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Part Two — Huntsville’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary: Tenth Anniversary of Southern Sanctuary!

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Part Two

 

I initially developed this Tenth-Anniversary photo essay as a single post. However, its length exceeded even my generous tolerance for content and length. Here is the link to Part One: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/07/18/part-one-huntsvilles-goldsmith-schiffman-wildlife-sanctuary-tenth-anniversary-of-southern-sanctuary/

I repeat the opening paragraph of Part One:

I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary on May 17, 2025, with Marian Moore Lewis, author of Southern Sanctuary: A Naturalist’s Walk through the Seasons ((2015), Bill Heslip, Director of A Tale of Two Extraordinary Women (2022; a 14-minute video telling the tale of the Sanctuary), Chris Stuhlinger, a fellow retired forester, and me (I produced the video). We wanted to keep our friendship and love for the Sanctuary vibrant, and once more discover the delights we would find hidden in plain sight. Objective accomplished; we pledged to do it again in October!

Part One carried our venture from Hidden Spring through the marsh and down Hidden Spring Brook to the third beaver dam discharging the creek into Jobala Pond.

 

Jobala Pond

 

I’ve devoted significant narrative in some prior GSWS photo essays to the history of Jobala Pond. I won’t repeat here except to say that highway engineers created the pond by mining sand, clay, and gravel for road construction in the 1950s. All the vegetation and the complex associated ecosystem resulted from naturalization. John Muir missed nothing in Nature. Jobala Pond’s recovery from the mining ravages would not have surprisedthe inveterate Mr. Muir:

Earth has no sorrow that earth can not heal.

I never tire of the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration that this old borrow pit presents and evokes (left). Marian caught images of two cooters from across Jobala (right).

Jobala Pond

 

I am hopelessly addicted to tree form oddities and curiosities. As others enjoyed the pond, I drifted to the swampy slough across the gravel path. The old snag was watching us and, with what I thought was a wink of one of the two eyes (at right), beckoned me to take a closer look. I credit woodpeckers, fungi, insects, and other critters with the sculpting. Note that the snag still supports a clinging vine, the tree’s lifelong companion. A new actor will lead the next act in this Nature drama — gravity will once again prevail. The fallen log will decompose into the rich soil. Nothing in Nature is static!

 

Nearby, its feet anchored in the same slough, a tree (I failed to identify the species on-site) stands on stilted legs…a living natural bridge. One might question the cause of such an odd form. Imagine decades ago a decaying tree stump offering a favorable site for a fallen seed to germinate. The seedling nourished on moisture and nutrients available in the decomposing stump, even as it extended roots downward along the stump into the rich mineral soil where the prior tree grew. In time the stump decomposed in full, leaving the stilted-root tree embracing thin air…the ghost of a stump.

 

Leonardo da Vinci, a ghost-spirit of a different sort, inspires me to question, puzzle, and offer explanation for the Nature mysteries I encounter:

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.

I’ve watched this burled water oak near the outlet of Jobala Pond for several years. Since June 6, 2020 (image at right), the burl has more than doubled its girth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether I’m writing about a North Alabama Land Trust Preserve, one of our 22 Alabama State Parks, the Sanctuary, or some other special place, I urge the managing entity to establish permanent photo points to chronicle the change that is ongoing, inevitable, and significant. The paired photos above tell the story far better than the “inimitable Dr. Jones” standing at the tree claiming, “This burl is twice as big as it was five years ago.” Only one AL State Park has created photo points: Monte Sano with funds I helped raise. Education is a fundamental mission element for the Park system, the Land Trust, and the City of Huntsville. Are these entities falling short of meeting their education imperative? You be the judge.

Here is the 59-second video of Marian offering her thoughts on our tenth anniversary explorations at Jobala Pond.

 

I recorded this 59-second video just below Jobala.

 

Enjoy the tranquil beauty of the iron bridge and Hidden Spring Brook flowing beyond it, seeking its confluence with the Flint River.

 

I recorded this 58-second video below Jobala at the iron bridge crossing Hidden Spring Brook.

 

Chris Stuhlinger, Bill Heslip, Marian Moore Lewis, and Becky Heslip posed at the wetland mitigation area.

 

I recorded this 59-second video of the wetland mitigation. Note, I refer to Bill in the video narrative as the Sanctuary video’s Producer; instead, he directed the production. He kindly declared me the Producer.

 

Closing

In closing, the Sanctuary is a speciel place. My third book, Weaned Seal and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature, captures the ecological, spiritual, and emotional nature of such special places. I offer this text from my Introduction to the book:

Awakening to Nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi. Nature is in our backyard, a nearby city park, or a state park just down the road. Anyone can develop a relationship with Nature wherever you are, a point I reiterate in each essay and a message I exhort in each and every nature-inspired life and living address I deliver. My relationship with Nature is spiritual. I view my engagement as a calling, and a noble cause to sow seeds so that others might do their own part to change some small corner of this Earth for the better through wisdom, knowledge, and hard work.

Sharing a special place with special friends multiplies the reward:

There’s a land–oh, it beckons and beckons,

And we want to go back–and we will!

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Nature reaches far into my heart, soul, body, mind, and spirit. (Steve Jones)
  • Awakening to Nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi. (Steve Jones)
  • Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way. (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.

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outdoor Alabama Adventures Teacher Workshop at DeSoto State Park

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On Saturday, July 12, 2025, I assisted with the Alabama State Parks Outdoor Alabama Adventures Education Workshop at DeSoto State Park, attended by 25 teachers and educators. Funded by BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama, the program team will present the full-day program at five state parks from June 17 to August 9. I am privileged to participate here at DeSoto and on August 9, at Joe Wheeler. The program team and participating teacher-educators brought passion, knowledge, and commitment to the task and joy of learning. Join me on a virtual journey with the participants. I offer my limited narration, supplemented by quotes from noted conservationists and Nature educators.

DeSoto

 

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

The workshop flyer promised Teaching Beyond the Walls: Alabama Ecology in Action… You’ll gain hands-on experience and practical tools to bring outdoor learning into your classroom…and transport your classroom into the great outdoors.

DeSoto

 

I recorded a 42-second video during Jimmy Stiles’ introductory indoor session

 

Even the snake paid rapt attention to Jimmy, a real snake charmer!

DeSoto

 

Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it. (Louv)

DeSoto State Park Naturalist, Brittney Hughes, introduced us to the first of several sandstone glades we would visit.

DeSotoDeSoto

 

What’s important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it and feel comfortable in it, before being asked to heal its wounds. (David Sobel)

Northeast Alabama District Naturalist, Eric Cline, led us through a mountain laurel thicket. I recorded this 57-second video in the laurel.

 

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. (Albert Einstein)

Life and death are inseparable co-conspirators in our vibrant forests, where the carbon cycle encompasses the emergence of new life and the decomposition of old. The Coker’s amanita mushroom is one of the many forest components hiding in plain site on the forest floor.

DeSoto

 

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Einstein)

Whether a white mushroom or a glossy-green galax plant, Nature’s mysteries and gems reach out to those of us with passion for learning more, and spreading the word of informed and responsible Earth stewardship.

