conservation Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

What’s Happening in the Old Riparian Hardwood Forests that I Wander (and Wonder): Part Two

August 14, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I offer Part Two of my examination of What’s Happening in the Old Riparian Forests, which I frequently explore at the nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. These forests date back to the 1930s when the TVA and Corps of Engineers acquired acreage destined for Wheeler Lake inundation and adjoining buffer lands associated with those properties. I set the stage for this essay last week with Part One: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/08/07/whats-happening-in-the-old-riparian-hardwood-forests-that-i-wander-and-wonder-part-one/

I have mentally labored on this Next Forest topic for several years as I’ve repeatedly bushwhacked through the riparian hardwood forests of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, publishing a series of more than two dozen photo essays of my observations, reflections, photographs, and short videos beginning in January 2018. I begin this photo essay with several questions:

Are these 90-year-old forests actively transitioning? Last week I answered, no.
What factors will trigger a transition? What are the threshold criteria?
When can we expect it to occur?
How will we recognize it?

The Next Forest: When and What

I won’t speculate on when Nature will pressure the forest to cross the threshold. Without excess verbiage, I will chronicle the understory tree regeneration I recorded on July 6. Consider each individual as part of the next generation forest in reserve, banked and awaiting a threshold disturbance.

Future Subordinate Canopy Components

Redbud and sassafras are present in abundance. Redbud is a pioneer species, effectively occupying roadside edges, brushy meadows transitioning to forest, and newly disturbed forestland (storm or harvest). I’ve seen redbud emerge into the intermediate canopy but never into the upper reaches. Sassafras is another pioneer species. It occasionally reaches into the upper canopy, but I have never seen it rise to a dominant position. In sum, I would characterize redbud as a forest understory species and sassafras as an intermediate. Neither will be a major constituent of the next forest.

Muscadine awaits a major disturbance, full sunlight, and new tree transport into the next canopy. As peculiar as it may sound, muscadine will likely occupy the eventual emergent forest. Unlike the mighty oak that relies on its own devices to ascend to a dominant position, muscadine grasps oaks and other main-canopy-destined tree species, and gets a direct vertical transport. As the tree grows, the vine tags along into the ever-available full sunlight.

I found only a few individuals of parsley hawthorn and Atlantic poison oak. The parsley hawthorn is a small tree or shrub; the poison oak will seldom exceed 3-4 feet. Both will be present in the understory of the next forest.

Red buckeye and paw paw appeared sporadically. They both are normally present in the understory, although I have seen paw pay in the mid-story.

Ironwood (Ostrya virginiana) stands ready to assume a mid-canopy position in a new forest. I have never observed it in a main canopy.

I am certain that I missed many other woody species; don’t view my listing as exhaustive.

Future Dominant Canopy Components

With the exception of muscadine, the above documented species will not occupy the main canopy of the next Refuge bottomland hardwood forest. I’ll now review some species I photographed on July 6 that will dominate the overstory. Yellow poplar and sweetgum are poised to mine sunshine post-disturbance. I estimate that together sweetgum and yellow poplar account for 10-15 percent of the current main canopy stocking. I base my estimates on observations and not measurements, a luxury afforded old geezers who are not authoring refereed scientific journal articles!

Red maple may constitute five percent of the present overstory.

Green ash seedlings cover the forest floor in a few areas, but the species represents perhaps five percent of the main canopy.

I saw little advanced regeneration on the forest floor in much of the seasonally-inundated soils.

Willow oak and water oak seedlings less than two-feet tall dotted these wet sites; the seedlings below are willow oaks. I will not attempt to separate the existing main canopy distribution by individual oak species. Instead, I estimate that all oak species combined (principally northern and southern red; willow and water; cherry bark; chinkapin; white) constitute 50 percent.

This is chinkapin oak. I found no red, white, or cherry bark oak seedlings. Allow me to repeat a qualification to these observations and reflections. Were I still a practicing forest scientist seeking refereed journals to publish my results, I would conduct rigorous field surveys to quantify current stand composition and systematically inventory advanced regeneration. However, I am a retired, 73-year-old Nature enthusiast, who seeks to ponder questions of his own design, and proffer answers and speculations to share with others.

Hickory species account for 20 percent of the current stocking, predominantly shagbark. This is one of the few hickories I found.

Although the overstory has a few American beech, black cherry, and sugarberry trees, my July 6, trek encountered no individuals on the forest floor. A single loblolly pine seedling appeared within my sight. Together, I estimate that these four species represent no more than five percent of the bottomland forest overstory.

I am certain that when I next visit this forest I will see a main canopy species or two that I failed to include in this discussion. I don’t believe that such omission will discredit any of the reflections and conclusion I am about to share with you.

Summary and Conclusions

First and foremost, the forest is changing. Individual main canopy tree are succumbing to wind, lightning, and the associated effects of decay and weakening. Not a single one of these individual trees dying or toppling, even those that occupied large aerial spaces (up to one-fifth acre), is encouraging colonization of the affected forest floor by tree regeneration. Nearby trees expand their crowns rapidly into the resultant canopy void, effectively limiting sunlight reaching the forest floor to a time period insufficient to permit regeneration to establish and develop. Simply the level of disturbance and rate of attrition are not triggering an obvious transition to a new forest.

What will it take to trigger the transition to a new forest? I know from my work in northern hardwood forests that an essential transition factor is not apparent in our Refuge bottomland forests. There is no shade tolerant intermediate vertical tier of trees (in the north: American beech; yellow birch; sugar maple; and eastern hemlock) positioned to emerge into the upper canopy when large individual and clusters of main canopy trees die or fall. As I observed in Part One, these stands have an understory of subordinate woody trees, but no intermediate structure of future main canopy emergent species.

I am convinced that without a major disturbance (to include: tropical systems transporting wind north from the Gulf; derechos; microbursts; tornados; severe ice storms), the forest will continue to lose individual trees. Remaining trees will capitalize on the crown voids and add girth. We’ll observe fewer trees per acre. The average diameter of the residuals…the survivors…will increase rapidly on these extraordinarily fertile moist soils. Keep in mind that, like all living organisms, trees have finite life spans.

Eventually, a force will trigger renewal. Nature abhors a vacuum. Full sunlight on the forest floor will stimulate all of the species chronicled above. Other bird-disseminated and windblown seed species will find purchase and germinate. A new forest will emerge. Time and intense competition will sort the winners and losers. Nature won’t allocate space by some artificial construct like diversity, equity, and inclusion. Performance will determine the nature, structure, and composition of the new forest. My guess is that ninety years from that critical trigger event, the forest will look a lot like the one where I wonder and wander.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Nature sleuthing involves seeing, understanding, and appreciating what lies hidden in plain sight.
First and foremost, the subject forest is changing…but not yet transitioning to a new forest.
It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. (Attributed to Yogi Berra)
My observations, reflections, and predictions are science-informed…and far from clairvoyant!

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

What’s Happening in the Old Riparian Hardwood Forests that I Wander (and Wonder): Part One

August 7, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I have mentally labored on this topic for several years as I’ve repeatedly bushwhacked through the riparian hardwood forests of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, publishing a series of more than two dozen photo essays of my observations, reflections, photographs, and short videos beginning in January 2018. Musing on how these forests will develop 25, 50, and 100 years hence and beyond, I often include photos depicting disturbance. I focus on the changing face of these rich alluvial bottomlands and their majestic forests. I reported three epic oak blowdowns in my June 13, 2023 photo essay chronicling storm damage to big oaks during the winter of 2022-23: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2023/06/13/winter-2022-23-wind-demise-of-multiple-big-oaks-on-the-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge/

These riparian forest soils are seasonally wet. Strong winds can break these mighty oak trunks, as above, or topple the tree by wrenching roots from their soil grip.

