

Chinquapin oak is among the many oak species populating our uplands.

Always alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, I photographed this rock-kissing chestnut oak with resurrection fern aside one of the many limestone ledges.

Rainbow Mountain is one giant limestone ledge!

I recorded a brief video of a terraced ledge and a shagbark hickory standing sentinel against it.

A still photograph of the shagbark hickory with its intricate plated, shaggy bark.

There is no limit to elements of Nature hidden in plain sight. My goal in leading any Nature Walk is to encourge participants to look, see, understand, and appreciate. The task of interpreting is complicated by a narrow trail, varying pace, and a wide range of participant interest. I try to reach as many as I can and transfer as much as I am able.

Alligator rock, admitedly an imaginative stretch, fascinated everyone.

I had recorded a brief alligator rock video on my scouting visit.

A three-stemmed chinquapin oak served as another point of interest…and learning. You’ll see in the video below that this fern-draped stem is one of three.

I recorded a brief video at above cluster.

A contorted dead Eastern redcedar, flanked by chinquapin oak and green ash seedlings, sported a pleasant cape of resurrection fern.

Viewed from different angles, the cedar with fern presents a lovely natural sculpture.

I never tire of the menagerie of beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration that Nature provides, like this supplejack vine spiraling on a hickory sapling. I hoped that some level of my amazement, surprise, and delight transfered to my fellow hikers. Enthusiasm for Nature can be (should be) a contagion.

Oh, what a treasure is this whitemouth dayflower!

My journey of discovery and joy is not limited to the botanical. The physical environment stirs my soul. I am a closet geologist, fascinated by this layered limestone head wall (view to the South left and North right) at the suumit of the preserve. How many millions of years ago did the source marine creatures die and their sediment collect on a shallow tropical sea floor?

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer my observations:

Nothing in Nature is static; every visit reveals a distinct face.
Leading a Nature walk, I try to reach as many as I can and transfer as much as I am able.
Enthusiasm for Nature can be (should be) a contagion.

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: “©2026 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

Brief-Form Post #53: Wolf Creek Narrows Forest Renewal in an Old Growth Northern Hardwood Stand!

January 5, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 53rd 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.

Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area, owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), is in northwestern Butler County, Pennsylvania, just 30 minutes from where my son and his family reside north of Pittsburgh. Matt, his dog Oakley, and I circuited the 2.35-mile trail on the morning of September 22, the first day of autumn. My heart soared at the prospect of returning to an ecosystem shaped by a continental ice sheet just 13 millennia ago. This Post focuses on a recent blowdown within the Natural Area and my reflections on the implications for the affected stand.

Blowdown in the Forest

All forests are in flux. Individual trees germinate, grow, senesce, and die. Forests come and go with disturbance. Wind, ice, fire, insects, and disease affect trees and entire forests. I observe often that death is a big part of life in forested ecosystems and, for that matter, in any ecosystem. Within a discreet portion of the Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area old growth forest, a wind storm (thunderstorm downdraft or microburst; derecho; tornado; or perhaps sustained winter gales) toppled enough mature trees to give the affected stand a unique character.

The fallen trees align parallel to the wind direction, their lower trunks shattered or the entire tree uprooted. Based on the apparent progress of woody debris decay, I estimate that the wind event occurred within the past three years.

The wind eliminated enough overstory canopy to significantly reduce forest floor shading. Already understory woody and herbaceous plants are responding with increased vitality. Nature abhors a vacuum.

A cinnabar bracket fungus has colonized this downed American beech, evidencing that the windthrow-accelerated carbon cycling is in full gear.

Elevated root mounds provide ideal sites for herbaceous exploitation. White ash seedlings are quickly colonizing the forest floor on either side of the downed white ash tree.

Not all of the downed trees resulted from the discreet recent event. These trunks toppled more than five years ago. This hardwood stand, like most of Pennsylvania’s forests, is probably even-aged, regenerating following some catastrophic event, such as timber harvesting, widespread major wind, or fire.

An even-aged forest grows in a predictable manner. The inverse J-shaped diameter distribution is one such formulaic metric. Consider the graphs below as a generalized representation of the growth pattern across time. A young even-aged stand my have thousands of stems per acre. Look above at the many ash seedlings surrounding the single mature fallen ash. Over decades, the stand density (stems per unit area) declines. What may have been thousands becomes hundreds, and ultimately scores and dozens. Average stem diameter of the white ash seedlings (two rows above) is less than an inch. The fallen mother (seed source) tree is perhaps two feet.

The tendancy of an even-aged old growth hardwood forest is to gradually transition naturally to uneven-age. Some of the windthrow openings may be large enough to allow trees, their germination triggered by the recent storm, to emerge into the upper canopy, representing a younger age class. Many of the openings will at least be large enough to allow a sapling or mid-canopy cohort to establish, staging one or more of those individuals to rapidly ascend into the main canopy when a subsequent storm topples a large dominat tree, or a cluster of the original old growth cohort.