DeSoto

 

In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks. (Muir)

Nature understanding and enjoyment depend upon curious minds and deep imagination. Reflection (both optical and mental) amplifies the value of teaching and learning outdoors,

DeSoto

 

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. (Einstein)

This 40-second video takes us to the sandstone ledge we explored on our morning foray.

 

A life without contact with nature is not worth living. (Louv)

I marvel at Nature’s mysteries. I suppose that equations may exist quantifying the mechanisms at work creating such ledge shelters. Regardless, I am grateful for their cool and dry shade.

DeSoto

 

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike. (Muir)

We ascended from the dark ledge shelter to the baking glade overlooking the canyon.

 

Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities. (Louv)

I recorded this 48-second video at the canyon rim sandstone glade

 

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Einstein)

Sandstone glades are harsh, sun-baked, and shallow-soiled. Some mosses, lichens, and diminuitive plants thrive. Virginia pine is not one of those specialized plants, yet this one germinated in a sandstone crevice and valiantly clings to life, persisting against all odds.

DeSoto

 

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

Eager learners and Nature enthusiasts, bare rock, surrounding trees, and a fair-summer sky open minds, hearts, souls, and spirit to embrace the World and its infinite storm of beauty.

DeSoto

 

A river or stream is a cycle of energy from sun to plants to insects to fish. It is a continuum broken only by humans. (Aldo Leopold)

We dropped from the canyom rim to the stream.

DeSoto

 

Environment-based education produces student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math; improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and develops skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making. (Louv)

I recorded this 60-second video on the floor of the canyon.

 

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift. (Einstein)

I contrast the sublime afternoon in the Little River Canyon to the pounding turbulence of the surging river at flood. Someone may ask, “What’s it like on the canyon floor?” Like everything and place in Nature, it depends!

DeSoto

 

I view Nature through lenses, my own, and the filters of others like Muir, Einstein, da Vinci, Louv, Leopold, and Sobel. When I formulate a profound insight and express its sagacity in prose, I discover that others have birthed the muse…and stated it far more eloquently and succinctly than I.

What induces you, oh man, to depart from your home in town, to leave parents and friends, and go to the countryside over mountains and valleys, if it is not for the beauty of the world of nature? (da Vinci)

 

July 24, 2025 Note: I’m reading Landon Y. Jones’ The Essential Lewis and Clark, a condensed collection of the Captains’ journal entries from their Journey of Discovery. Fifteen months into their quest (August 18, 1805), Meriwether Lewis wrote:

This day I completed my 31st year, and I conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little, indeed, to further the hapiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now sorely feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. But since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought, and resolve in future, to redouble my exertions and at least endeavor to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestowed on me; or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.

I recently completed my 74th year in this sublunary world. I often reflect, with no small degree of melancholy, that I have as yet done but little, very little, indeed. However, I take solace from Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894):

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. 

I am a sower of seeds. Perhaps one or two will take root.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.
I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

The Foundation exists for the sole purpose of providing incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.

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

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

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

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

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

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. (David Sobel)
  • Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
  • Nature education is a process of discovery, illumination, inspiration, and encouragement. (Steve Jones)

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

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

DeSoto

 

 

 

A Return to the Alum Hollow Trail at North Alabama Land Trust’s Green Mountain Nature Preserve

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34 photos and 6 videos

My two Alabama grandsons (Jack Disher, 17, and Sam Disher, 11) accompanied me on June 24, 2025, to the North Alabama Land Trust’s Green Mountain Nature Preserve. We explored the Alum Hollow Trail, where I was scheduled to lead a Land Trust Nature Hike on June 28, 2025. I wanted to scout the trail for features worthy of focus for the planned Land Trust nature venture. Most importantly, I treasure time in Nature with Jack and Sam. I want my passion for the natural world to live in them far beyond my fleeting time on this pale blue orb. Come along with me (and Jack and Sam) through observations, reflections, photos, and brief videos.

Green MountainGreen Mountain

 

Four days later I led the Land Trust Hike with ten eager Nature enthusiasts.

Green MountainGreen Mountain

 

 

The trail is relatively flat along the 1,400 to 1,500 foot plateau top of Green Mountain. Mixed second-growth upland hardwood is the dominant forest cover, yet shortleaf (below) and Virginia pines occupy the WSW-facing ridge rim where the trail took us. I’ll say more about the preserve’s pine, represented here with a trail marker sign.

Green Mountain

 

Every time I saunter along a forest trail I find magic, wonder, beauty, awe, and inspiration hidden in plain sight. The Alum Hollow Trail was no exception.

 

Notable Non-Tree Species

 

Vaccinium aboreum is a species new to me since retiring to Madison, Alabama in 2018. It’s the largest member of the blueberry genus. My fascination may or may not derive from its mirthful common names: farkleberry, sparkleberry, and winter huckleberry. An NC State University online Cooperative Extension publication describes this large vaccinium:

Sparkleberry is a small, deciduous to evergreen shrub or tree that may grow 10 to 20 feet tall. It can be found in rocky woodlands, sandy woodlands, and on cliffs. The leaves are alternate with a smooth or finely toothed margin. The bark is shredded and patchy with reds, browns, and grays present. In early summer, small, white, bell-shaped flowers mature. In the fall, this plant has excellent color. The tall shrub produces a black fruit that matures in the fall and is a good food source for wildlife.

It’s a tough lower-story shrub, seeming to prefer harsh dry sites. I admire it for thriving where more demanding species fear to tread.

Green MountainGreen Mountain

 

We found cedarglade St. John’s wort in flower. Also from an online NC State sourse:

St. John’s Wort is native to SE USA and in NC it is found in the western mountain areas. It is a small, dense shrub that grows 2-4 feet tall and wide with a rounded dense form. It inhabits glades and dry limestone ledges. The foliage may appear slightly bluish-green and is evergreen in its southern range. The showy yellow flowers are bright yellow with numerous stamens on new wood and appear in June-July.

Its foliage and yellow flower drew me in for a closer look.

Green Mountain

 

Greater tickseed is a member of the aster family and is found across Alabama from the Gulf coast to the Tennessee line. I love its whorled leaves.

Green Mountain

 

We feature hydrangea (oakleaf; endless summer; little lime) in our home landscaping. Near the falls the boys and I found wild hydrangea in full flower. Grandson Sam snapped these images.

Green Mountain

 

Although I missed seeing naked-flowered tic-trefoil with the boys, the Land Trust group oohed over its delicate pink blossoms. Note its tri-leaf (i.e. trefoil) foliage. The species is a Legume, a member of the pea family.

Green Mountain

 

I had never asked Jack or Sam to record a brief interpretive video. They have heard me record many, when their role was to be quiet for a moment. I decided to give Sam a try. Without hesitation he recorded this 39-second sassafras identification lesson. He performed as though he’d done it a dozen times! Jack and I walked far enough away not to distract him. He needed only one take. I am grandfather-proud of the result — he may be catching the Nature bug!

 

We’ll hone his and Jack’s video artistry time and time again!

 

Selected Curiosities

 

My third book, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits (co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), highlighted our passion for place and everyday Nature. The term everyday Nature is adequate but falls far short of sufficient. My eyes wander, seeking the unusual, the bizarre, oddities, and curiosities. I say that, yet I must confess that unusual, bizarre, odd, and curious are within the realm of everyday Nature. Nothing in Nature is strange; some things may be unexpected…but strange in Nature is commonplace!

