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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!

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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

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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

 

 

 

 

 

A Unique Forest at Prattville, Alabama’s Wilderness (Bamboo) Park

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On December 17, 2024, Judy and I visited Pratville’s Alabama’s Wilderness Park. We resided in Prattville from 1981 to early 1985, when our two children were still under ten. We visited the park occasionally during that period and decided that while in the Montgomery area, we should stop by the 30-acre preserve. Our kids are now a few weeks shy of 46 and 48. We were 40 years younger the last time we walked the trails.

A welcoming sign at the trailhead reads:

Plant life unfamiliar to most Southerners flourishes in this now protected environment. The bamboo reaches dramatic heights much like the magnificent bamboo habitats of the Panda of China… In 1940 the land was passed to Floyd Smith…the owner who placed the bamboo plants in the area. He had a love of exotic plants and acquired the bamboo shoots from a Washington Import firm.

When I lived in Prattville, I was Land Manager for Union Camp Corporation, responsible for 320,000 acres of company-owned forestland located loosely along a line from Clanton to Brewton. I loved those intensively managed forests that in part supplied wood and fiber to company mills. I recall viewing Wilderness Park as little more than a curiosity…a neat place to take the kids. I see it now as a trial…a test of transplanting a foreign biome to Alabama. The bamboo stands as a nearly impenetrable wall along the path.

.

 

I have referred to this as a bamboo forest, but bamboo is not a tree. Instead, it is technicallya perennial evergreen grass. I’ll leave the description there, urging the curious reader to dig more deeply online.

I recorded this 59-second video within the bamboo forest:

 

Native tree species intermix within the dense bamboo thicket, rising 20+ feet above the tallest bamboo, which are clearly not reducing sunlight available to the super dominant loblolly pine (left) and yellow poplar (right). The battle for soil nutrients and moisture is likely intense.

 

 

Sections of the preserve are pure bamboo.

 

The 80 year-old mixed bamboo and native tree species plant cover effectively blocks any penetrating sunlight from the forest floor.

My 59-second video presents the bamboo forest from the trail as we approached the pond:

 

I admit fascination with the segmented stems, smooth surface, and straight poles. Fascinated yes, but not enthralled as I am with the myriad bark patterns and color of a diverse stand of native hardwoods.

 

Almost invisible to my naked eye as I walked past, this white-banded fishing spider tolerated me coming close enough for a clear photo.

 

The path circuiting the bamboo pond is worn smooth and vegetation-free, exposing the adjoining hardwwod roots. Bamboo stems reflect clearly in the satin water, among the tumbled hardwood branches.

 

Bamboo shoots crowd the pond-berm pathway.

 

 

 

 

The pond welcomes full sunlight to an otherwise deeply shaded preserve. Turtles embrace the mid-December warmth

 

Just like the grapevines reaching into our native hardwood canopies, these hefty stalwarts extend well above the Asian bamboo.

 

Wisteria (the bare vine at left) also reaches into the main canopy. Green English ivy leaves adorn the smaller vines that carry thick air roots (especially in the image at right).

 

I recorded this 59-second video of a massive cord of wisteria vines lifting through the hardwood tree above the bamboo.

 

Another sylvan curiosity, each species of wisteria always coils in the same direction, these two spiraling upward clockwise (from the perspective of looking up from the base).

 

Does its spiral in Pratville reveal anything about its species identity? The answer is, yes! I devoted a May 2022 photo essay (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/05/25/exploring-the-spiral-nature-of-northern-alabamas-tree-vines/) to exploring the spiral nature of our northern Alabama vines. These Pratville wisteria vines are American wisteria.

Upon returning home, I learned that a diagnostic character of Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) is its counterclockwise spiraling. American wisteria spirals clockwise.

Alan S. Weakley, North Carolina based expert on southern flora, wrote this about the direction of spiral: Twining direction can be determined by looking at (or imagining) the vine twining around a branch or pole. Look at the pole or branch from the base (from the direction from which the vine is growing). If the vine is circling the branch or pole in a clockwise direction, that is dextrorse; if counterclockwise, that is sinistrorse. 