Do these individual tree occurrences signal a major forest renewal shift? I answer simply, “Not yet.” I will present a more complete response in this photo essay.

I published another photo essay on the January 2022, tornado that cut a swath across the northern end of Blackwell Swamp at the Refuge: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/05/04/aftermath-of-january-1-2022-tornado-at-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge/

The storm shattered this bur oak that when I photographed it a few weeks after, I thought spelled its certain demise. However, when I returned on July 6, 2024, the tree (center right) showed vigorous regrowth shrouding the splintered trunk.

These forests date back to the 1930s when the TVA and Corps of Engineers acquired acreage destined for Wheeler Lake inundation and adjoining buffer lands associated with those properties. The approximate 35,000-acre Refuge’s hardwood forests regenerated naturally; pine forests include hand-planted agricultural fields and natural mixed pine.

The forests have reached an age when forces of Nature are removing scattered large dominant trees like the windthrow at left and the standing large dead (lightning or fungal pathogen killed) tree at right.

I’m estimating that the dominant (upper crown class) oak below died 2-4 years ago, enough time elapsing that all but its three largest branches have weakened and yielded to gravity. Only a relatively small canopy opening surrounds the deceased crown. Adjoining trees are aggressively closing the gap. The tree’s demise did not bring sustained sunlight to the forest floor, a necessity for encouraging a replacement forest to respond.

A powerful September 2023 lightning bolt killed this 30-inch diameter red oak. The surrounding trees are already snuffing the temporarily opened canopy (right).

In time, the forest will change, even with the periodic random death of individual and small groups of dominant trees. What will the new forest look like; how will it evolve? I begin this discussion with comments on these two distorted individuals.

Physical injury earlier in their lives created the disfigurement. Fifty years from now the forest where the tornado touched down will be dense with trees scarred and misshapen by the storm’s fury. I attribute these two tree form oddities to the logging that accompanied acquiring buffer lands along the 1930s soon-to-be lake bed. Loggers cut and transported only merchantable timber (meeting size and market criteria). They left trees too small and of insufficient quality. Many of the nonmerchantable trees suffered physical damage, ensuring that the new forest harbored relics of odd and curious shapes.

This December 21, 2023 photo essay from my September 2023 saunter in the same forest provides more detail: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2023/12/21/an-aging-riparian-hardwood-forest-on-the-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge/

Pondering the Next Forest

I returned to the forest along HGH Road on Saturday July 6, 2024. A 30-inch white oak demonstrates the fertility and capability of this bottomland site to produce high quality timber.

It stands firmly and stoutly, while this neighboring oak yielded to disease agents within the past five years. However, its story is complex. It stood for several years after succumbing, while a brown rot decay fungus consumed its whiter cellulose “carbohydrates, leaving the brownish, oxidized lignin. There is no fibrous texture because the cellulose is broken up early. The wood shrinks on drying and cross-checking is seen in later stages. It is often called cubical brown rot for that reason” (online forest pathology reference). The standing dead tree collapsed within the past several months.

I recorded this 58-second video at the tree’s stump:

The trunk lies where it recently fell, not yet recycling into the forest floor. Five years after the tree died there is still not a surge in understory response from the assumed large canopy opening. The void quickly refilled from the adjoining tree canopy expansion. I have characterized these nearly century-old riparian forests as old growth. However, while they express some features of an old growth forest (large individuals and lots of dead and down woody debris), other criteria are absent: vertically tiered canopy; uneven age; large openings. Old age forests are constantly renewing through attrition and replacement. There is no replacement in these forests.

Dominant trees are leaving the stand, usually one tree at a time, creating large canopy voids that quickly refill. The forest is changing, but it is not yet renewing. More radical change (i.e. replacement) will require a higher level of disturbance. This dominant canopy tree toppled within the past three years; its trunk and much of its crown extends one hundred feet beyond.

Only an uprooted heavily decayed stump remains in place from this fallen giant. Its remnant pit and mound mark the spot where it stood.

I recorded this 58-second video at the spot.

Winter winds wrenched this oak from its anchorage.

Examples abound of a forest approaching a transition threshold, when renewal (replacement) will initiate.

Tornado Forest Rebirth

Only two miles away, a January 1, 2022, F-0 or F-1 tornado triggered an immediate transition from closed forest to overstory collapse.

I recorded this 48-second video on my July 2024 visit:

The forest is renewing. Snags are welcoming birds of all manner, including the perching redtail hawk at right.

So, the tornado triggered forest renewal. The persistent individual main canopy attrition has not.

I’ll issue Part Two of this tale next week, when I chronicle the woody understory species I photographed July 6, 2024, and offer my tentative look ahead 25, 50, and 100 years hence.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Nothing in Nature is static.
Every tree, every stand, and every forest has a story to tell; I love to read the forested landscape.
I practice forensic forestry, my retirement craft of interpreting the stories and retelling their tale in simple layman’s language.
Albert Einstein advised, “Look deep into Nature, and then you will understand everything better.

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

I now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story.

Near-Solstice Sunset Over Huntsville, from Blevins Gap Nature Preserve

July 31, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I assist fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger who leads the OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville) Outdoor Member Interest Group (OMIG). Friday evening June 21, 2024, approximately 15 of the 100 OMIG members participated in a two-mile hike along the Blevins Gap Nature Preserve’s Varnedoe Trail, returning us to the trailhead parking lot to view sunset over Huntsville, Alabama, and the Tennessee Valley.

I offer observations, reflections, photos, and two short videos on what caught my eye along the trail and the special sights and inspirations of a Solstice sunset.

Gathering

Chris (blue shirt and arm gesture) welcomed us at the trailhead.

Chris and I lead two types of walks for OLLI: hikes and Nature walks. This one is dubbed a hike. Knowing that, I am sure to fall behind because I stop frequently to explore, examine, and photograph. And so it developed, yet I made it to the sunset viewing with time to spare!

Two-Mile Evening Hike

We spent most of our hike along the Varnedoe Trail.

Because most OLLI members are retirees we represent an age cohort that I would have considered ancient when I was 30! Today from my viewpoint of 73 (nearly three-quarters of a century), the photo below shows a couple of hardy “young” men coursing along the trail! See the smiles; ignore the grunts and heavy breathing!

I recorded this 55-second video to capture the mood and character of the forest and the seasoned saunterers trekking toward the sunset:

No, I mean the literal sunset…not some oblique symbolic intimation that we are approaching our life’s sunset from a long-ago and distant dawn. However, I must admit to pondering that coming final sunset that we all must face. I see irony in writing these words above a photo of my four hiking companions rounding a fallen hickory tree. Every day wandering forests I am reminded that father time and gravity are undefeated.

Nothing in our forests is static. People unfamiliar with the ways of forests believe that our forests are unchanging. Yet recently fallen trees (left) relate a different tale. Below right, Bob paused to photograph the large tree’s moss skirt while standing in a hollow…a depression…created by a large tree that tumbled many decades ago, lifting its root ball forming the pit. That fallen tree has long since decomposed, leaving only the pit and mound from its wind-driven demise.

I’ve observed often that every tree in every forest has a story to tell. This oak retains the scar of a lightning strike that traveled down (or up) the tree’s spiral grain years ago, long enough to permit the tree to callous over the open wound created by the searing blast.