A vividly green vine spiraling a pole-sized hickory tree may strike the uninformed as strange, but its not at all uncommon for a supplejack vine to have hitched a ride to the full sunlight of an upper story hickory.

Green Mountain

 

A large chestnut oak pointed ahead to the left as we progressed. Jack stood atop the tree’s crook. Some would opine confidently that Native Americans modified the then much smaller stem long ago to create an Indian Marker Tree. Sorry to disappoint, but some natural force (branch or fallen tree) clobbered the young erect tree, bending and breaking it about five feet above ground. The bend remains, supporting a new vertical stem that reaches into the main canopy. Nature’s primary life-imperative is to secure a pathway to immortality, whether me through Jack and Sam, or a crushed chestnut oak by way of an adventious bud sprouting a new shoot that reaches skward. The bridge to immortality extends through generations.

Green MountainGreen Mountain

 

John Muir, too, spoke of immortality.

After a whole day in the woods, we are already immortal. 

Nothing in Nature is static. A few weeks prior, this chestnut oak’s crown spread over one-fifth of an acre. One of its progeny may already be feeling the sunshine streaming in from the vacated canopy above. Adjacent trees will extend branches laterally to fill the void. The forest will persist even as individual trees succumb.

But in every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)

I recorded this 59-second video of the fallen chestnut oak and a larger one standing regally nearby.

 

To many trail trekkers, a windthrown oak is merely an obstacle. To the trail maintenance crew…a task. To me, a prompt for mental wandering and contemplation. I wondered whether Native Americans traversed Green Mountain across their 13-15 millennia of occupation. How many times over those 140 centuries did a windblown chestnut oak bar their transit?

 

Southern Pine Beetle Outbreak

 

Summer 2024 was a banner year for southern pine beetle infestations across central and northern Alabama, killing thousands of acres of pine forests. Although upland hardwoods dominate the preserve, the Alum Hollow Trail passes through several hundred linear feet of mostly Virginia pine and, to a lesser extent, shortleaf pine. Beetle-killed pine trees posed a threat to trail users.

Green Mountain

 

Land Trust crews felled dead trees. Jumbles of dead pine debris line the trail. Importantly, the forest persists. Species composition has changed. The piles of pinewood will decompose. Adjacent trees will reach into the crown opening; new stems will grow from the forest floor.

 

Sam found intrigue in a dead pine carcass recently fallen below the trail.

 

Curiosities and oddities are commonplace. Strange encounters are the norm to those sauntering and paying attention.

 

Fungi along the Alum Hollow Trail

 

Beetles belong to the animal kingdom; oak trees represent the plant kingdom; fungi are members of their own kingdom. Mushrooms are the spore producing reprodctive organs of fungi, which variously decay living organic matter, consume dead biomass, or grow symbiotically with living plants. I won’t go beyond that generalization. Go to the Blog page of my website (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/) and search for mushrooms, which will direct you to multiple photo essays focusing on my mushroom encounters. I give you below a few photos of fungi we found along the Alum Hollow Trail.

 

Coker’s amanita (Sam’s photos) is a common pure white gilled mushroom.

Green Mountain

 

iNaturalist does a good job identifying mushrooms when given top, side, and underside photo views.

Green Mountain

 

 

 

 

 

Red chanterelle (Sam’s photos) attracted us with their vivid laterns along the trail. A coarsely gilled edible mushroom genus, chanterelles are mycorrhiza fungi with mycelia growing within tree roots, benefitting both the tree and the fungus.

Green Mountain

 

Flaming gold bolete, a member of a polypore (hollow tubes rather than gills) group common in northern Alabama.

Green Mountain

 

Some bolete species are mycorrhizal; other species are parasitic. Some are delectibly edible, while others are not table-worthy; distinguishing among species can be difficult. The boletes are not among the mushrooms I forage!

 

Alum Shelter and Waterfall

 

On both days, we turned at the waterfall and shelter.

I asked Jack to record a brief video at the falls. Like Sam, he performed well, recording this 25-second video.

 

I’ve seen the falls with greater flow, and I’ve visited with far less.

Green Mountain

 

Uncertain of my ability to clamber down to the falls after my two 2024 total knee replacements, I recorded this 59-second video from the trail above the falls.

 

The Alum Cave is a misnomer. It’s a ledge overhang.

Green Mountain

 

Protected from sunlight and rain, the shelter provides a pleasant spot for resting and reflecting.

Green MNPGreen Mountain

 

I recorded this 60-second video at the shelter.

A child of the central Appalachians, I feel at home in the preserve’s rugged terrain. Pausing at the shelter prompted me to step back six decades. Nature has a way of transporting me, physically, mentally, and spiritually!

 

A Final Critter

 

Although the final image in my photo essays, this eastern fence lizard greeted the Land Trust entourage early on our venture. I offer it in closing only because I did not concieve it as a good place to start.

Green Mountain

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • He who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle. (Albert Einstein)
  • The cycle of life is without end…as long as our sun shines, rain falls, and Earth remains otherwise inhabitable. (Steve Jones)
  • Nothing in Nature is static, whether a mountain range or a northern Alabama upland forest. (Steve Jones)

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

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

Green Mountain

 

 

 

Legacy Environmental Education Workshop at Monte Sano State Park

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Invited by Renee Raney, Alabama State Parks Director of Interpretation and Education, I assisted in conducting a daylong (June 13, 2025) Legacy Environmental Education workshop for 25 educators at Monte Sano State Park. As a founding Alabama State Parks Foundation Board member, I tirelessly support park Nature education endeavors. I snapped photos, recorded brief videos, and chronicled observations and reflections during the workshop, all of which I highlight via this photo essay.

Monte Sano SP

 

Rather than hold forth in text on my absolute conviction that Nature-based education is essential to our children and the society they will lead (and endure), I give you four summary observations:

  • Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
  • Nature doesn’t steal time, it amplifies it. (Richard Louv)
  • I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
  • Every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by Nature. (Steve Jones)

I’m sure these basic tenets guide, motivate, and inspire the instructors and participants in the Legacy workshop.

Nature served up a perfect start to the day — an ideal outdoor learning environment! Bright sunshine punctuated with puffy cumulus.

Monte Sano Monte Sano

 

Until I retired to my end-of-worklife Nature pursuits, I had no idea that the 20th century’s premier mind, Albert Einstein, advocated keener awareness of the magic and wonder of Nature:

Look deep into Nature and you will understand everything better.

He would have approved Legacy and the State Parks partnering to enable and encourage 25 dedicated teachers and educators to look more deeply into Natue!

Briitney Hughes, DeSoto State Park Naturalist, revealed the secrets of wild tea infusions, a practical guide to tapping the vital natural essence from native plants, and sharing lessons and techniques with their students.

Monte Sano

 

My knowledge of infusions and tinctures could fill a thimble…a small one at that! I quietly observed, saving myself for the South Plateau Trail walk.