So, the direction of spiral is not owing to an environmental factor; it’s genetically determined. Now the question is why the direction is hard-wired. Is there some evolutionary advantage in one way or the other deep in the genetic footprint? If so, why do Wisteria americana and frutescens twine in the opposite direction from their Asian cousin?

I hope that my waning mind can cling to the terms dextrorse (clockwise) and sinistrorse (counter clockwise).

 

I enter Nature embracing what I consider five essential verbs: Believe, Look, See, Feel, and Act.

    • Believe: I find Nature’s Lessons because I know they lie hidden within view — belief enables me to look and see
    • Look: Really look, with eyes open to your surroundings, external to electronic devices and the distractions of meaningless noise and data
    • See: Be alert to see deeply, beyond the superficial
    • Feel: See clearly, with comprehension, to find meaning and evoke feelings
    • Act: Feel emphatically enough to spur action

Most hikers and recreational trekkers walk through Nature, rather than within it. I’ve seen far too many people walking blindly, focused on whatever is blaring through their earbuds, or engrossed in banal iPone conversation. Henry David Thoreau offered similar wisdom:

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

I am certain that Thoreau would have noticed the direction of spiral. Leonardo da Vinci would have concluded that Nature has a purpose for every subtle distinction. Life is rich with mystery, and yet for every cause, Nature steers exclusively with impetus and basis.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Although foreign species may alter our place impression, the underlying land is unchanged.
  • The large intermixed native hardwoods evidence a fertile soil-site, nutrient-rich and moisture-blessed in a favorable southern clime.  
  • It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early December Circuit of Jones Branch Trail at Shoal Creek Nature Preserve

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Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I hiked the Jones Branch Trail on December 9, 2024, at the Shoal Creek Nature Preserve near Florence, Alabama. The preserve’s website:

The Shoal Creek Nature Preserve (dedicated by Forever Wild resolution as the Billingsley-McClure Shoal Creek Preserve) allows visitors to explore 298 acres of fallow fields, mature upland hardwood stands, and scenic creek bottoms in Lauderdale County. Waterways on the tract include Indian Camp Creek, Lawson Creek, Jones Branch and Shoal Creek. The tract was purchased in part through a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant awarded by the Alabama Department of Economics and Community Affairs, as well as through financial and in-kind contributions from the City of Florence and Lauderdale County.

 

The preserve encompasses less than one-half square mile, yet we sauntered roughly three miles through what seemed like a far more extensive property, experiencing diverse terrain, varied cover, several small streams, and one stretch overlooking the Shoal Creek arm of Lake Wilson (Tennessee River). I attempt with this Great Blue Heron photo essay to introduce you to the preserve, sharing its story as I read it in the forest, the land, and human artifacts. Come along on this interpretive journey.

I first visited the preserve in August 2023, just eight weeks after my triple bypass. I ventured just a few hundred feet into the property, my photo essay reporting only on the abandoned fields: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2023/11/01/mid-august-2023-first-time-visit-to-forever-wild-shoal-creek-nature-preserve/

I focus this current essay on the forest cover, predominately second growth hardwood naturally regenerated on abandoned pasture or rough tilled cropland. The forest tells the history, even as it hints at the future. Both of these images contain beech saplings, clinging to marcescent leaves, this past summer’s foliage that will hold until spring. Understory beech tolerates shade and can persist there for decades until the overstory gives way to disturbance (e.g., ice, wind, disease, or old age), bringing sunlight to the beech, which will respond to emerge as a major overstory component in the next stand.

 

The trigger for release (whether beech or some other species in the understory or intermediate canopy) may come as a widespread blowdown or the loss of a single tree, like this 30-inch diameter red oak, whose massive crown covered more than a tenth of an acre. The crown opening will trigger a race to fill the void. The competitors? I have observed that the adjoining upper canopy occupants will close the gap faster than any understory or intermediate canopy trees can rush upward to fill the void. Stand replacement will require more than single tree disturbance. Trust me, the beech is in no hurry.

 

The hollow red oak appeared healthy and strong, but it no longer had the structural strength to withstand the undefeated forces of physics and gravity. The second-growth forest stands of northern Alabama bear the torment of widespread decay infested by old wounds from prior logging or farmstead activities.