Earlier this spring trail maintenance crews removed a section from this black locust tree that fell across the trail. The fresh cut reveals the story of this tree’s life. The cut face is about three feet from the trunk’s base. An old sapling-aged wound (a buck rub?) served as an infection court for a decay fungus. The vigorous young locust successfully calloused over the wound. I rough-counted 70-80 annual rings. Because black locust is a pioneer species requiring full sunlight to establish and prosper, I deduce that the entire stand is 70-90 years old, established following timber harvesting mid Twentieth Century.

The trail by-passed another fallen oak, this one wrenched violently from the ground as evidenced by the roots that made a valiant effort to resist the overwhelming pull of gravity. Some of my forestry student colleagues wondered all those many years ago why we were required to take Physics. One only ponder the forces at work in this photograph to yield a partial answer.

Taking those few photographs and pondering the meaning is the reason I (and John Muir among others) insist upon sauntering within the forest…eschewing hell-bent hiking through the forest.

Noteworthy Plants Encountered

Although my forester’s eye is drawn to trees, I do not limit my gaze and interest to the overstory denizens. Indian plantain welcomed us along the trail. There is a time to every season and apparently summer solstice is the time for this species to flower.

Head high in places, we walked through an understory garden. I don’t recall previously seeing such a robust colony.

Black cohosh, also is full flower, intermixed where the plantain flourished, suggesting that both species share a soil-site preference. I focused my doctoral research on the soil-site relationships of Allegheny Hardwoods in NW Pennsylvania and SW New York. An ancient ember from that three-year intensive field and literature investigation still smolders within, imploring me to learn more about why the plantain and cohosh thrive along this limited mountainside stretch.

My curiosity spurs from the same entreaty that stirred Albert Einstein when he observed, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” He also said, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

Just a few weeks ago I encountered a rusty blackhaw in full flower at Joe Wheeler State Park. Now, the season has raced forward to this rusty blackhaw with fully developed (not yet ripe) fruit. I appreciate its glossy, somewhat waxy leaves.

I am certain that I missed many other features worthy of examination, but sunset would not be delayed by further exploration!

Milk-white Toothed Polypore

Well, I could not resist a brief sauntering interruption. How could even the most ardent through-hiker not delay to photograph the trailside milk-white toothed polypore? Like the locust, this red oak had fallen across the trail. Wikipedia described this species: “Irpex lacteus is a white rot fungus that inhabits mainly angiosperm (hardwoods) branches and trunks. It is one of the most common wood-rotting fungi for instance in urban North America. It is inedible.”

At first, iNaturalist identified this specimen as the very delightfully-named dog vomit slime mold, which I questioned at home with reference books. The slime mold (not a fungus) is more amorphous, appearing as an unconsolidated mass. The polypore has distinctive fungal characteristics.

The pending sunset, not at all amorphous, awaited us.

Sunset

I asked several people watching the sunset to point west. Without fail, everyone confidently directed me toward the setting sun. However, only the equinox sunsets would drop the sun due west. At our latitude, the summer solstice sun sets 30 north of due west. During our four years residing in Fairbanks, Alaska, the summer solstice sun set at 80 degrees north of west!

As I’ve mentioned many times previously, a still photograph is worth a thousand words; a brief video offers another order of magnitude increase in the strength of story told. I captured the essence in this 54-second video:

The image tells a tale that my words cannot enrich.

My two Alabama grandsons (Jack, the taller 16 years, and Sam 10 years) accompanied me.

Albert Einstein encapsulated my delight in sharing Nature’s magic with Sam and Jack:

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.

The sunset progressed rhythmically: 7:55 and 8:00 PM.

At 8:02 the sun kissed the horizon. My tree of life will live on through many future sunsets…long after my wilted leaves drop.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. I have no special talents; I am only passionately curious. (Albert Einstein)
The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark. (John Muir)

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

Exploring Madison, Alabama’s New Rainbolt Trail in the Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve

July 24, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On May 16, 2024, I explored the newly constructed Rainbolt Trail on Madison, Alabama’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve. Four months following my left knee replacement surgery, I felt ready to tackle the 350-foot vertical ascent without slowing my colleagues. I trailed the group, but mostly to take photographs along the trail’s two-thirds of a mile length, connecting on top to the existing trail network.

Incessant cicada thrumming accompanied us from bottom to top and on return, yet as I type these observations and reflections on June 8, the insects’ 13-year burst of life has quieted.

I recorded this 45-second video on our ascent:

Botanical Panoply

I refuse to burden you with detailed botanicals on every plant species we encountered. My point in listing them is to empathize that a simple saunter can reveal variety and mystery for those not intent upon counting steps and rushing along the trail. I did not recognize coral berry. iNaturalist serves me well. I no longer carry a back pack with reference books and field guides!

Often confused with poison oak, fragrant sumac lined the lower slopes in places. Summer grape was another I could not immediately recognize. I admit that identifying plants I once knew on sight comes with ever increasing effort. One month from my 73rd birthday (AKA the 43rd anniversary of my 30th birthday), I worry that the long journey of life, vigor, and mental acuity (shall I say acrobatics!?), has summited and the descent is at hand.

Nestled in a limestone ledge crevice, a blunt woodsia fern flourishes.

Carolina climbing milkweed is another hillside resident I did not recognize. What a flawless great green leaf!

And with the showy leaf, the vine presented a flower cluster, which I failed to capture clearly with my iPhone (left). So, I shamelessly borrowed an internet image (right).

I am not distinguishing the Rainbolt trail images from photographs I took on top as we trekked along the existing trail to Balance Rock, prickly pear cactus among them.

A trumpet vine already with a seed pod greeted us.

Heart-leafed skullcap populated trailside from top to bottom.

Other Delights

A mighty oak is no match for a limestone ledge. When an immovable object (the ledge) meets with an unstoppable force (the growing oak) , we found that the mighty oak is not entirely up to the challenge. Nature’s persistence, however does reward the oak as it grows valiantly around the immovable ledge, continuing to reach its leaves into the main canopy, adding annual diameter growth, and producing seeds to retain a foothold in the forest that will follow this one. Procreation is life’s ultimate objective. This oak is literally clinging to that goal.

Always alert for tree form curiosities and oddities, I spotted these oak and cedar branch burls.

I like fresh late autumn persimmon fruit, but I love the unique, blocky, nearly black bark of the persimmon tree.

I can’t resist snapping a photo. I asked my self whether it is my favorite tree bark, a fair question. Without elaborating and boring you to tears, I will respond, yes, but….I have deep affection for black cherry in northwest Pennsylvania, red oak in the Smokies, shagbark hickory right here where I reside, white pine in New England, and loblolly pine where I practiced industrial forestry across the southeastern US. Aldo Leopold observed some 80 years ago:

I love all trees, but I am in love with pines.

I still ponder, do I have a true tree love? Perhaps there will come a day when I make a selection and reveal to you in a subsequent Post.

After wondering the forests of northern Alabama for nearly a decade, I have concluded, based on historical accounts and direct observation that most of our forest stands are 80-100 years old. The Rainbolt Trail construction crew removed several trees obstructing the desired route. Conveniently, one was this green ash, a ring-porous species that is among the easiest to count annual rings. The cut (left) is a foot above the stump. The rings number 90! My 80-100 year conclusion holds.

I recorded this 49-second video where Rainbolt reaches the summit and the network of existing trails:

Summit trails are flat.

They strike me as a natural ‘paved’ surface.

We wound our way to the Balance Rock, a natural feature I have visited dozens of times.

I enjoyed exploring the new trail with fellow retired friends Randy Boyette, Jim Chamberlain, Chris Stuhlinger, and Jim Chamberlain.

