environmental education Archives - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

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Brief-Form Post #58: Forest Discoveries While Measuring Tree Heights on Monte Sano State Park

April 29, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 58th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

Alabama State Parks Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger, and I measured selected tree heights on the morning of February 10, 2026, at Monte Sano State Park. We chose the exceptionally fertile lower, concave, northeast-facing slopes along the Sinks Trail. The soils are limestone-derived, deep, and well-watered. I visit the area several times annually… and marvel at the diversity of hardwood species, the towering heights of the trees, and the straight boles. I refer to this stand as a cathedral grove.

I brought my measurement tools for the tasks, positioned below with my trekking pole for scale: a 100-foot reel; a diameter tape; a 10-factor basal area prism; and a clinometer. Don’t look for a detailed exposition on their use. We used the reel to measure 100 feet horizontally from the tree base. At 100 feet, the clinometer percent scale translates directly to vertical feet below and above eye level. The diameter tape measures the tree diameter at breast height (DBH). The prism estimates the square feet of basal area per acre (at breast height).

Amber quickly learned the fine art and skill of employing these basic forestry instruments, in this case tallying basal area.

A Magnificent Chestnut Oak

From my exhaustive experience in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and here in Alabama, chestnut oak commonly dominates ridgetops and upper slopes, poorer sites with shallow rocky soils that can be drouthy and of low fertility. Here’s a particularly gnarled ridgetop chestnut oak, squatty and mishapen, on the Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve in nearby Madison, Alabama.

My chestnut oak stigma paints chestnut oak unfavorably. On better quality sites, chestnut oak doesn’t compete effectively with faster growing species like yellow polar, basswood, northern and southern red oak, and hickories. This chestnut oak along the Sinks Trail had caught my eye on previous visits. Stately, straight, and fat, this individual is 35.8″ DBH, and stands a remarkable 122 feet tall. Across the 53 years since earning a forestry bachelors degree, I don’t recall seeing such a superb chestnut oak.

But low and behold, my search of the Alabama Forestry Commission’s 2025 State Champion Tree List revealed a different image than the one I’ve held for years. The Commission lists 32 oak species, including the chestnut oak champion, which stands at 147 feet, 25 feet taller than the Monte Sano specimen. Only the champion cherrybark oak is taller at 156 feet.

I pledge to adjust my chestnut oak stigma. I assure you that this is not the first time I have altered an impression based on knowledge, experience, and time, whether it be of people, places, or things. Another teachable moment surfaced during the morning. I have known this species as Quercus prinus since taking Dendrology in 1970, more than a half-century ago. Amber and Chris informed me that the esteemed gods of systematic botany and plant classification have recently (RECENT to me alone perhaps!) changed the species from prinus to montana. The Missouri Botanical Garden online reference reduced my chagrin:

Quercus montana, commonly called chestnut oak (also commonly called basket oak, rock oak and rock chestnut oak) is a medium to large sized deciduous oak of the white oak group that typically grows 50-70’ (less frequently to 100’) tall with a rounded crown. It is native to wooded slopes in dry upland areas, often with poor soils, from Maine to Indiana south to South Carolina and Alabama. It grows tallest in rich, well-drained soils.

The old timber beast occasionally resurfaces within me. This baby is a beauty: veneer log quality to at least 32 feet. Clear lumber all the way to the live crown. The thought just as quickly faded. Come on, Steve…for God’s sake, this is a State Park you old fool! Yet, I can’t shake the aroma of fresh sawdust and the rich patina of finished oak furniture. Or the heavenly warmth of a fine whiskey aged in a white oak barrel!

Whether commercial forest product or State Park forest treasure, its value is high wherever it grows. Measured and noted, the tree will stand as a lesson within the park’s information and interpretation portfolio. Why is this specimen special? What site factors (soil, slope position, nutrients, moisture, aspect) enable this individual to succeed?

Yellow Poplar Reaching Skyward

A few hundred feet downslope, I made note of the cathedral grove of primarily yellow poplar when I entered the stand near the lowermost signatory sink on the trail five years ago (March 12, 2021).

I photographed Jerry Weisenfeld, Alabama State Parks Advertising and Marketing Manager, standing beside the very same specimen that Amber, Chris, and I measured this February.

The prominent sink captures all surface water within the karst basin, directing it to subsurface. I have not encountered anyone who can tell me where the subterranean flow surfaces.

I have told many groups that some of these poplars exceed 140 feet.

The state champion yellow poplar stands at 172 feet. The three of us measured DBH at 28.1″ and height at 155 feet, 17 feet short of the champion! Keep in mind the champion designation is based on three measures: height, crown width, and bole cicumference. There may be, and often are, trees of the same species that are taller than the winner.

Two complementary Delights

We found a colony of scarlet elf cup mushrooms near the yellow polar. I love the moniker, the cup shape, and its spectacular scarlet and white.

Here is my 57-second video of the elf cup forest floor population.

Within the sheltered poplar stand, I found a cankered hickory, a tree form curiosity posing near the poplar.

Leonardo da Vinci studied Nature’s forms and shapes:

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another.

Nature is the source of all true knowledge.

Closing

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

I often observe that every tree, every stand, and every forest tells a story. Sometimes we can’t discern the individual tree’s tale while we are distracted by the forest. We chose to focus our attention on two trees. We know them now as individuals. We hope that Amber and future park naturalists will share their stories and the lessons drawn from them.

Leonardo da Vinci would have appreciated our intent:

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another.

Brief-Form Post #57: Reflection In & On Beaverdam Tupelo Swamp — Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

April 21, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 57th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

I returned to Beaverdam Swamp Boardwalk on the afternoon of January 4, 2026. In the vicinity with time to spare, I leisurely sauntered the half-mile to the boardwalk terminus at the creek. The Boardwalk transects a National Natural Landmark within the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. This ancient tupelo forest is one of my very special natural places in North Alabama, just a twenty-minute drive from my home. I visit it 3-4 times annually to witness changes across the seasons.