I recorded this 57-second video as we departed the lodge and entered the forest:

 

I won’t attempt reciting every feature and phenomenon we encountered. We emphasized that most Alabama forests are at least second growth. Monte Sano’s forests are 70-90+ years old. Black locust, an early successional species, is dead or dying across the segment we hiked. Nearly all remaining live locust trees are infected by cracked cap polypore fungus, a decay that weakened this individual — note the black bracket mushroom 18 inches above the ground at right. Black locust was a major stand component over the first 50 years of second growth. This specimen is a fading reminder of black locust’s early colonizing and pioneering role in forest renewal.

Monte Sano

 

I’m shamelessly addicted to woodland springs and wooden footbridge crossings. I offer several explanations:

  • Upland brooks and streams have a pleasant, heavily shaded summer microclimate
  • Soils are more moist, deeper, and nutrient rich
  • Trees are taller and fatter
  • Who is not charmed by the sound of gurgling water!
  • Birds and other wildlife are more abundant

 

The brook dropped over the plateau rim below the trail bridge. Who knows what exploration into the hollow would reveal. Perhaps another day.

Monte Sano

 

My 60-second video hints at what may lie hidden in plain sight.

 

I admit to one unavoidable shortcoming when I am accompanying a group like this. I want to interact with the participants, fielding questions and offering my limited knowledge and interpretation, yet I feel compelled to capture our experiences and discoveries with photographs and brief videos so that I can share more widely via these photo essays. As a result, I pop in and out of the entourage, too often falling behind.

 

A powerful storm crossed Monte Sano State Park a week prior. One of our educators noticed three oak trees recently lightning-blasted. I sidetracked for a closer look to record a 60-second video of the affected oaks.

 

I am in awe of the power and fury of Nature. She demands full respect, even as she deserves absolute admiration. I have seen other lightning-struck trees in my north Alabama woodland excursions. Some survived the blast and retained the scars decades hence. Others suffered a fatal blow. Were I to wager the fate of these three oaks, I lean toward fatality.

Monte Sano

 

The trees are not large and the bolt shattered a third of their circumference. I will see how they fare on a future visit.

We paused at the old Lilly Pond, a landscape feature near a former residence 100 years ago.

I recorded a 59-second video as the educators paused at the amphitheater bench seating.

 

Imagine this deep woodland setting as open space near the old home site…the old pond, now filling with forest detritus and advancing shrubs, then a spring-fed lilly pond surround by grassy uplands. Nothing in Nature is static.

Monte Sano

 

 

 

Oak Mountain State Park Naturalist Lauren Muncher Massey conducted a session on Tree Cookie Wood Burning. I recorded this 50-second video of participants sanding Eastern red cedar tree cookies.

 

I remember my forestry junior-year Wood Identification course at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. We each received a box of 60+ blocks of species we were tasked with learning: their characteristics, uses, structure, hardness, and identification. With pocket knife, hand lens, keen nose, and careful study we grew adept at identifying our woods. That was 1971, a distant 54 years ago. Somehow along life’s journey across 13 interstate moves, understandably distracted by family, career, and life, we abandoned those 60+ wood identification blocks. I’d love to have them now. Perhaps I could relearn some of what has seeped through the weak grasp of aging memory. I vow never to forget Eastern red cedar with its distinctive color, texture, and fragrance.

Monte Sano

 

That long-ago course was not easy. Some of my fellow forestry majors stumbled; others fell. The Lord blessed me with keen interest, an eye for detail, and a zest for learning. Watching the participants bring life to their tree cookies ignited dormant memories from my lifelong fascination with forest products. I won’t explore that rabbit hole today. I may someday devote a future photo essay to that pursuit.

 

Here is my 56-second video of final tree cookie preparation, fading into a revelation of the wonderful location for a workshop on Arts and Wellness in Nature.

 

Renee Raney joined us late in the afternoon with her Teacher Creature!

Monte Sano

 

As we moved indoors for our closing Amber Coger (Northwest District Naturalist) led session on Nature Journaling, the fair weather cumulus assumed a more menacing look.

Monte Sano

 

An unabashed lifetime weather enthusiast, I recorded this 60-second video of the vigorous thundershower that pounded our lodge rooftop.

 

Nature could have changed our day had she delivered the downpour two hours earlier.

Monte Sano

 

I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY!

 

In broad summary, I declare the Legacy Arts and Wellness Workshop a day well spent!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.
I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

The Foundation exists for the sole purpose of providing incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.

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

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

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

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

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

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
  • Nature doesn’t steal time, it amplifies it. (Richard Louv)
  • I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
  • Every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by Nature. (Steve Jones)

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

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

Monte Sano

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part One — Huntsville’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary: Tenth Anniversary of Southern Sanctuary!

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I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary on May 17, 2025, with Marian Moore Lewis, author of Southern Sanctuary: A Naturalist’s Walk through the Seasons (2015), Bill Heslip, director of A Tale of Two Extraordinary Women (2022; a 14-minute video telling the tale of the Sanctuary), and Chris Stuhlinger, a fellow retired forester. We wanted to keep our friendship and love for the Sanctuary vibrant, and once more discover the delights we would find hidden in plain sight. Objective accomplished; we pledged to do it again in October!

Marian’s book occupies a special place on my office bookshelf; I may be its biggest champion, wherever I speak or teach in our region.

 

I don’t see the need for a lot of narrative text for this post, the 30th of my weekly photo essays dedicated to the Sanctuary. I visited first on June 6, 2020 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/06/23/visiting-a-southern-sanctuary-my-orientation-visit/). I reflected on the first GSWS post that the Sanctuary is a special place…and I plan to return again and again:

Robert Service, a British poet who wrote about the Far North during his turn-of-the-prior-century wanderings in the Gold Rush Yukon, beautifully corralled the magic of place in his Spell of the Yukon:

There’s a land–oh, it beckons and beckons,

And I want to go back–and I will

It’s the great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder,

It’s the forest where silence has lease;

It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

 

I recorded this 50-second video offering my reflections on Southern Sanctuary.

 

I published a photo essay about our YouTube video in October 2022: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/10/11/goldsmith-schiffman-wildlife-sanctuary-a-tale-of-two-extraordinary-women/. Here’s the video if you care to take time to watch it now:

 

The three of us, Director (Bill), Talent (Marian), and Producer (Steve) posed on May 17 by the information marquee.

 

As we crossed the grassy area heading into the Sanctuary, we encountered a cooter, covered with aquatic micro-plants, laying eggs. She did not object to the five of us gawking and snapping photos.

 

We appreciated seeing a climbing prairie rose, a stunning native growing along the Hidden Spring edge of the road.

 

This species grows throughout most of the eastern US.

Hidden Spring Marsh

 

Hidden Spring broadens into an extensive marsh as it approaches Jobala Pond. Vibrant arrow-leaf alum and cattail prevail, each among my favorite freshwater aquatic species.

 

View my 51-second video of the marsh with no narrative; I chose instead to allow an indigo bunting and a tufted titmouse to hold forth!

 

Marian captured this image of a midland water snake that slithered atop the marsh water before pausing. Marian relies upon a real camera (a high quality Canon with all the bells and whistles). I feel deep envy with my iPhone. Is it time for me to take the dive?!