I recorded this 45-second video at the crash site!

 

Nothing in Nature is static. Within two years the tree top will collapse from decay, beginning with twigs and small branches, and by year ten, only a deeply decayed trunk will remain.

 

We found a species of oak not familiar to either of us: blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica), a shrub to medium-sized tree found in central and eastern USA in fields, woodland edges, and dry ridges. It prefers better drained soils and is often found where other trees will not grow due to poor soils. We vowed to pay closer attention on our next visit to learn more about the species, its abundance and distribution on the preserve, and its site preferences..

 

Eastern red cedar is an early successional species, colonizing abandoned agricultural land, old fields, and cutover forests. They are relatively short-lived, unable to compete effectively long-term with the hardwood neighbors. We found ubiquitous dead and dying cedar as it drops out of these 60-90 year old second growth hardwood stands. The one below is dead and is among the larger individuals we encountered.

 

The cedar confirm my supposition that human disturbance and past use drove the direction of forest succession. Cedar wood is decay-resistent. This standing deceased individual may offer critter cover and nesting sites for decades.

 

As I’ve often observed, death is a big part of life in the forest. This old stump snag caught my attention. Like the toppled red oak, this snag is hollow. The ground beyond is littered with dead and downed woody debris. The carbon cycle is active.

 

Occasionally in my GBH photo essays I ruminate on tree spiral grain. Not all trees have it. This bark-free dead hardwood (species?) spirals clockwise at about 30 degrees. The spiral and staining create an atractive pattern. I have yet to find definitive answers to the spiral mysteries in the literature. A recent online article (The Gymnosperm Database, 2024), Why Do Trees Form Spiral Grain? edited by Christopher J. Earle adds to my own uncertainty:

Spiral grain is the helical form taken by xylem tissues in their growth along a tree trunk or limb. Spiral grain is often conspicuous in snags that have lost their bark, as shown in the photos on this page, and people love to speculate about it… Personally, I am skeptical…  Finally, there doesn’t seem to be much known about how all this happens: what physiological stresses trigger which growth hormones, for instance, or what causes a reversal in the direction of the spiral. On balance, I still have a sense that the field is data-poor, and it’s possible to generate lots of plausible hypotheses.

 

Unless someone directs me to refereed evidence to the contrary, I will stay with my conclusion that spiral-grained wood is stronger, therefore offering a competitive advantage evolutionarily.

Regardless, spiraled clockwise or counter or straight grained, all trees will succumb, decay, and return to the forest soil. These colorful turkey tail mushrooms are the reproductive, spore-producing orgams of a decomposing fungus whose mycelia are feeding within the log.

 

Another fungus, this one a pathogen growing on live wood, black knot disease, infects black cherry, a native tree species across the eastern US. The tree seems to tolerate this particularly large knot.

 

If we had not read in the forest obvious indications of past disturbance and human influences, this long-abandoned ~1960 Ford station wagon would have told the tale. Left decades ago at the edge of a spent agricultural field or pasture, the carcass (pardon the pun) now is located in the forest interior.

 

We crossed many old farm paths and road beds. I imagine the preserve’s character 70-80 years ago, a failing farm with a few acres still tilled, large marginally productive pasture acreage, visible soil erosion, and extensive abandoned fields naturally regenerating to herbs, shrubs, and early successional tree species.

 

Water Features

 

Several streams pass peacefully through the reserve. Fittingly, I’m standing at the sign for Jones Branch Trail. Behind me a massive white oak fell across the trail this past summer.

 

I recorded this 54-second video at this pleasant location:

 

We walked along other stretches that rewarded us with gurgling water and a soothing setting.

 

I recorded this 57-second video of another stream section:

 

We enjoyed the views of the Shoal Creek arm of Wilson Lake (Tennessee River impounded by Wilson Dam) from the bluff 150-feet above lake level. The view is restricted to dormant season.