Like the 13-year cicadas that provided the background thrumming, every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by Nature. There is a time for every season (Ecclesiastes):

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.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

The cicadas remind us — there is a time for every season.
Procreation is life’s ultimate objective.
A new trail is a gateway to discovering old secrets.

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

Nature’s Delights Along the New Karst Trail at Alabama’s Rickwood Caverns State Park

July 18, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I sauntered Rickwood Caverns State Park’s new Karst Trail on May 15, 2024 with Park Manager Bridgette Bennett, Northwest District Naturalist Amber Conger, and fellow Alabama State Park Foundation Board member Tom Cosby (and his wife Gail).

Although we met to discuss Board business, I focus this photo essay to our Nature discoveries along the trail. As with most of our State Parks, Rickwood welcomes visitors with attractive signage.

Our Board business related to discussing Bridgette’s vision for a modern playground at Rickwood and other parks. Rickwood’s is aging, falling short of visitors’ expectations and demands.

Equipment is functional, but merely adequate.

I recorded this 42-second video at the playground and picnic area:

The pool remains a major crowd pleaser.

Karst Trail

As promised, I will focus this Post on the new Karst Trail, constructed to transit the Park’s recently acquired 57 acres, rich with maturing forest and distinctive karst (limestone) topography.

The trail is gentle, relatively flat, and generally free of toe-stubbing roots and ankle-twisting rocks, important features for a guy still recovering from left knee replacement and anticipating replacement for his ailing right knee.

I recorded this 60-second video along the trail:

We dealt with the other worldly thrum of the 13-year cicadas for the entire trek.

Wildflowers and Special Understory Plants

Because I tallied and photographed an impressive array of natural delights, I won’t burden readers with excessive text. In most cases, I will simply offer an identification.

Striped wintergreen presents speckled, white-striped, deep green leaves and the promise of its pearly white flowers, still enclosed by its tight buds.

Small’s sanicle presented its fully open greenish-yellow flowers.

The much more showy and brilliantly white redring milkcap merits my day’s award for floral excellence!

Even the mournful thyris moth expressed hearty approval and appreciation for the flower’s beauty and nectar!

I award rusty blackhaw my shrub with the glossiest leaves recognition.

I am a tireless fan of resurrection fern, an aerial clinging plant that is deep green and turgid when rains moisten trunks where it grows, and desiccates deathlike when dry weather prevails.

This catalog of interesting plants was not exhaustive.

Mushrooms (and friend), Moss, and Lichens

Likewise, I will present just a few of the fungi we encountered. appropriately named, we spotted several clusters of jellied false coral

I find trooping crumble cap mushrooms fascinating. Appearing as helmeted soldiers in formation, the trooping moniker is apropos.

Poised for assault of the trunk, the mushrooms seem enforced by the white oak tree’s mossy skirt.

One of my favorite edible mushrooms, jelly tree ear mushrooms colonized this downed log.

Closer examinations of the wood ears revealed this button snail (our special friend) enjoying either the mushroom or something growing on it.

We identified another mushroom bearing the term troop in its name: cross-veined troop mushroom, similarly massing in formation on a dead standing hardwood snag.

Nature creates unlimited artwork with lichens and mosses on this sugar maple sapling.

Rock moss in spring-dappled sunshine lighted our way, allowing me to introduce and spotlight the Alabama Park System’s first ever Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger…responsible for education and interpretation staff and programs at Rickwood Caverns, Cathedral Caverns, Lake Lurleen, Joe Wheeler, and Monte Sano State Parks.

A Very Special Treat

I’ve been traversing our Alabama State Parks for seven years without spotting a timber rattlesnake…until this saunter at Rickwood Caverns!

We stopped when we completed our Karst Trail circuit, reflecting on our saunter. I looked down at just one more cicada corpse and noticed at trailside a magnificent timber rattlesnake, lying still with nary a rattle. We admired its beauty, snapped a few photos, and recorded a video, then hurried along without disturbing it.

Here is that 36-second video:

I have too often heard ignorant and poorly educated outdoor recreationists say, “The only good snake is a dead snake.” I won’t attempt to disabuse those incurable malcontents in this Post. Instead I defer to John Muir’s wisdom:

Nevertheless, again and again, in season and out of season, the question comes up, “What are rattlesnakes good for?” As if nothing that does not obviously make for the benefit of man had any right to exist; as if our ways were Gods’ ways…. Anyhow, they are all, head and tail, good for themselves, and we need not begrudge them their share of life.

I turn also to Aldo Leopold:

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts?

The snake is a permanent resident; we are but visitors and interlopers. We must understand, respect, and revere life that resides within the ecosystems we visit.

Rickwood Cavern

I conclude with two photographs from the cavern…and offer them only with encouragement to visit the Park and experience its underground beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition of my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.

I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

The Foundation exists to provide incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.

We are blessed in Alabama to have our Park System. Watch for future Great Blue Heron Posts as I continue to explore and enjoy these treasures that belong to us. I urge you to discover the Alabama State Parks near you. Follow the advice of John Muir:

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.

In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

We sauntered if for no purpose other than to discover what we did not anticipate.
Sauntering through the forest we discovered treasures sufficient to extend the day and multiply our delight.
I pity those trail travelers busied with their digital device and content only to count their steps.
The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, “What good is it?” (Aldo Leopold)

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

Brief-Form Post #34: Late April Birding Exploration at Madison, Alabama’s Creekwood Park and Indian Creek Greenway!

July 11, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 34th of my GBH Brief Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

I am a wanna-be birder, a lifelong Nature enthusiast with a Forestry BS and a PhD in Applied Ecology, and a woodland wanderer wherever my life and travels have taken me. I’ve lived in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Ohio, New Hampshire, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Alaska. I’ve journeyed to and through every state except Hawaii. International travels included Canada, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Kazakhstan, China, Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Yugoslavia. I’ve heard and seen birds everywhere and wished to know their identity and story.

Finally, five years into retirement, I stepped toward learning more about the avian world. I enrolled in a University of Alabama in Huntsville OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) North Alabama Birding course taught by Alabama A&M Professor Emeritus of Ornithology, Dr. Ken Ward. Our capstone field lab on April 25, 2024, took us to Madison Alabama’s Creekwood Park and adjacent Indian Creek Greenway, an area Ken described as a spring migration hotspot.

And so right he was! We (he) tallied 68 bird species seen, both seen and heard, or heard. You can review his comprehensive list at the end of this Post. I admit to deferring to his lifetime-trained ears for identifying species by call. He also spotted and identified fleeting images of treetop and brush inhabitants. I have a long way to go to become even an amateur birder. My knowledge and skills can go only in one direction. Ken and my classmates opened me to better ways of looking, hearing, and seeing.

I knew coming into the course that diverse habitats enrich species diversity, whether plants or all manner of living creatures. The Park and Greenway offered such diversity. Open meadows, mowed grass, woods edge, forest, stream, bog, and swamp comprised the areas we observed.

Our spirits soared on a perfect weather morning. Smiles and enthusiasm prevailed, along with a sense of wonder and awe for the avian variety we encountered.

Indian Creek had overflowed its banks more than once over the winter and spring. The forest below retained flood water not yet absorbed or drained, just one of the diverse habitats.

Indian Creek provided fresh flowing water. A mallard drake paddled contentedly at right.

I recorded this 60-second video of the stream at Creekwood Park

A willow thicket at the Park attracted throngs of cedar waxwings foraging willow seeds.

A small feeder freshet surged past butterweed blooms before emptying into Indian Creek.

I recorded this 30-second video of Indian Creek along the Greenway.

Beavers keep the wetland and swamp habitat intact south of the park along the Greenway.