The forest is in no hurry. Its evolutionary pathway prepared this very successful admixture of species to flourish and persist when conditions are favorable and respond when change presents opportunities. The ash seedlings are already carpeting the ground now blessed with open canopy sunlight. Although my examinations were only surperficial, I observed that American beech, sugar maple, and white oak are stand components. They are shade tolerant species that can persist for decades under a full canopy. They and others are poised to constitute a greater percentage of the future dominant canopy.

The forest is changing, as are all forests. The wind event accelerated the change. I’d like to monitor it annually over another several decades, but my own life curve continues unabated. Perhaps I can revisit Wolf Creek Narrows another time or two, but there are no guarantees. I am grateful for having made this inaugural visit. I’ve learned something of this slice of Nature near to my son’s home and not too far from where I conducted my forestry doctoral research four decades ago.

I am addicted to special places and everyday Nature. Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area is one such Special Place.

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 apropos than an observation I made in the text above:

The forest is in no hurry. Its evolutionary pathway prepared it to flourish and persist when conditions are favorable, and to respond when change presents opportunities to exploit.

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

Gray Cemetery: Nature Across Two Centuries of Life, Living, and Dying!

December 30, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Suburban housing and light commercial establishments surround Gray Cemetery in Madison, Alabama. Urged by friend Gilbert White to visit the 200-year-old cemetery, I (and my 17-year-old grandson, Jack) met him there on September 6, 2025, as a thunderstorm bore down on us. We returned for a leisurely, sunny Sunday afternoon with Gilbert the next day. Abandoned 100 years ago, the cemetery (courtesy of volunteers working feverishly over the past four years) is reappearing from the jungle of natural vegetation regrowth. My central observation is that Nature is adept at disappearing (i.e., hiding, obscuring, and concealing) the dedicated work of man.

The new look will attract saunterers — mature forest, an open understory, and the deep and meaningful history tales told by the ~500 permanent residents whose remains are interred here.

This incredible cemetery is a gem recovered from a jungle of natural vegetation and vibrant second-growth forest that strangled the cemetery for a full century. The new scene is park-like, the trees towering above the newly revealed historical site.

Diverse Tree Species

A diverse tree overstory complements the rich human history. I admit to total fascination with the forest that emerged from the grassy knoll that served as an early Madison, Alabama burial oasis. I won’t burden you with the messy dendrology of the species I discovered, admired, and celebrated.

White oak.

A white oak stump resulted when workers removed the tree decapitated by an F-1 tornado passing nearby earlier in the summer. I accepted the carnage as a gift, permitting me to do a ring count. The tree aged at 103 years, confirming that the tree regenerated at the time of cemetery abandonment and neglect.

The annual rings of oak are easy to count.

I assume that this 44-inch diameter white oak is older, and probably shaded a segment of the cemetery for decades prior to service and maintenance ceased.

See this spectacular white oak on my 27-second video:

Sweetgum (left) is one of our common Alabama forest denizens. The species aggressively colonizes abandoned crop, pasture, grasslands, and cemeteries. Sugar maple (right).

Likewise, water oak is ubiquitous in our area.

As are species of hickory.

Black cherry, not a valuable timber species in northern Alabama, does regenerate valiantly and works its way into the intermediate canopy.

Eastern redcedar is a prolific pioneer species. This one is notably large and vibrant. What a magnificent crown, with laddered branching that reaches high above.

I recorded a 57-second video of the handsome Eastern redcedar tree.

I mentioned the low intensity tornado that side-swiped the old cemetery. It toppled a large loblolly pine.

The fallen pine, like most of the trees standing within the cemetery, probably dates back to abandonment.

Cemetery Remnants

I had not previously seen such brick tombs.

Here is the oldest interment at Gray Cemetery. I am sure that Mrs. Gray’s story is rich with life and living, and that many loved and loving descendents mourned her passing.

Local celebrated local historian John Rankin shared some time with us. He knows many of the stories that enrich our cemetery explorations and reflections.

I recorded this 60-second video showing the four types of tombs.

This is a box tomb.

An Irish stone tomb.

And another example of a standard vertical tombstone.

Cemetery Critters

Among the departed humans, I found evidence of a current living resident — the shed skin of a grey ratsnake.

And a hackberry emperor butterfly.

Throughout our vibrant ecosystems, including the human realm, life and death are intertwined.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Nature is adept at disappearing (i.e., hiding, obscuring, and concealing) the dedicated works of man. (Steve Jones)
Throughout our vibrant ecosystems, including the human realm, life and death are intertwined. (Steve Jones)
This incredible cemetery is a gem recovered from a jungle of natural vegetation and vibrant second-growth forest that strangled the cemetery for a full century. (Steve Jones)

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: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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