 

My predilection favors woodland exploration during the November through early April period when understory and main canopy foliage is absent, heat and humidity are memories, and nuiscance insects are inactive. I admit, however, that when spring wildflowers are abundant, I will gleefully embrace that season of renewal. And I will enthusiastically relish summer mornings and welcome the coming autumn. I simply love immersion in Nature’s wildness. Life is too short not to flourish in her beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration, whatever the season.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Every forest (or Nature Preserve) tells its tale to those able to read its language. (Steve Jones)
  • In every true searcher of Nature there is a kind of religious reverence. (Albert Einstein)
  • I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Einstein)
  • Death is a big part of life in the forest (Steve Jones)

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2024) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

Mild Fall Afternoon at the Woodland Flint Creek Trail on Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

/in /by

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I co-led a group of 22 OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Alabama in Huntsville) members on a Nature Walk along Flint Creek Trail (Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge) on Sunday afternoon, November 10, 2024. Two days earlier the Sunday forecast predicted an 80 percent probability of rain. Nary a drop dampened us on a grand afternoon.

A Nature walk differs from what we term a hike. I insist that our walks be saunters, where we wander in the habitat, carefully discovering and examining what mysteries and wonders lie hidden in plain sight. Our hikes hurry through the ecosystem at a pace that limits revealing the wonder beyond a superficial glance. Like John Muir, who disdained hiking, I quickly lose contact with the hardcore hikers. I stop to probe, take photos, and record a brief video, or two. A fellow inquisitive hiker may lag with me to find what we may. I am a saunterer, dedicated to the end. I find it amusing that when my time stretched endlessly ahead in my youth, I rushed to destination after destination. Today when time rushes ahead, I’m in no hurry. I don’t want to miss anything.

 

Flint Creek Bay

 

Flint Creek flows from the south into Wheeler Lake, a TVA impoundment…the dam 40 miles downstream on the Tenessee River. Entering the extended dormant season, The Corps of Engineers has already lowered the water level to allow greater flood control storage capacity for seasonal winter and spring rains. Mud flats are present where summer water stood.

Flint Creek

 

A great blue heron hunts the shallow water bordering the mud flats.

Flint Creek

Flint Creek

 

I recorded this 24-second video as the heron took flight:

 

A pond cypress at the mudflat edge shows the summer water level stains. Knees also evidence the summer level.

Flint Creek

 

I recorded this 58-second video encompassing the bay, the mud flat, and the cypress.

 

The riparian forest envelops Flint Creek Trail as our group exited the boardwalk. I’ve always enjoyed both the openess of boardwalks and closed forest trails — the best of both worlds at the Flint Creek Trail!

Flint Dreek

 

I recorded this 57-second video as we crossed the boardwalk to the wooded Flint Creek Trail:

 

Something about the boardwalk held us in place, urging us to enjoy the ironic attraction that holds people transfixed by an extensive mudflat, bird and woodland mammal tracks, and even human footprints.

 

Flint Creek Trail’s Riparian Forest

 

Allow your mind to reject the false impression that forests are forever. Picture this moist fertile field in corn and soybeans during the early 1930s, soon to be abandoned, seeding to windblown and bird-scattered germinants of annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees. A near jungle of vegetation yielded to forest, the most aggressive and faster growing trees prevailing. The winners in this stand are 100 feet tall.

Flint Creek Trail

Flint Creek

 

Our group looks skyward. Chris redirects their attention to an understory paw paw tree below right.

 

The yellow poplar commands the dominant canopy and strikes an impressive pose below left. A Southern-region emblematic flowering magnolia seems content growing in full shade.

Flint CreekFlint Creek

 

Special Woodland Treats

 

I’m a big fan of what I call tree form curiosities. We found a yellow poplar that had fallen horizontally decades ago, yet had retained vascular connection to its roots. Remaining viable, the prostrate stem produced several vertical shoots that developed as individual trees rising from the still-growing horizontal base. Enjoy these images of nine OLLI bumps on a log!
Flint Creek Flint Creek

 

 

 

A special moment at a place of magic and wonder! Had we been hiking, strung out as the faster among us surged ahead, we might not have noticed and lingered at the natural living bench. By universal acclaim and smiling faces, this was a worthy and enjoyable stop.