The forester and tree enthusiast within me could not resist this park eastern red cedar, its roots tracing a comprehensive highway map.

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Today, I borrow the words of John James Audubon:

If only the bird with the loveliest song sang, the forest would be a lonely place. Never give up listening to the sounds of birds.

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

Appendix

Ken Ward’s tally for our excursion to Creekwood Park and Indian Creek Greenway, Madison, Alabama, US Apr 25, 2024 7:07 AM – 11:37 AM

Protocol: Traveling

4.5 mile(s)

68 species

Canada Goose 10 (species followed by number of individuals observed)

Mallard 6

Mourning Dove 8

Chimney Swift 4

Solitary Sandpiper 2

Great Egret 1

Great Blue Heron 5

Turkey Vulture 1

Bald Eagle 1

Red-shouldered Hawk 2

Belted Kingfisher 3

Red-bellied Woodpecker 14

Downy Woodpecker 10

Pileated Woodpecker 2

Northern Flicker 3

Eastern Wood-Pewee 4

Eastern Phoebe 5

Great Crested Flycatcher 1

Eastern Kingbird 2

White-eyed Vireo 8

Yellow-throated Vireo 1

Red-eyed Vireo 2

Blue Jay 10

American Crow 5

Carolina Chickadee 2

Tufted Titmouse 14

Northern Rough-winged Swallow 4

Barn Swallow 8

White-breasted Nuthatch 2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 5

House Wren 1

Carolina Wren 20

European Starling 10

Gray Catbird 4

Brown Thrasher 1

Northern Mockingbird 6

Eastern Bluebird 6

Wood Thrush 2

American Robin 30

Cedar Waxwing 35

House Finch 6

American Goldfinch 14

Chipping Sparrow 2

Field Sparrow 6

Song Sparrow 4

Eastern Towhee 1

Yellow-breasted Chat 1

Eastern Meadowlark 1

Orchard Oriole 1

Baltimore Oriole 1

Red-winged Blackbird 15

Brown-headed Cowbird 14

Common Grackle 27

Northern Waterthrush 2

Prothonotary Warbler 2

Tennessee Warbler 12

Nashville Warbler 1

Common Yellowthroat 2

Northern Parula 4

Yellow Warbler 2

Palm Warbler 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler 16

Yellow-throated Warbler 1

Summer Tanager 8

Scarlet Tanager 1

Northern Cardinal 25

Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1

Indigo Bunting 14

Education and Interpretation: Adding Value to Experiencing Alabama’s State Parks

July 3, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

A lifetime Nature enthusiast, I retired and we relocated to Madison, Alabama in 2018 to be near our daughter and her two sons. We viewed this relocation as the final of 13 interstate moves across our careers. As I adjusted to retirement, a small group of committed volunteers invited me to join their fledgling efforts to create the Alabama State Parks Foundation. I am a founding member of the ASPF Board. Since our first quarterly meeting, I have championed the cause of increasing the Park System’s capacity to perform the third of its three major functions: First, to acquire and preserve natural areas; second, to develop, furnish, operate, and maintain recreational facilities; and third, to extend the public’s knowledge of the state’s natural environment.

At the outset of my involvement, the System had staff naturalists at only Guntersville, DeSoto, Cheaha, and Gulf State Parks. The System now has dedicated naturalists at eleven parks, some of which have one or more assistant naturalists.

Early Introduction to Alabama State Park Naturalists

I am grateful for the gracious introductions to Guntersville, DeSoto, Gulf, and Cheaha State Parks that Naturalists Mike Ezell (retired), Britney Hughes, Kelly Reetz, and Mandy Pearson (elsewhere employed), respectively, shared with me. Consummate, dedicated, and passionate educators and interpreters one and all. I learned so very much…and continue to learn each time I interact with Alabama’s best and brightest!

Mike Ezell on an early morning above fog-draped Guntersville Lake. Britney Hughes leading us on a rain-enhanced tour of DeSoto rock formations.

Kelly Reetz standing at the gateway to the Gulf State Park Pier. Mandy Pearson welcoming me to the Cheaha Interpretive Center at Cheaha Lake.

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.) meshes well with the Park System’s education and interpretation objectives.

On May 7, 2024 I accepted an invitation to join Naturalists Renee Raney (Park System Chief of Education and Interpretation), Amber Coger (Northwest District Naturalist), Jennings Earnest (Joe Wheeler State Park Naturalist), and contracted writer Jeff Emerson to provide Jeff with insight to the practice, philosophy, and substance of State Park education and interpretation.

Here’s my 32-second video of the group under the Day Use Area pavilion at Joe Wheeler State Park:

[Note: Soul Grown published Jeff’s resultant article June 17, 2024: https://soul-grown.com/natures-wonder-book-alabama-state-parks-educate-and-inspire/]

Renee and I connected at Joe Wheeler SP September 19, 2023, to record a brief video promoting a University of Alabama in Huntsville OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) course on Alabama State Parks we would be teaching during the 2023 fall term.

We also recorded this 60-second video introducing Renee as the first-ever State Parks Chief of Education and Interpretation.

Renee’s passion for immersing children of all ages in Nature is limitless.

Nature education and interpretation is a contact sport!

Renee leads by example; her methods are contagious!

Words of Wisdom from from Some Epic American Conservationists

I am not alone nor am I the first person addicted to Nature education, interpretation, and study. I take great comfort in knowing that conservation giants long ago clearly stated the themes, constructs, and wisdom that came to me only over a five-decade career. The quotations below are not intended to be exhaustive, but only representative.

Theodore Roosevelt encapsulated the essential and necessary intended purpose of Alabama State Park education and interpretation:

It is an incalculable added pleasure to anyone’s sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.

Teddy’s insight could stand alone, yet there are others who helped weave the tapestry of Nature education and interpretation. Every State Park naturalist I have met is familiar with the Nature education and interpretation quilt and these significant conservationists.

Aldo Leopold, a mid-Twentieth Century forester and wildlife biologist, the author of A Sand County Almanac, wrote lyrically and philosophically:

Education (formal), I fear, is learning to see one thing by going blind to another.
Is education (formal) possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?
The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of eons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.

John Muir quotes from 150 years ago:

I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.
The power of imagination makes us infinite.

Einstein, to the dismay of many who know him only for his genius in physics and the philosophy of science, contributed to beautiful weaving that tells the story, wonder, magic, awe, and inspiration of Nature:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
All religions, arts, and sciences are branches of the same tree.
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.

Sauntering as a Technique for Experiencing and Learning from Nature

John Muir stands tall as an American conservationist and contemporary of Teddy Roosevelt. He echoed the sentiment I have expressed frequently in these Great Blue Heron photo essays: I hike the forest immersed in its essence, rather than rush through the forest intent upon reaching a destination.

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

Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862), an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher, likewise embraced sauntering.

It is a great art to saunter!
In his essay “Walking,” Thoreau emphasized the importance of sauntering and connecting with nature. For him, walking was a way to discover oneself, break free from societal constraints, and experience the world more authentically.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A contemporary of Thoreau, Emerson had a fascinating perspective on sauntering. In his essay “Literary Ethics,” he discussed the concept of sauntering, which he also refers to as “sauntering of the afternoon.”

Emerson believed that proper walking, or sauntering, goes beyond mere physical movement. It requires leaving everything behind and fully immersing oneself in the experience of the walk. Sauntering means forgetting the town, avoiding the well-defined road, and embracing the moment. It’s about being present and receptive to the world around us, rather than following a predetermined path.

So, I suggest next time you take a leisurely stroll, consider sauntering—let go of expectations, embrace spontaneity, and allow the experience to unfold naturally.