 

We saw three snakes on our three-hour saunter. I share John Muir’s sentiment about encountering all sorts of animals in Nature (Even, and perhaps especially, snakes!):

Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.

The marsh thrust another gift in our face — Canada goose parents and nine goslings among the arum. Marian pulled the camera from her side and auto-snapped the convoy before I could extract my iPhone from my shirt pocket. Discovering Nature treasures hiding in plain sight is one thing; capturing their image is another.

 

Insects are impossible for me to photograph. The blue dragon defied me; I tried to focus on the insect and all my iPhone saw was the much larger view beyond. Neither the dragonfly nor the six-spotted tiger beetle felt a need to hold still enough for me to get close. Marian performed ably and simply…her images are great!

 

 

Here is my 57-second video of the marsh with narrative:

 

A bit further along, I recorded this 58-second video where Hidden Springs Brook approaches Jobala Pond. Margaret Ann Goldsmith donated the original 300 acres of the Sanctuary to the city of Huntsville. I stumbled on the video narrative introducing Marian as Margaret Moore Lewis. Isn’t my first such error; won’t be my last!

 

Three small beaver dams funneled and terraced Hidden Spring Brook to Jobala Pond. Each one dropped the brook about a foot.

 

I recorded this 60-second video of a third beaver dam right before Jobala Pond.

 

Who can resist the music of falling water, made all the sweeter by knowing beaver designed the instrument?

I leave you here with a simple To Be Continued!

 

And my standard closing boilerplate:

 

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.

Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron. All Rights Reserved.”

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mooresville, AL: A Special Nature Place along the Singing River Trail!

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Note: I am flagging this photo essay as one of a sub-series that introduces the emerging Singing River Trail (SRT):

A 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.

 

Historic Mooresville, Alabama, is the first town incorporated by the Alabama Territorial Legislature on November 16, 1818. Mooresville is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of Alabama’s most important and intact pioneer villages. Historic homes and buildings, gracious gardens, and tree-shaded streets make a visit to Mooresville seem like a step back in time. SRT’s headquarters site is located a mile west of Mooresville, a couple of hundred yards west of Limestone Creek, and a similar distance north of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, a 35,000-acre reserve of major natural significance along SRT.

I photographed this banner at the entrance lane to SRT’s offices.

 

The Singing River Trail bears what could be my personal retirement banner. What old forester hasn’t asked, “How do you tell a child to save the planet if he/she can’t tell the difference between an oak tree and a pine tree?”

 

Mooresville tells the 200-year-old story of a pioneer community anchored in the region’s history of river-based transportation, commerce, and culture, agriculture, and nature. Add to that 13,000 years of Native American life and living along this historic river, and the tale is rich and compelling. I urge those of you who live nearby to visit across the seasons, and to those at distance, visit when you can.

 

The day I visited the staff at SRT (March 17, 2025), Limestone Creek was overflowing its banks, putting on a great show from my perch on the highway bridge.

 

I recorded this brief video to share the magic of a cycle operating since long before adventuring aboriginals crossed the land bridge from Asia during the last ice age.

 

Limestone Bay (fed by Piney Creek, Limestone Creek, and Beaverdam Creek) lies center left below in the lower right quadrant of the I-65 and I-565 intersection. Piney Creek crosses I-565 east of I-65. Limestone Creek enters the Bay just west of Mooresville. Beaverdam Creek crosses the Interstate entering the long appendage of the Bay that reaches to the northeast.

 

I would love to transport back in time by increments of 50 years to the period of European settlement, and then by 100 years through the next 5oo years, and finally by 500 years to the arrival and settlement by Native Americans. Oh, to see the changes in the land!

 

For the geographic curious, here’s a close-up of Limestone Bay.

 

A friend took me aloft in his Cessna aircraft on August 20, 2023 to introduce me to the Refuge from 2,000 feet. The brief video shows us approaching the I-65 bridge from the east, with Decatur beyond. I pick up Limestone Bay only when we turn north, as the Bay passes under the right strut. It’s a fleeting glimpse in a broader video that captures the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe of our 55-square-mile backyard Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.

 

Wheeler Dam, its lake, and Limestone Bay lay in the far distant future when Mooresville interred its first deceased resident in the early 1820s.

 

Citizens of great faith, early Mooresville residents relied upon their knowledge, skills, each other, and God to ensure their journey through life and into the future. Faith demands looking ahead…and always up. The Mooresville church steeple points heavenward, reminding all from where all blessings flow.

 

The quaint original buildings will attract and reward SRT passersby, encouraging relaxation, contemplation, and reflection.

 

An ancient oak tree, likely dating to the town’s founding, paradoxically shades Piney Street.

 

Mooresville epitomizes a keystone of SRT, “We are tourism.”

 

An operating farmstead draws visitors back 200 years to the days when settlers were far more self-sustaining than we are today.

 

A southern magnolia shades the sheep still warmed by thick winter coats.

 

Closing

 

From my first professional apointment in May 1973, through my final role in January 2018, I subscribed to the mission of my employer. I drafted my personal retirement mission in 2018:

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

Mooresville sits at the nexus of natural environment, human nature, history, economy, society, and the future. Developing this photo essays sits squarely within my retirement mission.

Mooresville, AL is just 15 miles southwest of my home in Madison, AL. The fledgling Singing River Trail (SRT) is headquartered there. From its website (https://singingrivertrail.com/), SRT is more than a trail or greenway:

The Singing River Trail will be a 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.

 

 

As a lifelong devotee of hiking/sauntering, running, biking, and Nature exploration, I am creating another Great Blue Heron weekly photo essay series focused on The Nature of the Singing River Trail. I will incorporate individual essays into my routine Posts that total approximately 450 to-date (archived and accessible at: https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/). I offer this essay as an orientation to the new series.

SRT is indeed tourism…and for me, a vehicle for meeting my personal retirement 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.

 

Mark Tercek, former CEO of The Nature Conservancy, characterizes Nature as infrastructure essential for ecosystem services (fresh air, purified water, wildlife habitat, recreation, aesthetics, etc.). I believe that SRT is a necessary infrastructure complement to the Tennessee Valley region.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • I wonder whether anyone present in 1818 Mooresville had an inkling of what 2025 held in store?
  • Nothing informs the future better than a careful look to the past.  
  • SRT is a necessary infrastructure complement to the Tennessee Valley region.

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

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

 

 

Spring Morning Nature-Delights along Madison’s Bradford Creek Greenway!

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I sauntered 2.5 miles with family on March 29, 2025, on an out and back from Heritage Elementary School along the Bradford Creek Greenway. I spent most of my time wandering hither and yon within the bottomland forest, exploring what might lie hidden in plain sight.

Bradford Creek carried a full flow, flush in response to the nearly 15 inches of rain I had measured since January 1. The creek is a great place to reflect…a mirror to the dormant forest and a soothing calmness to assist an old forester reflecting on the 73 vernal woodland seasons he has celebrated across many states and several nations.

 

Life Can Be A Struggle

 

I cling to those memories, drawing strength and comfort from those experiences, while supplejack and grape vines twine and embrace in what for at leasst one will be a death spiral. Competition is part of an ecosystem-wide conflict among participants (plants, animals, fungi, invertebrates, and other life forms) for scarce resources, among the stakes are light, water, nutrition, and space. Life in the woods is not easy nor without strife.