I offer a few observations, reflections, photos, and three brief videos. A mixed hardwood stand occupies the gravel trail approaching the boardwalk, which crosses the tupelo swamp.

I recordedd this 58-second video beside a handsome green ash tree prior to entering the boardwalk.

I’ll spare you a detailed narrative. The elevated wooden walkway snakes through the ancient stand. I’ve seen the swamp nearly flush with the underside of the decking, perhaps 18″ higher than the current level.

We’ve received almost three inches of rain since then. I will visit once more before winter’s flush ends.

This is my 59-second video of the swamp from the boardwalk.

The swamp is rich with reflections and ripe for the kind of mind, heart, body, soul, and spirit reflecting that most of us enjoy but too often push aside in the hurry and scurry of life and living.

The buttressed tupelo trunk, draped in resurrection fern, etends downward in reflection and reaches high above.

The tupelo forest canopy is uniformly high. There is little understory or intermediate crowns, contrary to most of our upland forests..

A view upward reveals only the main canopy crown.

Darkness comes early early January. By 3:30 PM the sun was dipping to its winter nadir at 30 degrees south of west.

I recorded this 60-second video at the Beaverdam Creek terminus of the boardwalk.

The creek empties into Lake Wheeler’s Limestone Bay within a mile of the deck.

Death and Decay

A hollowed tupelo stands along the creek just upstream of the boardwalk terminus. Life and death dance breast to breast. One (always the same) will ultimtely prevail, returning tons of organic matter to the grand cycle of swamp and creek birth, decay, death, and rebirth.

Oyster mushrooms adorn a downed log. This common decomposer fungi, I’ve learned by observation, aggressively colonizes dead and dying trees, seeming to prefer hickories, hackberry, and elms.

I also found an aging lions mane mushroom on a heavily decayed stump.

This magnificent National Natural Landmark never disappoints, whether deepest January or during the dog days of August. I relish being so close to a special natural place

Robert Service, a Brit who spent time in the Far North 125 years ago, wrote in Spell of the Yukon:

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

It’s the forst where silence has lease;

It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

It’s the silence that fills me with peace.

The Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge is not a great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder, but it does grasp me in its beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration:

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

And I want to go back–and I will.

The freshness, the freedom, the farness–

Oh God! how I’m stuck on it all.

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.

The Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge is not a great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder, but it does grasp me in its beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration:

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

And I want to go back–and I will.

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

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

Brief-Form Post #56: Quick Circuit of the Dallas Fanning Nature Preserve

April 15, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 56th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

I returned to the Dallas Fanning Nature Preserve in Huntsville, AL, on January 4, 2026. I sought a taste of Nature near home. I had previously described the preserve as a 58-acre wounded landscape, a remnant product of associated industrial development. I sauntered along the preserve’s 1.5 miles of flat trails, intent on finding what Nature lessons lie hidden in plain sight. The preserve does not protect pristine wilderness from imminent threats in our rapidly urbanizing region. Instead, its designation reserves the property for immediate low-intensity nature-based recreation and for its long-term natural transition to wildness.

I first visited the preserve on November 28, 2022. My January 11, 2023, Great Blue Heron Post summarized my impression: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2023/01/11/dallas-fanning-nature-preserve/

The preserve is well-marked within a light industrial zone. I circuited all trails in 90 minutes, at a leisurely pace, pausing frequently for photographs and brief videos.

The trails are gentle well-surfaced, and flat. The only challenge I encountered was mental — trying to reconstruct the story of the past use that created the tortured land, most of which through preservation is destined to recover naturally to brush and forest.

My 60-second video captures the most severely disturbed area.

The associated industrial development stripped and leveled at least 20 percent of the tract, since planted to loblolly pine. This is raw subsoil…course, stony, absent organic matter, infertile, and xeric. The pine are chlorotic, stunted, and doomed to at least decades of insufficient nutrients and moisture.

Dark green foliage and much larger trees signal pockets of lesser disturbance. Imagine standing at this location in 2126 at a photoboard showing vegetation progression in ten-year increments since 2026!

Less harshly disturbed sections beyond the planted pine, where some modicum of residual topsoil remains, are converting to brush and hardwood trees. Shining sumac is flourishing. Nature is adept at reclaiming abused land. A new forest is emerging.

The trails also transect a 30-50 year old forest. Always alert for tree form curiosities, I spotted this black cherry tree that some force (falling branch or tree, an ice storm, wind, or machine) bent and broke the then saping-size stem. The tree sent a shoot skyward at the break, retaining its bent lower trunk and the break-point stub. Every tree has a story to tell.

Here is my 60-second video of the preserve’s 3.5-acre greenspace adjacent to the ample parking lot.

I stopped near a loblolly pine destined to provide summer shelter for a picnic table.

Already its crown is depositing pine straw mulch, yet another example of Nature’s insistence on healing the insults from past disturbance.

Taken from near the green space pine tree, this photo shows the emerging forest surrounding the green space.

Preserve managers have recently planted longleaf pine along the field edge. The seedlings will require supplemental watering during dry periods over the initial 2-3 summers.

I view the Dallas Fanning NP as a novelty variety of preserve. I’m accustomed to seeing wildland preserves. I view this one as an outlier, in effect a former wasteland…an afterthought…attempting to steward its transition to a desired future condition. Additionally, I see it as a cause worthy of monitoring, documenting (permanent photo-points), and celebrating. I plan to visit every 2-3 years. I’ll keep you posted.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements.

I cannot offer a quote more apropos than an observation I made in the text above:

Nature is adept at reclaiming abused land. A new forest is emerging.

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

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

Mid-December Delights and Mysteries on the WNWR Hiking and Bicycling Trail

April 9, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I visited the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center and Observation Building on December 19, 2025. See my Post on welcoming the sandhill cranes (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/01/27/theyre-back-sandhill-cranes-return-to-alabamas-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge/). I then hiked the refuge’s nearby Hiking and Bicycling Trail, a 5.5-mile trek south through woodland, agricultural fields, and waterfowl impoundments, and along the Flint Creek arm of Lake Wheeler. As with all of my wildland saunters, I discovered Nature’s delights and mysteries, many of them hidden in plain sight.