Flint Creek

 

Trees are not alone in partaking of full sunshine in the upper crown. Supple jack vines hitched a ride vertically as the trees began ascending 90 years ago from the fallow fields. Our major southern forest vines are the same age as the trees, and grow upward with the trees. Wrap and hold on tightly. Let the trees do the heavy lifting.

Flint Creek

Flint Creek

 

Sasafras roots are worthy of an inquisitive inhale — oh, the fragrance of root beer!

Flint Creek

 

Again, a Nature Walk provides unlimited opportunities for learning and appreciating natural wonders.

 

Glimpses of the Fungi Kingdom

 

I’ve repeated in these Great Blue Heron photo essays that death and decomposition are a major element of life in our forests. We spotted  several individuals of Coker’s Amanita, its bright white caps announcing its presence.

Flint Creek

 

 

Steve Stewart snapped a nice shot of this pair and their beautifully gilled underside.

 

 

 

 

 

We discovered three edible species of wild mushrooms: honey mushroom, the beige individual at left; oyster mushroom held in the same hand; amber jelly mushroom at right.

Flint CreekFlint Creek

 

Don’t take my word regarding edibility. Always do your own homework. I consume only species about which my knowledge is 100 percent certain, and then only when cooked.

Flint Creek

 

We exited the trail via a return trek across the boardwalk. The clouds had broken, removing all hope that drought relief would bless our Sunday evening. We lingered, enjoying  the evening and each other’s companny. Had our walk been a hike, I would have emerged from the forest after most had departed for home. John Muir abhored the word “hike”:

I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike’!

Flint CreekFlint Creek

 

 

 

Muir, as he so often did, nailed the sentiment we all shared:

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

 

This 50-second video captures our group recrossing the boardwalk to the parking lot as the sky cleared, erasing any hope that the promised drought-abating rain would bless our Sunday evening:

 

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • When my time stretched endlessly ahead in my youth, I rushed to destination after destination. Today when time rushes ahead, I’m in no hurry, content to saunter.
  • I love the trees reaching heavenward and the fungi intent on decomposing them.
  • So much in Nature lies hidden in plain sight, awaiting discovery by curious minds and searching eyes.

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

 

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.”

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

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

[Me with my hand on a sapling in group photo — courtesy of Chris Stuhlinger]

Flint Creek

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Stroll at Huntsville Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary!

/in /by

On November 1, 2024, 72 days since my total right knee replacement surgery, I sauntered within Huntsville’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary with dear friends Marian Moore Lewis, Chris Stuhlinger, Bill and Becky Heslip, and Judy (my bride of 52 years)! I felt the lift of a new month, the freshness of an early fall day, and the joy of knowing that both knees (left replacement in January 2024) are far better than in late 2023. My recovery epitomizes the power of Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!

Where do I begin with my 26th Great Blue Heron photo essay dedicated to the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary? I skimmed the list of the first 25 topics and foci. I found no reason for concern about repeating prior themes, photos, observations, and reflections. Nothing in Nature is static. Every parcel of the 400-acre sanctuary is unique. Change is constant across the hours of a day, the days of a week, the weeks of a month, the months, the seasons, the years…the decades…the centuries. Were I to live the years of Methuselah, I might publish a thousand GSWS photo essays without repetition.

Let’s start at the westside entrance on Taylor Road. The observation shelter 100 feet from the parking lot looks over Hidden Spring, where mountain water lifts from the ground, fills Hidden Spring Creek, flows into Jobala Pond, and then empties into the Flint River bordering the sanctuary.

Here’s my 60-second video from above Hidden Spring:

 

The rain-moistened, lichen-coated water oak trunk stands near the shelter. Even an overnight autumn rain transforms a single tree trunk, highlighting its lichen tint, which will once again dry during the day. The light will shift from dull morning stratus to peaks of bright sunshine. I could have stationed myself at the prior evening’s gloaming near this lone oak. I recorded 0.77″ of rain overnight. The stem at dusk was dry and remained unaffected by the rain until stemflow whetted it before dawn. Occasional photographs would have chronicled the process. Daylight came in form of easing rain, lots of canopy dripping, and wispy fog under thick stratus. Nothing in Nature is static; every moment has a story to tell. The world is like that, whether a natural tale or a human narrative.