 

Decay and Decomposition

 

This tree, like all living organisms, yielded to superior forces (old age, disease, competition, etc.) and now stands as Nature’s life cycle artistry owing to decomposition, insects, bird scavaging, and untold other elements.

 

A decay-hollowed sweetgum, with an open portal from side-to-side, suggests a history of physical abuse allowing fungi to infect and decompose the wounded trunk across decades. Disease and decomposition do their work. Abuse in the forest is common…not of the deliberate malevant variety, but incidental to human interaction with tools, equipment, or vehicles. The Bradford Creek bottomland forest is not untouched wildland. It is a riparian zone preserved as a sewer line right-of-way and protected as a wetland, located in the heart of Alabama’s fastest growing urban population center, Madison, Alabama and Huntsville.

 

Most trees along the greenway forest evidence old injuries. A look inside reveals structural weakness that will yield to gravity’s persistent and undefeated power. Fallen trunks litter the forest. Nothing in Nature is static.

 

Grnadson Sam stands by a snag on its last legs. I give it less than a year.

 

Life and Renewal

 

Even as death is a big part of life in the forest, it is all manner of life in these rich riparian forests that draws me back, again and again. I recorded this 57-second video of Sam, fawn lillies, and dwarf trillium in celebration of spring life returning.

 

Shagbark hickory is among the larger trees in the stand. This one appears healthy, its fruit (hickory nuts) a gift to the ubiquitous squirrels that scamper along the trail. I see no wound scars on this specimen.

 

This box elder, common along the forest edge on both sides of the greenway, is in flower. Spring in the northland where we’ve resided from time to time (PA, NY, NH, OH, and western MD), arrives with a perceived sense of urgency, seeming eager to enter the much shorter growing season. Here in northern Alabama, autumn slowly evolves to spring with a few days of winter interrupting. This box elder is sporting new leaves and is in full flower.

 

Butterweed is an early spring showoff at forest edge and in meadow habitats.

 

Canadian lousewort’s intricate leaves and lavendaer bloom merited a photograph.

 

Sweet Betsy trillium was within a day or two of opening its display to proclaim the new season.

 

I recorded this 55-second video of the floral celebration underway.

 

Not to be outdone by sweet Betsy, the smaller, more delicate dwarf trillium claimed nearby forest floor.

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow fawn lilly (trout lilly) has held a place in my heart since I took systematic botany (the study dealing with the classification and evolutionary relationships of plant species, integrating taxonomy and phylogenetics) in spring 1970. Weekly field trips focused on spring ephemeral wildflowers.

 

My 40-second video brings yellow fawn lillies to life.

 

Virginia spring beauty also resides with absolute clarity in that 55-year memory bank. I can still see us students racing through the central Appalachian hills to keep up (physically and intellectually) with Dr. Glenn O. Workman. He became a lifetime mentor and friend (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2017/11/28/sowing-seeds-tomorrow/) across my career.

 

Mayapple is yet another ephemeral staple of my undergraduate education, professional pursuit, and retirement avocation and passion.

 

Woodland spider lilly foliage hints at the spectacular flowers that will blossom in June!

 

Each time I venture into wooland Nature, I encounter the incredible treasures that lie hidden in plain sight. Along with the revelations come vivid and cherished memories, all the sweeter because I can occasionally share all with young Sam, one of my two Alabama grandsons!

Albert Einstein knew the value in having Sam along to share these treasures:

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.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • A drab spring day reveals the promise of the coming season to those who seek it. (Steve Jones)
  • In retirement I am enriched by the freedom of time without pressures, restrictions, and deadlines. (Steve Jones)
  • Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. (Albert Einstein)

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

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

Sam’s older brother, Jack!

 

 

 

Mid-February Gulf-Coastal Alabama Delights!

/in /by

Judy and I visited Alabama’s Gulf Coast on February 21 and 22, 2025, inhaling spring breezes, experiencing hints of the season’s first gentle vernal touches to Alabama’s south shore, and contemplating Hopkins Law tracking vernal progress north at 120 miles per week! I captured still images and brief videos of treasured elements of the season of renewal: Mobile’s live oaks; Fairhope’s Bay gusts and waving Spanish moss; Bellingrath’s lush gardens along the Fowl River; and laughing gulls congregating at the open maw of the Gulf of America.

Join me on this Yellowhammer State visual tour of early spring along both sides of Mobile Bay. In contrast to most of my weekly photo essays, this one incorporates little of my normal Nature interpretation and education.

Mobile (February 21, 2025)

 

Live oaks merit reverence for their unequalled beauty, awe, inspiration, magic, and wonder. No other tree species can enliven cityscapes like mature live oaks. New England American elms matched their elegance before the 1930 onset of imported Dutch elm disease. Other visitors may marvel at Mobile’s architecture; I see little beyond the majesty of her live oaks.

Mobile

 

 

The Cathedral-Basilica of the Immacualte Conception, flanked by the beckoning arms of magnificent live oaks, literally drew me to her bosom. I felt the spirit of the trees and the blessed cathedral. A higher force engulfed me.

MobileMobile

 

Please don’t permit the sound of city traffic to engulf you on my 33-second video of the nearly 200 year old cathedral:

 

The photos and video below require no narrative from me.

MobileMobile

 

My 57-second video of the cathedral interior.

 

Individual live oaks and park squares with live oak groves stirred my soul.

MobileMobile

 

Fairhope (February 21, 2025)

 

Unlike most visitors to Mobile that weekend, we decided to exit downtown before the afternoon Mardi Gras festivities. We drove east across the Bay to Fair Hope, a city that seems to recognize and amplify that its essential character and identity are Nature-based: its trees and gardens; Mobile Bay; the Gulf of America.

Here is the 58-second video I recorded on that breezy blue-bird afternoon.

 

Again, who needs my feeble narrative to spur wonder and appreciation? Spanish moss clings, sways, and inspires. Despite its moniker, spanish moss is neither a moss nor a native of Spain. It is an epiphytic flowering plant native to the southeastern USA.

Fairhope

 

I recorded this 50-second video of a Spanish mossy breeze.

 

A beutiful afternoon to catch a southern Alabama thrust of spring, catching the season as it surges northward at 120 miles per week (Hopkins Law).

Bellingrath Home and Garden (February 22, 2025)

 

As we departed our motel a few miles west of Mobile, a great blue heron bid us farewell from its perch atop a live oak.

Mobile

 

We had not visited Bellingrath Home and Gardens since I served as Director of the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service (1996-2001). I recorded this 57-second video within the historic gardens. A Carolina wren and a distant shooting range competed for our audio attention. Try to block out the firearm discharges.

 

A deep South winter favorite, the camelia is an Asia native, adapted to our climate and endeared to southern gardeners..

Bellingrath

 

I recorded this soothing 39-second video of the featured Bellingrath fountain.

 

Its water-music and nearby spreading live oaks set the Bellingrath mood of peace, traquility, and seasonal magic.

BellingrathBellingrath

 

The home speaks the same language of the South.

Bellingrath

 

My 59-second video along Fowl River further deepens the mood and magic.