Jack Phillips, a naturalist, nature writer, and practicing arboricultural consultant, wrote in A Pocket Guide to Sauntering:

On May 1st, 1857, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau went for a walk in the woods. Each of them mentioned that walk in their journals but described completely different experiences. Thoreau wrote about his cleverness in fashioning a specimen box from birch bark and didn’t have much to say about his companion. Emerson, on the other hand, praised Thoreau for his cleverness in his journal entry and hoped that their walk together would heal a rift in their friendship. He envisioned a new collaboration: “We will make a book on walking, ’tis certain, & have easy lessons for beginners. Walking in Ten Lessons.” Ralph and Henry never wrote such a book. So the task fell to me. A Pocket Guide to Sauntering draws on the journals and essays of Emerson and Thoreau. Sauntering as a way of walking originates with Thoreau; New Tree School has clarified and adapted his philosophy. The Pocket Guide states that: “A saunter, properly undertaken, explores inner landscapes as well as the terrain being traversed. It is introspective while being shaped by the lay of the land.”

New Naturalists’ Enthusiasm and Passion

I recorded brief videos to introduce Jennings Earnest and Amber Coger. Video of Jennings:

Fun is an essential element of learning!

Video of Amber:

Amber carries her passion for environmental education and interpretation on her sleeve:

The reason why I still pursue this dream (environmental education and interpretation as a career) so fervently is because I truly feel like I am making a difference with our future generations. If one student that I have taught goes on to become a scientist or an environmental educator, I will feel that my life’s work is truly worth something. We spend so much of our time trudging away at our jobs, and I feel so incredibly lucky that I get to have a career that makes an impact for the better. Environmental Educators can truly make a difference. We aren’t in this field for the money, but the rewards we get from our work daily make us so much richer than those in the most financially lucrative of careers.

Sharing knowledge with kindred souls adds value to learning!

I met with then new naturalist Dylan Ogle last November at Wind Creek State Park. This brief video captures Dylan’s enthusiasm and love for the park and his new assignment:

Dylan, Jennings, Amber, and Renee remind me of the unfathomable joy I felt for each career step along my 50-year professional journey. I never held a job I didn’t love, even the tough ones and the stressful times. I never experienced a job-related misery that a trip into Nature could not dissipate.

I have said often to educators across my career, “People don’t care how much you know…until they know how much you care.” I asked an accompanying graduate student her impression of a lecture I had just given on Timber Taxation during my Penn State University tenure. She responded honestly, “Dull and uninspiring.” I decided then that dull and uninspiring does little to promote learning. Renee, Amber, Jennings, and Dylan bring excitement, passion, and enthusiasm to education and interpretation!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition of my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.

I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

The Foundation exists to provide incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.

We are blessed in Alabama to have our Park System. Watch for future Great Blue Heron Posts as I continue to explore and enjoy these treasures that belong to us. I urge you to discover the Alabama State Parks near you. Follow the advice of John Muir:

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.

In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Nature education and interpretation are best performed at a sauntering pace.
We sauntered if for no purpose other than to discover what we did not anticipate.
Sauntering through the forest we discovered treasures sufficient to extend the day and multiply our delight.
I pity those trail travelers busied with digital devices and content only to count their steps.

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

Brief-Form Post # 33: Mid-April Tree Form Oddities and Curiosities at Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park!

June 26, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 33rd of my GBH Brief Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

On April 17 and 18, 2024, I visited Joe Wheeler State Park for the quarterly meeting of the Alabama State Parks Foundation. Rather than present a single long Post from my wanderings during my free time, please look for four separate photo essays:

Reading evidence of past land use in the current 80-90-year-old forests
Tree form oddities and related curiosities — this Post
Lakeside forest panoply
Dawn from the Lodge docks

Tree Form Curiosities and Oddities

I arrived early enough on April 17, to saunter three miles on the Awesome Trail, departing from and returning to the boat landing parking lot. I employ the term saunter to emphasize the deliberate, observant pace I choose, electing to walk in Nature rather than dashing through her wildness. My intent is to look, see, and feel her beauty, magic, awe, and inspiration.

The coarse, tortured crown of the white oak near a bird blind caught my eye, drawing me closer.

A long-ago snapped branch on the right fork left a gaping mouth, where the tree is attempting and failing to callous over the old wound. Pursed lips seem to speak to those who saunter with eyes wide open, finding the visual gifts in plain sight. A hiker hellbent on covering the distance from the boat landing to the marina will certainly miss the tree shouting to be seen and heard.

A trailside hickory likewise sported an old branch scar, its “O” mouth callousing in feeble effort to close the wound, which beckons squirrels, birds, and other critters seeking shelter and dens.

This much smaller hickory peephole appears to be closing, and likely will unless a squirrel or woodpecker can hold the callousing at bay.

The sugar maple sapling, which is the same age as the oak and hickory overstory, supported a spiraled vine for decades, leaving the permanent imprint of its grasp. The vine is long since deceased and decayed. Sugar maple is shade tolerant and can persist in the under- and mid-story for decades, awaiting a major disturbance to blow down and lay flat the main canopy, exposing the maple to full sunlight and opening a portal to its evolutionarily response and emergence into the upper canopy of the next forest..

I encountered this mossy mid-canopy hickory, a headless silhouette ready to wrap its branch-arms around some hapless and careless woods-wanderer. I had stayed alert during my saunter and was not startled by its sudden trailside appearance. Pity the poor through-hiker who may have fared less well…but then that person would not have been startled by the unseen mossy forest denizen!

As a former practicing forester in south central Alabama (early to mid 1980s), I used prescribed fire as a forest management tool across thousands of acres. Ever on the alert for signs, I spotted charred bark on the loblolly pine (left) and the hickory. I know our State Park personnel occasionally employ fire, explaining why the Awesome Trail stands are free of extensive ground cover and jungle-like understory.

The graffiti-riddled American beech is not a tree form curiosity. Instead, it is an eyesore, a not-so-subtle reminder that human vanity is a powerful and disturbing force, one that brings some visitors to deface a feature of natural beauty that attracts the vast majority of us to Nature. The same can be said of those who discard candy wrappers, drink bottles, and cigarette butts!

Respectable saunterers and Nature enthusiasts Leave No Trace Behind beyond a footprint or two!

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Today, I borrow a relevant reflection from Henry David Thoreau:

It is a great art to saunter!

Perpetual Wasteland or Future Preserve: Madison, Alabama’s Abandoned Limestone Quarry

June 18, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

My total left knee replacement (January 23, 2024) healed enough by April 26, to allow me to comfortably explore old access roads on Madison, Alabama’s long abandoned limestone quarry, a site proposed by Madison Trails and Greenways (MTG) as a potential Nature Preserve. I snapped photographs and recorded a 60-second video of the old quarry. When I returned home I found excellent photos depicting Nature’s tireless revegetation of the abused and savaged land at the quarry’s periphery. I also discovered that my iPhone had recorded the 60-second video in a 5-minute slow-motion format! I returned on May 28 to record another quarry video, snap a few photos of additional wildflowers, and record a second video of a stripped and vacant operational area on the outlet’s lower slope below the quarry.

Some of my MTG colleagues view the site’s preserve potential through rose-colored glasses. I visited the property prepared to assess it objectively and dispassionately. Once in my younger professional years, I was directly responsible for my employer’s (Union Camp Corporation) 500 square miles (320,000 acres) of south-central Alabama forestland, a majority untouched by attempted domestication as pasture or cropland, much less stripped of overburden, deeply scarred by quarrying, and with roads, dozing, and cement-dumping across much of the area we traversed. I tried to see the property without bias, yet I admit skepticism regarding categorizing a savaged abused land as a Nature Preserve.