Hardwood and pine intermix in the patchwork of forest, farm, and wetland. I love winter’s sharp contrast of evergreen and deciduous. Contrary to most of my fellow deep-south neighbors, I am in no rush for the return of what I view as a too-long summer.

Give me the dormant greys and subtle hues of winter…and the distant crane calls…absent the irritating hum of hungry mosquitoes.

I recorded this 59-second video of a field commercially farmed to produce soybeans and leave a designated portion for winter wildlife consumption.

Residual soybeans (left) and ponded rainwater (right) attract diverse wildlife.

The WNWR website succinctly describes this richly diverse property blessedly located within 30 minutes drive of my home:

Although designated as a waterfowl refuge, the 35,000 acre refuge provides for a wide spectrum of wildlife. Its great diversity of habitat includes deep river channels, tributary creeks, tupelo swamps, open backwater embayments, bottomland hardwoods, pine uplands, and agricultural fields. This rich mix of habitats provides places for over 295 bird species to rest, nest and winter, including over 30 species of waterfowl and an increasing population of Sandhill cranes and a small number of Whooping cranes.

The refuge is also home to 115 species of fish, 74 species of reptiles and amphibians, 47 species of mammals, 38 species of freshwater mussels, and 26 species of freshwater snails. Other animals such as the endangered Gray bat and Whooping crane benefit from the protection of the National Wildlife Refuge System, and the care of dedicated refuge staff and other friends of wildlife, like you.

An Alabama Cooperative Extension System online brochure introduces 69 of the most common native trees found in Alabama. Some of the 69 common tree species do not reach this far north. However, many Alabama tree species are not considered common. Where am I heading? I know, I’m hedging on my own wild guess of how many species of native trees and woody shrubs inhabit the refuge’s 55 square miles? Given the rich tapestry of wetlands and uplands, and the fertile overlay of bottomland and alluvial soils, I am going for broke, aiming high. I estimate 150 species of native trees and woody shrubs. If you know, please send me a reliable citation.

Tree Form Curiosities and Oddities

I relentlessly peruse woodland haunts for tree form oddities and curiosities. Spotting them only accomplishes part of the task. It falls to me next to explain the form. Leonardo da Vinci astutely observer that cause generates result:

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

My 60-second video introduces the first of four curiosities I encountered.

I recalled the multiple times that someone conjectured that a navigationally-motivated Native American bent a young tree to show the way to a game blind, water source, trade route, or the nearest coffee shop. However, this black cherry is a mere youth, 60-70 years old at most. Eastern Woodlands Indians of the Southeast region no longer dwelled naturally in this area since their forced relocation to the West in the 1830s…along the Trail of Tears

I imagined an extra point or field goal piercing the uprights to win the game!

This example still retains the stub at the broken branch end, from where an adventious bud shot a branch vertically.

Such tortured stems are common in our forests. This one tells its own story. A branch fell from the overstory canopy, crushed a sapling and snapped the top, leaving the young tree permanently bent. A new stem grew at the break point.

The broken point now shows a clear snout as the tree callouses over the broken end scar.

Two water oak saplings grew side by side, just six feet apart,close enough that their roots touched and grafted, a form of below ground inosculation. Some falling object snapped the nearer tree 30 inches above the ground. The larger oak provided nourishment to the broken tree, sustaining it, adding growth increments to the stem, and callousing the wounds. I call this phenomenon a ghost stump, kept alive after a fatal incident. I’ve seen, photographed, and cataloged other examples.

Here is my 59-second ghost stump video.

The ghost stump is a macbre ogre dwarfed by its mature cousin behind it.

Woodland Decay as a Life-Force

Life in our forests is not an idealic Disney-like utopia. Nature is rife with scars, weaknesses, sickness, rot, falling (and fallen) objects. Death is a powerful and ubiquitous part of forest life. Had I passed by this former willow oak three-trunk cluster two or three years ago, without close inspection, I may have marveled at its massive dimension, vigor, and vitality. However, the near-view stem crashed unceremoniously away from the photo point within the past two years, showing its remarkably hollow interior and revealing the hollowed bases of the other two. The falling tree knocked the top out of the right stem.

A decay mushroom cluster lines the crater of the fallen stem. Their mycelium are consuming cellulose and lignin of the dead and dying three-stem giant, assuring that the carbon cycle is continuous. The old saw holds — don’t judge a book by its cover.

I found this dead lichen-encrusted oak branch on the trail. Somewhere high in the canopy, American amber jelly mycelia were decomposing the branch, until autumn breezes sent the organic matter home to the soil.

I stumbled across a particularly photogenic colony of false turkeytail mushrooms trailside. When I entered college (1969), fungi were classified within the plant kingdom. Shortly thereafter they elevated into their own kingdom. I neither celebrated nor took note of the epic reclassification. I was too busy with education, life, and career. Today, such things mean more to me.

I recorded this 54-second video at the impressive mushroom cluster.

I marvel at Nature’s cycles and fractiles. More than a century ago a willow oak acorn sprouted along a field edge within the rich bottomland destined to become part of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in 1938. A rabbit nibbled the seedling to ground level. Because oak evolved in a world occupied by rabbits and other grazers, the seedling tapped its root reserves and issued three shoots that shot beyond the reach of rabbits and deer. The three oak stems prospered despite some physical injury (a farm kid with a penknife; a deer scraping velvet from antlers; a beaver gnawing; mechanical farm equipment), openimg an infection court for decay fungi. The decay worked within the trunks for 50-70 years, slowly, inexorably the ratio of solid wood rind to tree diameter decreased. Eventually, gravity and wind exceeded tree stength. Decay fungi have mastered the end game. Ironically, this fungus produces mushrooms that are wood-like. They, too, will yield to other fungal decomposers. In time, an acorn will sprout from the aggregated organic debris and mineral soil composite. A nature enthusiast may rediscover the magic in 2175, a century and a half hence.