 

On this cool mid-February day, I wondered how often Fowl River gators sun along this riverside flagstone path.

Bellingrath

 

I captured the wonder of the estuary circuit with this 57-second video.

 

I love these extraordinarily productive southern Alabama ecosystems fueled by long warm summers, elevated humidity, and frequent tropical downpours.

 

A pleasant walkway loops the frshwater lake, offering yet another ecosystem element.

Bellingrath

 

We left Bellingrath with plenty of time to explore Dauphin Island. The Gulf and its Nature treasues awaited!

 

Dauphin Island (February 22, 2025)

 

My iPhone navigator places my Madison, Alabama home 385 miles from Dauphin Island, or 3.21 weeks according to Hopkins Law of seasonal latitudinal transition. Hopkins Law also includes an elevation factor: one week per 700 feet. My 805-foot Madison elevation adds another 1.15 weeks to the northward sojourn. I reside 4.36 weeks north of Dauphin Island at sea level!

Dauphin Island

 

I felt like Dauphin’s laughing gulls were aiming their raucous hoots of delight at me for my next morning’s drive a month back into winter. I recorded this 43-second video of their mirth.

 

This individual countenanced a more sober face.

Dauphin Island

 

 

 

I wondered where the prodigious flocks of gulls seek shelter when the warm Gulf waters ignite tempests of fury. Even 400 miles north of this wild storm nursery, the Huntsville area receives 55 inches of liquid precipitation annually, much of it injected into southerly winds whisking evaporation from the Gulf. Here is my 57-second view of the Gulf from Fort Gaines. Northery breezes gave no hint of the power residing within tranquil waters.

 

Judy and I are not creatures of the sea shore. Judy claims to love the beach…except for the sand, heat, humidity, traffic, noise, and summer hordes of people. We view Februray as a good time to visit every couple of years.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • I am inspired by Nature’s panoply, her infinite variety of substance and expression. (Steve Jones)
  • A student of Nature knows enough to appreciate that he knows little. (Steve Jones)
  • We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

Bellingraph

 

 

 

Abandoned TVA Recreation Area and Construction Village along the CCC Trail at Joe Wheeler State Park

/in /by

I revisited the CCC Historic Trail at Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park on January 23 and 24, 2025, to gather additional background on the 1930s Wheeler Dam Village (for construction crews and their families) and the 1930s to 1950 Recreation Area, both located on what is now State Park property along the CCC Trail. Nature is adept at covering her tracks under the debris of 75-90 years of forest growth!

Our north Alabama forests hide delights and mysteries, some natural and others relics of human impact and design. I’ve marveled at the hidden human artifacts along the trail above the Wheeler Dam on Joe Wheeler State Park since first trekking there in 2020: https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=7284&action=edit&classic-editor=1

Revisiting the Old Recreation Site at Joe Wheeler State Park

 

David Barr, Joe Wheeler State Park Assistant Superintendent, loaned me his copy of The Wheeler Project (US Government Printing Office 1940 book, The Wheeler Project, A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, and Initial Operations), which describes the Recreation Area:

Within the reservation immediately south of the dam, the Authority [TVA], with the cooperation of the National Park Service and the Emergency Conservation Work program, developed two small areas for intensive recreation use. [The smaller is on the Wheeler Lake side of the primary dam road.] The larger of the two areas is located along the shoreline of Big Nance Creek and its junction with Wilson Lake, and consists of approximately 50 acres of heavily wooded land. 

Facilities include a cherted access road [County Road 411], a parking area, a frame picnic shelter with twin fireplaces, a rustic overlook building, a latrine building, drinking fountains, tables, benches, and outdoor ovens, together with foot trails leading to various points of interest.

A National Park Service CCC camp constructed the facilities in these areas between April 1934 and November 1935. The areas are used extensively by individuals and local groups from the nearby and cities within a radius of 75 miles.

This excerpt warrants a few clarifying comments. What is now Joe Wheeler State Park remained in federal ownership until 1949, hence the narrative about the 1930s mentioning the National Park Service, CCC, and other federal agencies. The 1940 book narrative indicates that the recreation areas continued to operate through the date of publication. I’ve found no indication of a closure date. I assume that the responsible federal agency ceased operations before the state acquired the property in 1949, suggesting abandonment and subsequent neglect over three-quarters of a century.

 

TVA Recreation Area

 

When I first explored this area with Alabama State Parks Naturalist Emeritus Mike Ezell in 2020, this pathway carried the name Multi-Use Trail. Today, recognizing the significance of the Dam-era remains, it bears the Historic CCC Trail designation.

Joe WSP

 

David strolls past the bathhouse (restrooms for male and female flanking the breezeway). Its days are rushing into full decay and collapse, a condition already achieved by the picnic pavillion (right), excepting its exquisite CCC stone masonry chimneys on both ends.

Joe WSPJoe WSP

 

Pole lights once illuminated the Recreation Area (known as Big Nance Park), evidenced by the fixture we found buried in forest debris several hundred feet downhill.

Joe Wheeler SP

 

Sewage and water utilities serviced Big Nance Park. Imagine WW II families refreshing at the stone drinking fountain

Joe WSP

 

Wandering the CCC Trail flashes mental images of Mayan remains peering from tropical jungle growth. I wonder how long beyond some catostrophic end to human habitation would it take for Manhattan’s infrastructure to crumble to obscurity?

I recorded this 59-second video at the water fountain:

 

The bath house and pavillion connect to the observation overlook above Nance Creek Inlet via a flagstone pathway.

pJoe WSP

 

This view of the overlook dates back to my May 11, 2023 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2023/08/31/revisiting-the-old-recreation-site-at-joe-wheeler-state-park/) photo essay.

Joe WSP

 

Joe WSP Naturlist Jennings Earnest provided the foreground above Wilson Lake. Although I failed to capture the image, we counted two dozen great blue herons fishing along the inlet (right).

Joe WSP

Joe WSP

 

The collapsing gazebo image hints at the exquisite workmanship of the CCC masons. Their work stands undiminished 90 years later. Time rushes on at precisely 24 hours per day. I am determined to assist the Alabama State Park System to retore these magnificent underlying structures to functionality. Their tale and heritage should reach generations into the future, and not be merely a photographic memory and a footnote to a forgotten chapter, today remembered by a few and eventually lost to dusty volumes.

Joe WSP

 

Joe WSP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recorded this 58-second video of the once magnificent gazebo:

 

No trees obstructed the Wilson Lake 1940 view. No shade sheltered the picnic diners who sat on the sturdy wooden seats, long-since decayed.

Joe WSP

 

Park caretakers see the possibilities…as do I. The stonework at right contained how many thousands of afternoon and evening firepalce meals, warming fires, and s’more roastings? Memories lay silently and wistfully at rest, only briefly stirred when we rare visitors stop by to ruminate on a winter afternoon.

Joe WSP

 

We make no claim that our two-day exploration represented a serious, systematic archeological endeavor. We recognize that at heart we are naturalists and curious technicians hoping to pursue vigorously enough to see the tip of the iceberg (we know that much of the Camp Village and Recreation Area lies hidden beneath the surface), spur interest among Park staff, elected officials, groups and organizations, interested entities, foundations, allied agencies, philanthropers, and others, and ultimately see the vision of restoring the Village and Recreation Area.