I will attempt to reflect on the quarry in light of a potential refuge in a county rapidly developing with residential, commercial, and industrial expansion. Perhaps a 66 acre property, severely disturbed as it is, can serve a useful role in recreation, conservation, and Nature education and interpretation.

I divided this photo essay into presenting the actual quarry and reflecting on Nature’s attempt to revegetate the abused land, which prior to the quarry cutting and lifting the first block of limestone was a Madison County forested hilltop. Questions I have not answered include:

Who operated the quarry?
Beginning when?
Ending when?
Quality of the limestone removed?

Fascinating and Colorful Background

My efforts to uncover historic information on the quarry’s operations fell far short of my target.

Instead, I found this undated text from a website on Alabama diving:

Once closed to diving, Madison Quarry, which is best known for its sunken Minuteman Missile, is a fantastic place to visit. Located Southwest of Huntsville and maintained by a shop called Better Divers, this beautiful quarry is surrounded by soaring cliffs and has lots to see underwater, including an F-4 Phantom jet, a titan missile nose cone, houseboats and other boats, a pickup truck, a fire truck, and more. There are lines installed for controlled swimming ascents, plus there is a shallow confined water area for training. Maximum depth is 55 feet, but average depth is just 40 feet. Visibility is normally between 20 and 30 feet, and temperatures are normally in the 70’s during the summer months. You’ll find catfish and grass carp, brim, koi, and bass here, along with the occasional harmless freshwater jellyfish. Topside amenities are numerous, including a snack shop with hot food, changing rooms and restrooms, air fills, and more. Madison Quarry is open on weekends between May 1 through October 31st; if you have a group that wants to dive on a weekday, you can make an appointment to do so.

And from another website:

Rock Divers Madison Quarry is a shore accessible fresh water dive site, located in Madison, AL. This dive site has an average rating of 3.67 out of 5 from 9 scuba divers. The maximum depth is 31-35ft/9-11m. The average visibility is 11-15ft/3-5m. This dive site provides bathrooms and airfills. Training platforms are available.

Madison Alabama – The city owns it and there’s a guy who leases it and charges to dive there.

Water visibility varies from 20 to 40 feet depending upon “new” divers in the water and rainfall. Water temperature is usually hovers between mid 60’s and 70’s year round with a normal low in winter of 50 to a high of 85 in the summer. The Park has a Full Service Dive Shop offering SCUBA classes, equipment rental, air, and equipment sales. Facilities include underwater training platforms, a 30-foot houseboat, 36 foot-long steel bridge, 30 foot NASA Space Station Module, and other sunken relics such as various NASA hardware, a City of Madison Truck, numerous smaller boats and a U. S. Air Force F4 Fighter.

My April 26 and May 28, 2024 Visits

The green-shaded area below my perch 70 feet above is shallow water tinted with algae and sediment. The 30-35-foot deeper water appears nearly black in the image at right. The immediate foreground and at least an acre on this side of the rim area, including portions of the access roads, seems to have served as a dumping area for cement trucks left at the end of a shift with cement not distributed on a delivery site. The site reminds me of hardened lava overflow near a volcano, Nature’s example of severe disturbance. Importantly, Nature has limitless time; she’s in no hurry to develop a Nature Preserve in a north Alabama urbanizing environment.

I see safety hazards wherever my eyes roam. Granted, the Grand Canyon presents precipitous overlooks where visitors could tumble thousands of feet. The chain link fence along the quarry perimeter is there for a reason. What is the cost of protecting visitors and indemnifying the City or MGT?

I must admit that the quarry is oddly hypnotizing with its diving days halcyon history and its exotic beauty.

Here is my May 28, 60-second video:

I found a better overlook viewpoint during our May perimeter circuit. You may think I crossed over a damaged part of the perimeter fence to get an unobstructed perspective. Those of you who know me would not accuse me of such ill-advised behavior!

Nor would you expect such a thing from Brian Conway, a fellow MGT Board member.

The north rim access road leads to a communication tower. Power lines service the tower. Picture this road as one of the hiking trails. See the perimeter fence to the right. Yes, that’s the perimeter fence that Brian and I did not violate!

The microwave tower lends a space age dimension to the ancient quarry.

Nature’s Healing Ways

Although the quarry struck me as a curiosity, a relic of man’s dependence on Nature and her diverse natural resources, I focused both excursions on Nature’s efforts to heal wounds. Nature does abhor a vacuum, her relentless attempt to revegetate abused land as an example.

Decades ago quarry operators lined the access road with a levy of boulders opposite the quarry edge. Eastern red cedar, a classic pioneer species, colonized the berm above the road. Birds consume the cedar fruits; their digestive juices scarify the seed coat; the birds dutifully deposits the seeds during their rounds, in this case in brush along the road.

Princess tree, Paulownia tomentosa, is a pioneer invasive (Asian), adept at colonizing edge habitat. The species showcased its blue flowers during the April visit.

The April Flowers had transformed to green seed pods by the end of May. I discovered a discarded stem of last year’s seed pods (right). Pioneer species are adept at prodigious seed production, effective seed dispersal, and a demand for germination and growth dependent upon full sunshine.

Tree of heaven is yet another invasive early stage successional tree species, an exceptionally fast grower that colonizes readily, grows rapidly, and eventually yields occupied sites to longer lived forest species, i.e. later stage successional tree species such as oak and hickory.

I found lots of smooth sumac securing purchase on these bruised and battered quarry-proximate sites. This is yet another early successional species specializing in invading disturbed sites, living robustly over their relatively short life, and passing the forest gavel to the next successional cohort. Like other such species, smooth sumac produces large quantities of fleshy seeds, attracting birds that consume the fruit, digestively scarify tough seedcoats, and distribute the seeds to other disturbed sites within their range.

Anyone who roams northern Alabama during early spring can attest to the widely distributed species (with red blossoms) that flourishes at the forest edge along our byways and across abandoned pastures and meadows. Redbud and service berry (white flowers) may be the most recognized spring wildflowers across the eastern US.

Trumpet vine is another first-rank colonizer common along the perimeter road.

The lovely trumpet flowers greeted me during my May return visit.

Virginia creeper vine clung to a section of the perimeter fence.

Box elder and green ash likewise joined in reclaiming a sense of wildness among the ruins.

Elderberry flower clusters enhanced the natural beauty of its own accord without the intentional assistance of man, who merely ravaged the formal hilltop, operated the quarry, and walked away, abandoning the site and allowing Nature to do her thing. Eons of evolution have prepared Nature to remediate, recolonize, and reforest areas savaged by fire, wind, volcano, landslide, meteoric blasts, and other acts of God (and man).

Winged elm is among the woody species playing a role in reclamation.

Mimosa, another Asian plant invasive, welcomed me in May with delicate flowers.

Fragrant sumac, a species that looks enough like poison oak to ward off many humans, presents fresh leaves and a few residual berries from last summer’s crop.

My old friend (NOT!), Chinese privet, found a foothold, grew aggressively, flowered prodigiously, and will produce heavy seed crops to attract birds and ensure seed dispersal and distribution.

On a much brighter note, lespedeza (a native genus) is growing along the perimeter road. Lespedeza’s roots sport nitrogen fixing bacteria which draw nitrogen from the atmosphere and enrich the soil where they are rooted, just another natural mechanism for remediating barren, scarred, and abused land.