Necessarily, the food chain extends from microbes to invertebrates to fungi to plants and to animals, large and small.

Powerful Food Chain Impoundment Water Enters Flint Creek

I was fortunate, last winter and this, to make this trek and witness s freshwater food chain spectacle. The water control mechanism below enables WNWR managers to block and maintain winter water levels in flooded areas for overwintering faunal residents. The area beyond the gate is flooded.

The Flint Creek arm of Wheeler Lake reflects the midday sun.

The bubbles (lower left) indicate the discharge from the impoundment entering Flint Creek.

The discharge plume is teeming with small fish feeding on what I supporse is organic debris suspended in the flow. Clouds of tiny fish (up to 2-3″ in length fill the flow. Occasionally a larger predator fish exploded into the school.

Here is my 58-second video (note snake entering for a fish-snack!).

Although mid-December, this brown water snake was warm enough to catch a snack-fish.

Others like this great white egret, stayed withing reach of the fish-chain feeding frenzy. I also saw several great blue herons and belted kingfishers.

All good things must come to an end, yet another apropos idiom!

I recorded this 61-second end-of-trail video.

An ancient white oak stands as a fitting trail end totem.

I lead or co-lead many local hikes and Nature santers. I relish sharing my Nature knowledge, passion, and curiosity with others. That said the certifiably introverted scientist filled with youthful exuberance still cherishes occassional ventures alone. I can endulge my pace, my interests, my mood; my imagination; my mental pursuits; my mysteries. I’ve learned that alone in Nature is often all the company I want or need!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment. (da Vinci)
Death is a powerful and ubiquitous part of forest life. (Steve Jones)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Einstein)
I’ve learned that alone in Nature is often all the company I want or need! (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

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

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

Mid-December Saunter on Monte Sano Oak Park Trail

April 6, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I co-led a North Alabama Land Trust Nature Hike on December 13, 2025, at Monte Sano Nature Preserve. I had never trekked the Oak Park Trail, which climbs ~300 feet up the north side of Monte Sano Mountain, returning via a counterclockwise circuit to the trailhead. Like so many of my first-time treks, I didn’t know what to expect. Join me as I share my reflections, observations, a few images, and one brief video.

The trail is within the city of Huntsville, just 25 minutes from my home. My career took Judy and me through thirteen interstate moves in this sequence: Cumberland, MD to Syracuse, NY; Franklin, VA; Savannah, GA; Prattville, AL; Syracuse, NY; State College, PA; Auburn, AL; Cary, NC; Fairbanks, AK; Urbana, OH; West Chesterfield, NH; Fairmont, WV; Madison, AL. We learned that we prefer wrinkled land, where a 25-minute drive can take me from 800 feet on the Tennessee Valley to the Cumberland Plateau’s Monte Sano, 1,600! I enjoy exploring the wrinkled terrain of northern Alabama and its rich forests. Wrinkled is different from mountainous. From our 1,000-foot elevation University of Alaska at Fairbanks, we could see Denali (aka Mount McKinley; 20,310 feet) on a clear day. The White Mountains rose 3,176 feet within 20 miles to our north. At the tender age of nearly 75 years, with two knee replacements, chest scars from triple bypass surgery, fully recovered from a minor stroke, and a few continuing aches and pains, wrinkled is sufficient to sate my woodland exploration appetite!

I recently saw a relevant meme:

The Land Trust’s signage welcomes, orients, and directs visitors.

I borrow from an online descriptor of the trail, here is the route we followed: Climb up the north side of Monte Sano! One of the favorite trails of our trail running groups is Oak Park, which you’ll follow until you get to the northern fork of the Buzzard’s Roost Trail, which features a small waterfall at the wetter times of the year. Take the loop of Buzzard’s Roost back down across the Dallas Branch Spring to the lower section of Oak Park, and climb back down to the parking lot for a short but vigorous hike.

Even this old forester, who knows most of our main canopy species by sight, appreciates tree identification plaques. It’s always nice to confirm my skills. Two old favorites, yellow poplar and northern red oak, shouted their greeting long before I read their name tags.

Sugar maple and American basswood likewise are easy to identify based on nearly 60 years of familiarity!

The trail presented no difficulty to our group. Mostly gentle grades, smooth surface, and well-marked.

A yellow buckeye stands beside a red oak (left). An identified black oak is at right.

Nearby are a pignut hickory (left) and paulownia (right).

The rock formation below resembled a dry waterfall, yet there was no evidence that surface water flows even during heavy rains. Does it under special conditions, less frequently than annually, carry water? Decadal floods? One hundred-year events?

A minor wooden bridge crosses a ravine, currently dry.

A trailside marker describes another footbridge, this one constructed using “no power tools, only saws, hammers, wedges, etc. over a period of 3.5 days in April 2017.”

Here is the referenced video of a hand-built black locust bridge:

Black locust wood is disease resistant, renowned for use as fence posts.

We chose the Buzzards Roost Trail to continue our counter clockwise citcuit, eventually returning us to Oak Park Trail at an intersection where we had earlier passed to the left.

Buzzards Roost provided a nice place to rest and enjoy the clear beauty, a place that gave me a feeling that we were far higher than 1,300 or so feet.

We looked downhill from the Roost. A crooked green ash tree, at the base of the ledge, drew closer with the telephoto lens.

Further magnified, a pool of water reflecting branches above it hints that even in a dry autumn, moisture is present. I can accept that were I to return in a period of mid-winter rains, the Roost would feature a small waterfall at the wetter times of the year!

We descended the limestone slabs working our way to Dallas Branch Spring below the Roost. We passed a large gnarly white oak fronted by a tortured looking eastern redcedar.

There’s little soil and only seasonally abundant water to sustain forest cover.

Dallas Spring greeted us with surface water among the rocks.

Meager flow hinted of the wet season to come.