 

The deck faces north into the wetland forest canopy 40 feet above the spring surface. Dripping, limited birdsong, lingering overcast and disruptive road noise gave little identity to the time of day (1:00 PM). Had I been beamed into the moment, all signals would have directed me mid-morning.

 

As we entered the Sanctuary, the persistent stratus lifted, the day brightened, and we accepted the reality that the day had moved beyond noon. Observations and reflections, both literal and philosophical, stimulate musings. Seventy-five years ago, Jobala Pond was a raw borrow pit where road engineers had mined gravel, sand, and clay for nearby road constructiion. Archival photos show a barren shoreline, a scar upon the land. Nature’s healing powers are nearly without limit. During my lifetime, Mount Saint Helens “destroyed” hundreds of square miles of blasted forest; today the acreage is green with vibrant young forest. Savage 2016 wildefires blackened 70,285 acres in Yellowsone National Park. When I toured the park just five years later, burned forests stood as blackened skeletons underlain by green carpets of new growth. John Muir aptly observed:

Earth has no sorrow that earth cannot heal.

Nature knows disturbance, for disturbance is the way of life and the architect of adaptation and evolution. And so it is with Jobala Pond, now a naturalized stream/pond ecosystem.

 

Here is the brief video I recorded along Hidden Spring Creek as it entered Jobala Pond.

 

Beavers are primary influencers of stream flow, function, and structure. Their 18-inch-high dam diagonally crosses the stream at left. A bark-stripped beaver-chew stem segment floats streamside at right.

 

A red swamp crayfish strenguously demanded some kind of passage toll, posing defensively as we approached. The crawdad, like the beaver, has no idea his habitat was once a destroyed landscape, transformed from an ugly worthless borrow pit to a vibrantly functioning natural ecosystem.

 

In the prime of my outdoor adventure life (say the 1980s), I would have scoffed at the notion of six (four in the photo and two others of us) ancient grandparents wandering and wondering in emerging wildness, once ignominously carved from pre-Columbian wilderness. Our shared vision is the guarantee of re-emergent wilderness in decades hence. My hope is that these photo essays will serve one small step toward ensuring that eventuality. Ninety years ago Louis Bromfield said of his efforts to restore his beloved Ohio Malabar Farm:

The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished… The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work.

 

As we reached the point where the creek broadens to Jobala Pond, the thick stratus began to break.

 

The serpentine water oak branch extending over the pond reflects perfectly on the still water.

 

The old iron gate adds a touch of nostalgia, harkening back to decades of agricultural production combatting seasonally saturated soils, periodic Flint River flooding, and marauding deer, raccoons, and other crop-consuming critters.

 

Roundleaf greenbrier produced a bumper crop of deep blue berries.

 

Similar in habit and appearance to greenbrier, Carolina snailseed (also known as Carolina moonseed and corbead) is a deciduous, woody vine that climbs with thin twining stems or scrambles along the ground, and primarily occurs in rocky open woods, wood margins, glades, fence rows, roadsides and stream/pond margin. Attractive features are its foliage and its autumn red berries!

 

Before departing the sanctuary, we drove to the east entrance.

 

To The Sanctuary’s East Side as Sunset Nears

 

The riparian forest comprises diverse species, straight boles, and stems reaching 100 feet. The Flint River floods much of the forest at least several times annually. Once farmed 70-80 years ago, the mixed forest regenerated naturally.

 

A stemflow-wetted beach trunk presented a parting lichen-painted visual gift.

 

Wildness is returning to the several hundred acre sanctuary. Preserved in perpetuity, wildness will transition in decades to an old growth forest condition. I won’t see that long-term result, yet I can take satisfaction knowing the process is underway.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work. (Louis Bromfield)
  • Nothing in Nature is static; every moment has a story to tell. The world is like that, whether a natural tale or a human narrative.
  • Nature knows disturbance, for disturbance is the way of life and the architect of adaptation and evolution.

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.”