 

Wheeler Dam Village

 

I had previously photographed the huge village outdoor barbeque double-pit, abandoned long enough that a three-foot diameter yellow poplar stands within the firepit!

Joe WSP

 

We knew where to find it. We searched extensively around it knowing we would locate extensive nearby evidence of use and occupation. We found nothing.

I recorded this 59-second video as we began our Janurary 23-24 explorations:

 

As was the case near the cooking pits, we spent a lot more time looking than we did finding!

What we did find came in dribs and drabs: sheet metal, one-half steel drum, and concrete blocks. Teasers that more is there, but unfortunately in the complete book of the Village and Recreation Area, these are unconsolidated words, phrases, and shattered paragraphs. We sought complete sentences, full paragraphs, and even a chapter or two.

Joe WSPJoe WSP

 

Okay, not all proved futile

I recorded this 36-second video as we unearthed the remains of a lower slope series of terraced bunk houses reportedly consumed by fire. Surely, somewhere there are newspaper, agency, or individual archival records of the fire? Might there be a University of North Alabama (or elsewhere) faculty or graduate student willing to pursue the tale? Can we secure funding to support such an effort?

 

Again, our results were varied and piecemeal: a shovel with handle long decayed and a rectangle of sheet metal.

Joe WSP

 

Even a discarded pocelain toilet!

Joe WSP

 

And an old pole light (shown below for the second time in this photo essay) hinting that the Village and Recreation Area enjoyed the conveniences of water, sewer, and electricity. We hurt to imagine the complex’s story remaining untold. Where are the records, volumes, and photographs stored? The Village housed thousands of residents over the years of dam construction. The Recreation Area served untold regional citizens from dam construction until about 1950…thousands of people across 12-17 years.

Joe Wheeler SP

 

 

 

 

 

What more can a bunch of Nature enthusiasts discover? Are our efforts frozen like the Wilson Lake shoreside ice below Jennings?

Joe WSP

 

I don’t want to give up. However, I know my limits. An observant man of his day (Mark Twain?) once observed:

A wise man knows the limit of his knowledge; a fool has no idea.

Albert Einstein spoke often of wisdom, knowledge, and stupidity:

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

There is no vaccine against stupidity.

Don’t be too hard on me. Everyone has to sacrifice at the altar of stupidity from time to time.

 

David Barr, the senior Park staff member of our January team, offered some closing comments several weeks later:

TVA did operate or was over this area until the state purchased it. The Recreation Area was known as” Big Nance Park” in its heyday by locals. I’m not sure that was the official name or if it had one? Wheeler Dam Village was used by TVA after the completion of the dam to operate and house workers until 1949, to my knowledge. I’m not sure when TVA stopped utilities to the Recreation Area. I think there are a lot more secrets in the woods and surrounding fields that can give us more answers. I suggest we do some extensive map studies before our next venture. I hope maybe a metal detector will help us locate more village remains and utilities. I will notify you when I make some contacts.

We may yet find answers to our pressing questions.

 

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.
I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

The Foundation exists for the sole purpose of providing incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.

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

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

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

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

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

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • I think there are a lot more secrets in the woods and surrounding fields that can give us more answers. (David Barr)
  • More than we will ever know is hidden in plain sight, whether of human or Nature’s affairs. (Steve Jones)
  • As I continue to explore Nature, the more I learn, the less I know. (Steve Jones)
  • Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)

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

 

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2025 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

 

Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

Joe WSP

 

 

Brief Form Post #43 — January Afternoon Saunter along the Beaverdam Creek Boardwalk

/in /by

Brief-Form Post #43

 

I am pleased to add the 43rd of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

 

On January 17, 2025, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I visited Beaverdam Creek Boardwalk, a National Natural Landmark at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge near Huntsville, Alabama. Accept this Post as a visual photo essay, rich with dormant season imagery and light on science-based interpretation. Take a relaxing saunter through the forest with us. Flow with our boardwalk pace; view our stroll as a forest bathing. I offer this brief-form post with 16 photos and five less-than-one-minute videos, keeping my narrative intentionally abbreviated.

The tupelo stand pulls us in…and up!

Beaverdam

Beaverdam CBW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recorded this 58-second video tour among crowded stems, slanted sunrays, and mesmerizing crowns.

 

The boardwalk ends at Beaverdam Creek flowing toward Limestone Bay and Lake Wheeler.

Beaverdam

 

I never tire of the endless reflections afforded the patient viewer and the soulful thinker. The placid water surficial images reward me visually and fill me with spiritual and emotional fuel.

BeaverdamBeaverdam

 

I recorded this 58-second video of sunshine filling the tupelo forest.

 

Some tree seeds (like maple) are wind-blown. Oak trees rely upon squirrels for seed dispersal. Birds scatter cherry seeds. Tupelo seeds lie thick on the forest floor, awaiting winter rains filling the swamp to lift them into floating mats, transporting them downstream.

Beaverdam

 

I recorded this 58-second video of Beaverdam Creek at the boardwalk’s terminus.

 

Leonardo da Vinci recognized the true Nature of water 500 years ago:

Water is the driving force of all nature.

 

Tree Oddities and Curioisities

 

Persimmon trees occupy a wide range of site types, from well-drained uplands to the bottomland forests adjacent to the tupelo swamp. Their dark blocky bark, complemented by the regimented horizontal yellow-bellied sapsucker drill holes, fascinates me, pleasing my eyes and warming my heart. Visual delicacy made all the more sweet by fall persimmon fruit suitable for all manner of wildlife as well as human wanderers.

Beaverdam

 

Shouting a subtle do-not-touch alert, this thick mane of poison ivy air roots suffices even absent the “shiny leaves of three” growing season warning.

Beaverdam

 

The ancient tupelo trees populating the swamp are declining, decay advancing at pace (perhaps faster) than the annual rate of stem diameter increment. Life and death spar, advance, and retreat in our north Alabama forests. This magnificent tupelo forest will one day yield to the inevitable undefeated forces of Nature.

BeaverdamBeaverdam

 

However, there will be no end…only a new beginning…a cycle without completion.

 

Fungal Friends

 

Decay and decomposition carry the burden of cleanup, recycling organic matter from carbon residue to the stuff of new life. Stinking orange oyster fungus is just one species of fungus performing the forest floor heavy lifting!

Beaverdam

 

This 47-second video captures its magic.

 

I can’t resist more photos of stinking oyster mushrooms, its moniker worthy of repeated exposure.

Beaverdam

 

These standard white/pearl oyster mushrooms are one of my culinary favorites. Collection of any sort within the protected National Natural Landmark is prohibited. Taking photos is permissible!

Beaverdam

 

Here is my 23-second video of the edible oyster mushrooms.

 

The towering tupelo trees throughout our forests, the hollowing aging trunks, the seed mats, and the vibrant decomposing fungi remind us that life and death are at play

 

Closing

 

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. A single trek along a forested trail discloses only a brief moment in time, obscuring the decades prior and the future ahead, isolating us from the scope and scale of the grand forest cycle of life. Henry David Thoreau captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the Wonder of decay and renewal:

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!

 

Beaverdam