Hidden beyond the trees, Buzzard’s Roost stands above the photo point (left). Water trickles downstream (right).

The winter sky, soft cirrus and pale blue, drifts past beyond the canopy. This time of year we don’t need to distract ourselves with those pesky rising cumulus and 30 percent chances of afternoon showers…capable of drenching us with frog-strangling rains, gale force microbursts, and tree-slamming lightning bolts!

Okay, to be honest, I enjoy summer’s pop-up thundershowers. They add variety and spice to our long hot summers. They give us most of the rainfall that sustains the lush forests where I hike, explore, study, celebrate, and find spiritual renewal across the seasons. Winter rains, contrary to summer’s hit and miss downpours, are predictable days in advance.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

At my age, wrinkled land is sufficient to sate my woodland exploration appetite! (Steve Jones)
Like so many of my first-time treks, I had no expectation beyond knowing that I would find more than I sought! (Steve Jones)
All men are created equal; only the best can still go hiking in their seventies! (Anonymous meme)

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

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2026 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Squeezing a 90-Minute Woodland Saunter into Four Hours!

April 1, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I co-led a University of Alabama in Huntsville OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) Nature Hike on Saturday, March 28, 2026, with fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger. Chris led the way; I swept, bringing up the rear behind our 15 seasoned hikers (we’re predominantly retirees). We departed from the Kensington Trailhead on the North Alabama Land Trust’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve, climbed to Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail, visited Balance Rock, and returned to our vehicles. Come along, and I’ll show you what I crammed into a one-hour and 43-minute venture!

I want to articulate a lesson with this Great Blue Heron photo essay. Like John Muir, I prefer sauntering, slow and deliberate, attentive, purposeful movement within the forest. Contrast sauntering with hiking, which progresses rapidly through the wildness, focused on the destination more than the passage. I am the master of squeezing a 90-minute hike into four hours!

I chose to sweep this day so I could take time to look, see, and photograph the wonders I anticipated finding hidden in plain sight. Most of my group surged ahead. I stopped when something shouted to grab my attention — a flowering plant, a curious tree form, or an odd rock formation. I would snap a photograph or two, then surge to catch up to the group. I wanted to record many more videos than the single one I captured. Had I been alone, I would have seen far more than my impelled pace permitted. I give you with this rushed essay a small taste of what our speedy hikers missed, by and large. Sure, they enjoyed the hike, although I overwhelmingly prefer the pleasure, joy, and satisfaction of deeper examination.

Without unecessary narrative, here is what I packed into 103-minutes on the trail. I could have used three hours or more!

Ephemeral Spring Flowers

American cancer root, the flower from a parasitic plant that grows on oak roots. I shared the discovery with the one person lagging behind with me. Most people did not notice this fascinating organism common to our late March hardwood forests!

Violet woodsorrell is a common woodland spring ephemeral.

Fire pink is less common and and spectacularly beautiiful. See it this time of year or forget about it!

Purple phacelia is another seasonal mid-spring delight, often growing atop boulders and ledges, as were these. Why in those curious niches, where nutrients and moisture are subject to the whimsy of weather fluxes. Their beauty would have made good topics for conversation and speculation. I still do not have all the answers, nor even a complete set of questions..

Eistein knew that Nature held natural secrets of unfathomable depths:

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

I shall never tire of red buckeye’s triumphant declaration of spring life, exclaimed with simultaneous glossy palmate leaves and stacked upright clusters of tubular red flowers

Amur honeysuckle, native to eastern Asia, is a fast-growing shrub that forms dense thickets, outcompeting native plants and altering local ecosystems. Seeing it in flower presents another teachable moment. Pretty…and pretty disturbing!

Virginia creeper is opening its palmate leafy umbrellas.

Atop Rainbow Mountain xeric conditions furnish an ideal site for prickly pear cactus: shallow soils, exposed microsites, and little capacity for moisture retention. Another feature worthy of observation, reflection, and learning.

I have been unquenchably in love with trilliums since my spring 1970 systematic botany course in Maryland’s Appalachian Region. Sweet Betsy is among my local favorites. Like every flowering plant I found, the season is brief.

Shiny New Leaves

Poson ivy, although ornamented with shiny new leaves, is one I can admire without touching!

Fragrant sumac, resembling poison ivy, appeared in profusion along the trail. Recognizing the distinction is not unimportant!

Rusty blackhaw was just showcasing it rust-hued leaves.

Nature does indeed abhor a vacuum; life finds suitable habitat almost anywhere. Rock greenshield lichen paints the surface of bare exposed rock surfaces across our harsh wooded ridges.

Our group paused when we intersected Rainbow Loop Trail.

I recorded this 54-second video as I caught up with our group as they paused.

Stone Statuary

One of our party stood gazing at Balance Rock.

The late morning sun graced our observation perch with a reverent glow.

Rainbolt Trail passes through a labyrinth of imagined stone statuary. I saw this rock frog perched atop a limestone ledge.

Einstein saw extraordinary value in mind-rambling:

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

Remember, employ your imagination to envision the stone-hard gaze of this ancient warrior’s severe countenance staring from right to left.

I photographed this rock face along the trail in November 2024.

Trees Meet Stones

A persimmon tree stood silently along the trail, backdropped by yet another limestone ledge.

This oak somehow grew wedged in a rock crevice, forcing life’s sustenance from roots penetrating into mineral soil below.

Another oak, a chestnut oak, likewise precariously clings to life in a not-so-friendly survival niche.

Downslope from a Rainbow Loop ledge, I spotted a fearsome creature awaiting the freefall of any unwary, hapless, clumsy hiker who slipped from the rim. Its awry, gaping maw, face contorted from prolonged hunger, is poised. I wonder whether any of our party saw it? Good thing they were sure-footed!

A trailside white oak sniffed us as we wandered blithely past, oblivious to its sentinel presence.