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

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

 

 

An Early Fall Exploration along Madison, Alabama’s Bradford Creek Greenway!

/in /by

 

On October 4, 2024, five and one-half weeks beyond my total right knee replacement surgery, I continued my recovery and reentry to Nature exploration. Judy and our two Alabama grandsons (Sam, 10, and Jack, just shy of 17) accompanied me. My appreciation for the simple pleasures of the Common in Nature grew during my forced Nature Deficit Disorder period! I was eager to absorb a dose of Nature’s elixir along the nearby Bradford Creek Greenway, a flat paved surface appropriate for this stage of my recovery.

Innumerable times, I’ve introduced adults and kids to the compound, fierce-looking thorns of our native honey locust trees. I seldom include Latin names in these photo essays, yet some scientific monikers, like Gledistia triacanthos, are irresistible! Somehow the sweet, sugary resonance of honey locust belies its fanged thorns waiting to prick and puncture the unwary woods-rambler.

Bradford CreekBradford Creek

 

Familiarity breeds contempt, an apt adage. Take a closer look, then back away from the forked spikes. Were I inclined to sate my curiosity, I would dive into an internet rabbit hole to determine the one or many evolutionary impetuses for evolving the loathsome appedages. Perhaps on a day when the fall weather is not so perfect as today’s.

Bradford Creek

 

I recorded this video at our prickly friend.

 

This tupelo tree with its gnarly roots is one I visit frequently. Never have I seen it with such little water. I measured just 0.70″ of rain in August; a little over 3.00″ in September; and just 0.72″ in October. Bradford Creek is demonstrating the serious rainfall deficit.

 

A few deeper channels hold water sufficient to retain all manner of stream life.

Bradford Creek

 

Two and one-half miles south of the Heritage School trailhead, some flow, albeit painfully slow, persists.

Bradford Creek

 

My brief video from the south-end bridge speaks softly of our persistent drought:

 

Nothing in Nature is static. Since my prior visit, an easterly wind pushed a trailside 18-inch diameter shagbark hickory past its critical strength threshold. Toppled, the tree reveals its rotted and weakened east-facing trunk. In so many ways, Nature offers rudimentary lessons in applied physics.

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

Bradford Creek

 

The species’ bark is uniquely distinctive, whether standing vertical or recently resting supine.

Bradford Creek

 

Here is my 53-second fallen shagbark hickory video:

 

The standing tree evidenced the basal rot. Now fallen, the rotten-to-the-core stump leads me to wonder how it stood at all. The tree was not able to withstand the wind. Trees so close to the disturbances of installing the sewer line and constructing and maintaining the greenway sustain injuries that open infection courts for pathogens and decay fungi. Their days are numbered.

Bradford Creek

 

No one in our region could complain about an absence of October sunshine.

Bradford Creek

 

I recorded the call of a mockingbird celebrating the fine day in the canopy of a cedar tree between the greenway and Bradford Creek.

 

I’m sure you’ve heard people complaing about hayfever instigated by goldenrod pollen. They are mistaken. Goldenrod pollen is heavy and sticky, the plant relying on insects for pollination. Ragweed is the principal late summer and early fall hayfever culprit.

Bradford Creek

 

This ailanthus webworm moth is one of goldenrod’s many pollinators.

Bradford Creek

 

 

Blue mistflower also provided color along the greenway.

Bradford CreekBradford Creek

 

Cardinal flower also brightened my return to Nature.

Bradford Creek

 

Straw-colored flatsedge carries an apt moniker.

Bradford Creek

 

Walking or biking along Bradford Creek occasionally rewards me with a snake sighting, most often a gray ratsnake. Unfortunately, a passerby decided to crush the head of this small copperhead, and leave it on the pavement. In every matter concerning informed and responsible Earth Stewardship, ignorance can be an overwhelming obstacle.

Bradford Creek

 

Until my final breath, I will hold fast to my retirment 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.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • A short return to Nature five weeks following surgery pays dividends, amplifying and accelerating physical and mental healing!
  • There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment. (Leonardo da Vinci)
  • The older I get, the more I don’t know.

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s 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