A Relevant Sidebar on DEI

I want to add a time-relevant reflection. We hear so much today about DEI — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, a social construct that has no parallel in Nature. Nature is a strict meritocracy that is reclaiming Madison Quarry without regard to DEI. The plant community colonizing the area will be diverse based upon species and individual’s merit in taking root and competing effectively on the wide range of environmental conditions. Equity does not exist…only equal opportunity pervades Nature. Merit and performance matter. No one is taking attendance, keeping track, and counting heads. If fragrant sumac and smooth sumac perform, compete, and persevere, they proceed forward in time and succession. Inclusion is determined strictly by performance. Nature doesn’t check a box, keep a tally, or guarantee a role. Again, merit and performance matter.

See my 2021 photo essay elaborating on the theme of Nature As a Meritocracy: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2021/09/21/lessons-from-nature-nature-is-a-meritocracy/

June 15, 2024, Scale AI CEO Aledandr Wang announced that his company will hire not for DEI, but for MEI: Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence.

Like Nature, America’s founding was based on merit and performance, serving us well for 250 years. Capitalism likewise is performance-based. Nature rewards merit, weeds out non-performers, and succeeds according to her own rules. I can only imagine how pitifully and imperfectly a governmental “task force” would revegetate the Madison Quarry.

Harsh Ruins of Stark Beauty and Haunting Promise

Muir: Earth has no sorrow that Earth cannot heal.

I contemplate the quarry with mixed feelings. I’m taken with its stark and haunting beauty and mystery. Its story is rich with lessons:

Man’s absolute dependence on natural resources
Our careless disregard for the consequences of our actions
Nature’s inherent skill in healing wounds through natural processes
The relentless and seeming disjointed regional development that leads us through desperation to reclaiming a savaged relic of abused wasteland as a Nature Preserve

I contrast this fenced harsh landscape (moonscape) to the 500 square miles of fertile, undisturbed forest I managed in south-central Alabama from 1981-85, and wonder how 40 years later in a relatively wealthy region of north Alabama we are contemplating salvaging a savaged hilltop as a Nature Preserve.

I have not given much focus to a lower elevation corner of the property, leveled decades ago, perhaps employed as a staging area for quarry-related operations. Discarded materiels lie about the clearing. Developed commercial, residential, and industrial development reach beyond the property.

I recorded this 44-second video during my May return visit:

I remain torn about my assessment of the quarry’s future as wasteland or preserve. A lifelong Nature enthusiast, I can see virtue in both possibilities. I need more information. Please view this history-starved assessment as stage one.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Earth has no sorrow that Earth cannot heal. (John Muir)
Often magic lies within Nature’s every nook and cranny; in this case, battered wildness lies crumpled in plain sight.
Is resurrecting wildness from savage brutality worth the price?

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

Mid-April Lakeside Forest Panoply at Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park

June 12, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Lakeside Forest Panoply

On April 17 and 18, 2024, I visited Joe Wheeler State Park for the quarterly meeting of the Alabama State Parks Foundation. Rather than present a single long Post from my wanderings during my free time, please look for four separate photo essays:

Reading evidence of past land use in the current 80-90-year-old forests
Tree form oddities and related curiosities
Lakeside forest panoply — this Post
Dawn from the lodge docks

I sauntered for nearly three hours (April 17) along the lakeside Awesome Trail, enjoying diverse attractions, many of them hidden in plain sight. Although the bird blind was in no way hidden, I felt compelled to look closely, which beckoned me to spend more time than I could devote, given the time-certain deadline to attend the late afternoon Foundation gathering at the Park Lodge. I often find in Nature that I want to linger longer than I’m able.

I concur with those autumn forest enthusiasts who are smitten with fall’s color palette. However, I am equally attracted to the seeming infinite shades of green that enrich spring forest ventures. I’m reminded of the title of yet another banal Hollywood blockbuster that I missed (or refused to see) on the big screen: Fifty Shades of Grey. Give me spring’s fifty shades of green and I will see the reel time after time!

The blind’s portals frame whatever fine image you select…each one unique and worthy of photo-capture.

The full Awesome Trail runs from the Park’s Boat Launch parking lot 4.1 miles to the Marina near the Lodge. I recorded this 37-second video to convey the mood, spirit, and nature of this soothing lakeside path, ideal for this woods-wanderer still recovering from the past ten months headlined by my June 19, 2013 triple bypass surgery, October bi-lateral inguinal hernia repair, and January 23, 2024 total left knee replacement!

I recorded the video at 1:37 PM:

The trail passes by this copse of yellow poplar trees, which features the most impressive timbers in this 80-90-year-old forest. When the TVA acquired this property in the early 1930s, the land was severely eroded, deeply-gullied, worn-out pasture, an affliction common across Alabama and the southeast in those Great Depression years. How much larger would this copse have presented had the original soil been protected from abusive agricultural practices?!

A patch of native rusty blackhaw enriched the trek with its profusion of large, showy flower heads!

Fungal Friends

Plants were not the sole features. This white-pored chicken of the woods cluster sprouted within twenty feet of the trail. I resisted the temptation to harvest this edible mushroom.

I spotted this five-inch pale oyster mushroom, another edible.

This foot-wide deer-colored Trametes mushroom (non-edible), has a rather dull beige upper surface, yet compensates with its fascinating underside of distinct open pores.

Two three-inch worms (I am note sure whether they are in fact “worms” — iNaturalist did not identify) found refuge and nourishment in the darkness beneath the bracket.

This ear-like mushroom covered a fallen decaying tree in a thicket too dense for me to capture a clear image. Instead, I gathered a small handful to show wood ear fungus, yet another edible.

I am committed to learning more about the wonderful Fungi Kingdom, which when I was an undergraduate was still part of the Plant Kingdom — oh, how things change over a mere fifty years! Who says lifelong learning isn’t necessary for an old forester who insists upon better understanding the secrets of Nature hidden in plain sight?

Oh, the Gall of This Wasp!

The new leaves on this white oak seedling opened just a week or two before I discovered and photographed them (below left). Already, the seedling stem bears a fresh wool sower gall (below right). During that short time, a wool sower gall wasp had oviposited its eggs into the stem. An NC State University Cooperative Extension bulletin tells the rest of the story:

The wool sower gall is a distinct and unusual plant growth induced by the secretions of the grubs of a tiny gall wasp, Callirhytis seminator. These wasps are about ¹/₈ inch long, dark brown, and their abdomens are noticeably flattened from side to side. The grubs are translucent to white, plump, and legless. Their heads are more or less shapeless blobs. The wool sower gall is specific to white oaks and only occurs in the spring. When the gall is pulled apart, inside are small seed-like structures inside of which the gall wasp grubs develop (the wool sower gall is also called the oak seed gall).

Nature never disappoints the curious naturalist. I offer most every audience, whether classroom or field trip, my five verbs for truly enjoying Nature:

Five Essential Verbs: Believe, Look, See, Feel, and Act.

- I find Nature’s mysteries and curiosities because I know they lie hidden within view — belief enables me to look and see
- Really look, with eyes open to your surroundings, external to electronic devices and the distractions of meaningless noise and data
- Be alert to see deeply, beyond the superficial
- See clearly, with comprehension, to find meaning and evoke feelings
- Feel emphatically enough to spur action — learning to seek understanding and awareness is an action

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition of my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.

I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

The Foundation exists to provide incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.

We are blessed in Alabama to have our Park System. Watch for future Great Blue Heron Posts as I continue to explore and enjoy these treasures that belong to us. I urge you to discover the Alabama State Parks near you. Follow the advice of John Muir:

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.

In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one’s sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature. (Theodore Roosevelt)
Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature, for those who live according to its laws. (da Vinci)
Nature never disappoints the curious naturalist.

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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