And this agonized spectre of a redcedar also stood watch on the Rainbow Loop. Did anyone else witness its tortured form. Leonardo da Vinci observed, There is no result in Nature without cause. Oh, I longed to explore its cause with flellow hikers!

I wished the same for this old redcedar denizen, yet another work of art, grandeur, and mystery.

I’ve said repeatedly in my weekly photo essays, every tree has a story to tell. What is this redcedar snag’s tale?

Evev the redcedar burl has a story worthy of exploring. An old injury, providing an infection court for bacteria, fungus, virus? Does it harm the tree? Affect growth? What nature of bowl could a woodshop crafter produce?

Two ancient chestnut oaks stand at the southwest rimroack of Rainbow Mountain. Two centuries of harsh survival?

Sparkleberry is the only tree form (marginally so in my estimation) of the blueberry (Vaccinium) genus. Its tough, contorted, multiple stemmed character seems content on sites where real trees struggle.

What a rich panoply of Nature’s gifts, harvested (observed, photographed, and contemplated) across a 103-minute forest speed-reading excursion. Forty-eight photos in 103 minutes. That’s 2.25 mppp (minutes per publishable-photo)! I won’t do that again. I made my point. I can’t both responsibly co-host a hike and gather sufficient observations, reflections, photos, and videos for a Great Blue Heron photo essay.

Closing

I recalled and reflected upon the lyrics of a beautiful, haunting, sobering song written by Cody Johnson and recently re-released by Kid Rock:

If you got a chance take it
Take it while you got a chance
If you got a dream chase it
‘Cause a dream won’t chase you back
If you’re gonna love somebody
Hold ’em as long and as strong and as close as you can
‘Til you can’t

Here’s Kid Rock’s performance: https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=kid+rock%27s+til+you+can%27t&type=E210US752G91913#id=1&vid=65bad198429e2f998a60294e98819e09&action=view

After wandering forests for three-quarters of a century, I was struck with the notion that I intend to continue doing so…until I can’t. A day will come when I can’t. I look at my wife, kids, grandkids, friends, and colleagues through the same reality filter. A day will come… when I can’t.

I recall the dawn…my dawn…from a growing distance. I sense the evening gloam approaching. I ask myself, do I want to invest a single woods venture by racing with a group from one place, through the woods, to another, with virtually no time for inter-personal, social intercourse? And certainly too little time to harvest photo essay fodder. I relish each step at my own pace, embracing the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration? Are my Mission yields (To educate, inspire, and enable participants to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.) sufficient from an OLLI woods walk to merit my time?

I love introducing Nature to others, but my minimum requirement perhaps must be for more of an introduction than a handshake or nod. This past Saturday amounted to little more than a superficial greeting with Nature. I may explore whether there is enough interest within OLLI for an occasional 3-4-hour long meaningful woodland excursion…a probing immersion with a limit of 6-10 eager and dedicated learners.

I shall continue to wrestle with the dilemma, pondering the best use of my time, expertise, and passion. Louis Bromfield intimated that the best that any of us can do during our fleeting existence is to change some small corner of our earth for the better through wisdom, knowledge, and hard work. Until we can’t…

I shall remain a dedicated servant of encouraging informed and responsible Earth stewardship...Until I can’t…

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike! (John Muir)
Every tree has a story to tell to those of us intent on learning the language. (Steve Jones)
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

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

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

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship. Until I can’t!

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

Mid-December Above Ground Exploration at Cathedral Caverns State Park

March 24, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I published a photo essay of my July 2020 Cathedral Caverns tour on October 20, 2020: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/10/01/wonder-below-ground-cathedral-caverns-state-park/. I pledged a subsequent visit to explore the park’s surface trails, not knowing that 5.5 years would elapse before my December 11, 2025, four-hour venture with Hannah Hembree, Park Naturalist for Cathedral and Rickwood Caverns State Parks, Amber Coger, NW Alabama District Naturalist, and Chris Stuhlinger, a fellow retired forester. I sorted, selected, edited, and placed these 29 photos within a WordPress format on December 14, 2026. I’m drafting text five weeks later, on January 12, 2026, debating whether I should have begun a month earlier while my memory remained sharp!

I photographed the park entrance sign in 2020.

Hannah, Chris, and Amber showed their enthusiasm for our journey, backdropped by the mixed upland forest growing among scattered limestone boulders. Hannah stands at the edge of a distinct sinkhole (right), where trees reach more than 100 feet vertically owing to deep limestone-derived soil, abundant moisture, and protected slope position. We enountered a diverse overstory species mix, another expression of the productive site.

We admired this massive American beech tree dominating the convex ridgetop, a terrain position not generally conducive to large diameter, straight, tall beech. As we progressed, I marveled increasingly at the high site productivity reflected in species diversity and average canopy height.

I recorded this 58-second video of the upland hardwood forest and the wide flat trail system we explored.

I would like to return to catalog the tree species, identifying a complete list. We paid attention but did not keep a tally. We guessed 20 individual main canopy species.

Oddities and Curiosities

Always alert for tree form curiosities and oddities, I photographed a pair of pole-size yellow buckeye and sweetgum trees embraced, a union that is termed inosculation when they grasp more securely and intimately.

I never tire of seeing Carpinus carolinia, which I learned 56 years ago in dendrology as musclewood for the distinctive sinewy, muscle-like appearance of its stem. Also known as American hornbeam, blue-beech, ironwood, and muscle-beech, the species grows in the understory of hardwood forests from Alabama to New England, occasionally reaching heights of 25-30 feet. Most of the curious phenotypes I photograph are variant forms from the typical genotypye. Musclewood’s sinewy stem form is the standard genotype, not an abberation. So, its oddity is its standard form. Nothing special except to an aficiando like me!

Supplejack, in my humble opinion, is the boa conscrictor of native Alabama forest vines. Its smooth green stem one could conclude is snake-like. What makes it boa-like is its extraordinary knack for appearing to choke the living daylight out of any sapling that offers purchase and a route to fuller sunlight above.

The supplejack doesn’t always win the squeeze-battle. This sapling sugar maple appears to have prevailed. Life in any plant-based ecosystem involves fierce competition (often life and death) for essentials…nutrients, moisture, sunlight, and space, both above and below ground. This struggle left scars in form of a clockwise spiralled disfirgurement…a tree form curiosity. Every tree has a story to tell to those of us intent on learning the language.

Leonardo da Vinci understood that there may be no truly inexplicable mysteries in Nature:

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

Mr. da Vinci knew many languages…of trees, geography, skies, and the pure elegance of shade, light, colors, hues, distance, and all other elements that constitute Nature’s visible beauty, magic, wonder, and awe.

Some fellow nature enthusiasts seem intent on ascribing a common tree form curiosity to Native American manipulation of trees and branches. Their purpose was to create Tree Markers directing and guiding fellow travelers to important landscape features (springs, choice trails, hunting spots, fishing holes, villages, trail routes to significant landmarks, etc.). The bent eastern hop hornbean (Ostrya virginiana) below is most certainly not an Indian Marker tree. The stand we traversed is less than 100 years old, post-dating Native American wildland occupation by well over half a cenutury. I frequently see such disfigurement…resulting from breakage by fallen trees or branches, wind, ice, or some other force. Trees are resilient, clinging valiantly to life, intent upon surviving to reproduce, which is the ultimate pursuit of every living creature…from earth worms to humans.

This suger maple suffered a crushing blow from above when just a sapling. The youngster responded with vertical shoots, three of which persist to today. Sugar maple tolerates shade. The stunted shrub of a tree persists in the understory, standing humbly with its tree moss skirt amid a cluster of mossy limestone boulders.

Sassafras is common as deep shade seedlings, understory shrubs, and occupying the imtermediate canopy. We found a 12-inch diameter sassafras tree reaching to a co-dominant position. This individual sported a vertical scar revealing its hollowed trunk, a condition favored by cavity-coveting birds, mammals, reptiles, and other forest critters.

As we proceeded I pondered previous land use, which I believed included domestication, timber harvesting, grazing, and even selected cropping. We found compelling evidence in form of barbed wire protruding from the base of a white oak…a remnant fence that either kept stock in or out.

One among us (I’m withholding identity to protect the innocent!) had not seen the imposing compound thorns of honey locust. Farmers have told me that these fearsome spikes can puncture a tractor tire. The thorns don’t scare me, but they certainly earn my respect!

Fan moss drapes this yellow buckeye pair.

In quick progression allow me to chronicle a few observation highlights absent detailed narration, beginning with this handsome yellow buckeye.

A pole-sized yellow poplar bears the striking pattern of vertical white stripes and pale camouflage patches.

A two-foot diameter loblolly pine carries decades of horizontal yellow-bellied sapsucker wounds.

We returned to the cavern entrance. Interpretive signage tells the geologic tale and human history.

An imposing entrance!

Visitors Center and Park Store.

The Karst topographic signature and large yellow buckeye behind the headquarters.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment! (Leonardo da Vinci)
Every tree has a story to tell to those of us intent on learning the language. (Steve Jones)
A short autumn morning saunter can reveal volumes on the magic of everyday Nature. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief-Form Post #55: Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment Crooked Oaks Nature Resort

March 18, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 55th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

Arriving in Auburn on the evening of November 13, 2026, fellow retired forester (and Auburn University forestry graduate) Chris Stuhlinger, my grandson Jack (18), and I visited the College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment’s (CFWE) Crooked Oaks Lodge and Quail Hollow Gardens, the former estate of the university’s revered 1980s football coach, Pat Dye. The 415-acre preserve lies about 15 miles WSW of the university near Notasulga.

We did not know in advance that our visit coincided with the Crooked Oaks Open House. We modified our Saturday plans to include stopping by to see this exquisite addition to the CFWE, and assess its potential for integrating the property into the College’s education, research, and extension mission. Two old foresters with Auburn ties welcomed the chance to stroll the central trails, ponds, and infrastructure. Chris is a graduate and supporter of the College. I held a tenured full professor appointmentat in the College (then a School) from 1996-2001, when I served as Director, Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

My intent with this Brief-Form Post is to offer a glimpse of Crooked Oaks, a delightful slice of the Old South charm of a traditional hunting and entertainment property, Lodge, and Gardens. I offer a few photographs. Two crooked oaks stand along the pathway from the Lodge to the former Dye residence.

A 35-foot longleaf pine tree stands along the pathway beyond the foreground longleaf pine branch and needles to the my left as I snapped the photo. Loblolly pine dominates the evergreen component of the property.

I (and the pond) reflected on the brilliant azure sky…not a cloud across the firmament, matching the open house with open sky.

I recorded this 58-second video to capture the essence of Crooked Oaks in a manner not attainable with still photos and my feeble written prose.

The former Dye residence overlooks the pond, amid the peace, quiet, tranquility, and comfort of Nature, far removed in time, distance, and dimension from the competive autumn Saturday maelstrom in Jordan-Hare Stadium and Pat Dye Field. I know that Nature is soothing, calming, and regenerative. Coach Dye expressed love for his farm in rural Notasulga. No wonder he sought refuge among the crooked oaks, and the Japanese maples he cultivated there.

Like his Hall of Fame footall career, he established an Earth Stewardship legacy at Crooked Oaks Hunting Preserve and Quail Hollow Gardens Japanese Maple Farm & Nursery.

I imagine that the people coach Dye shaped and inspired and the lifeblood of the university he loved, flow metaphorically with the gentle stream tracing through the landscaped garden bordered by several of his cherished autumn-red Japanese maples.

An Alabama native green anole proudly expressed ownership of a pondside deck. The lizard reluctantly allowed me to snap a photo, but seemed perturbed and impatient for me to continue walking.

I arrived at Auburn University as ACES Director in 1996. Dye coached his final footbal season in 1992. He resided on the farm for another 19 years after I left for the next step of my career in 2001. During my ACES tenure I knew only that Dye had been a football and athletics institution at AU. Dealing with establishing a Court-Ordered unified state extension system (combining the separate programs at AU and Alabama A&M), I had no time to learn more about Coach Dye, his Nature interests, or the property. Now retired in Alabama since 2018, I am intrigued. I want to know more about Crooked Oaks and the man who created it. I want to return, walk the 400+ acres, and peer into the Stewardship drive that fueled Dye’s passion for the land, the College, and the distant future.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. I can only speculate on Coach Dye’s motives for creating the Crooked Oaks legacy and placing it in perpetuity with CFWE.

I step backward 80 years to Louis Bromfield’s non-fiction Pleasant Valley (1945), his tale of passion for rehabilitating the old worn out Ohio farm, Malabar, he purchased in 1938. Perhaps my favorite conservation statements among all the great observations by the Who’s Who of conservation greats is Bromfield’s:

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.

That is all any of us who care pasionately about earth stewardship can do. I dedicate my writing, teaching, speaking, and leading Nature tours to changing a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work.

Thanksgiving Eve Fungi Encounters at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

March 11, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Mushroom Potpourri

I ventured into the bottomland hardwood forest south of HGH Road, east of Jolly B. Road, on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, Limestone County, Alabama, on the morning of Thanksgiving Eve, 2025. A chilly post-frontal breeze blew from the north-northwest under cloudless, cerulean skies. I hoped recent rains would bless me with a variety of mushrooms to view and catalog. Join me via this Post on my two-hour bushwhack discovery jaunt.

I am an old forester, learning in retirement to identify some regional fungi by their mushrooms, with special attention to common edibles, such as oysters, chanterelles, lion’s mane, puffballs, chicken of the woods, jellies, and a few others. I relish the rich tapestry of a vibrant forest, where death and life are interwoven in an elegant, intricate, and unending dance of carbon accumulation, decay, and recycling. Fungi are among the decomposers; mushrooms, their reproductive organs, disseminate billions of spores to ensure the cycle remains unbroken.

I am not a mycologist. Please don’t hold me to properly identifying the fungi pictured below. I rely on memory, limited referencing my several source books, and too much reliance on my close companion iNaturalist. I give you my best shot.

False turkey tail covers the surface of this downed red oak trunk. The bark hasn’t yet sloughed, owing in large measure to the brackets and mycelia holding fast.

Pear-shaped puffballs populated the oak. These had not yet ripened.

Some puffbals were ripe, emitting clouds of spores when poked.

I recorded this 22-second video of the finger-poked smoking puffballs.

I spotted a biodiversity cornucopia on another downed oak: snow jelly fungus, crowded parchment, and a white-lip globe snail on a carpet of seductive entodon moss. Wow, I’m getting chills just remembering the magic hidden in plain sight…a nature-enthusiast’s siren song!

Each time I enter any woodland, I strive to see magic hidden in plain sight. The mushroom/snail/moss menagerie congregated within a six-inch diameter circle. Add to the life assemblage that the snail is very likely consuming algae and organic detritus. A remarkable six inch circle of life. I wonder what I may have missed on my woodland circuit. I spotted the six-inch circle domain only because my wide, circuitous wanderings brought me within a few feet of the log.

I’m reminded of the intensive, scientific forest inventories I’ve conducted across my forestry career:

Maryland Forest Service, Savage River State Forest (1970-71) — two summers (after freshman and sophomore forestry years) systematically sampling fifth-acre plots
Union Camp Corporation (1973-1985) — sampling company forestland to prepare timber sales
UCC (1973-85) — regeration surveys to assess planted pine survival after the first growing season
Doctoral field research (1986-87) — sampling uncut second growth Allegheny hardwood forests in northwestern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York

I mention my professional inventories to contrast my informal, haphazard, unscientific wanderings seeking whatever caught my eye on a late fall saunter at WNWR. I wonder what a gridded sampling filling a full day would have revealed? I leave such a venture to a forest mycology graduate student…or maybe an artist/photographer intent on assembling a portfolio of Nature’s limitless delights.

Back to the six inch circle of diverse life. Each component of the miniature ecosystem warrants an individual photograph. I don’t recall previously seeing snowy jelly fungus. As its name suggests, it feels like Jello!

Crowded parchment is ubiquitous throughout our hardwood forests. It is a saprobic, wood decaying bracket fungus occurring on stumps, logs, and sticks of hardwood trees, especially oak.

The white-lip globe snail grazed peacefully, oblivious to the old forester observing it.

The seductive entodon moss offers a dense carpet, ideal for gathering and holding moisture and nutrients, and offering the snail a surface to scour with its rasping mouth parts. I love the seductive moniker. Perhaps seductive to the globe snail!

Club-like tuning fork mushrooms and Carolina shield lichen colonize this downed stem. Surely, an other worldly scene!

Carolina shield lichen, a primary decomposer, seems to possess this dead and downed hardwood stem. Although I may assume it is understood by many, I will risk stating the obvious. A lichen is a composite organism composed of a fungus and an alga (singular of algae) growing communally. An online source strays from my simplistic explanation: a lichen is a hybrid colony of algae or cynobacteria living symbiotically among filaments of multiple fungus species, along with bacteria embedded in the cortex or skin, in a mutualistic relationship.

I do not aim with these weekly photo essays to demonstrate how much I know. Leonardo da Vinci captured my approach to communicating complexity:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

I reported to several boards over my senior administrative career. When preparing for quarterly board meetings, I coached my staff to Keep it Simple. Present as though board members were sixth graders, not because they were either unable to understand complex issues, quantitatively limited, or unfamiliar with higher education. Instead, board members have lives, businesses, and many distractions, and then meet only four times a year, jumping into our boiling university cauldron. Forcing you (staff) to keep it simple assures that you will edit, condense, and summarize the essential, key elements more concisely, precisely, and powerfully. I keep my Great Blue Heron prose at the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 10.

Oak bracket mushrooms can be massive, growing at the base of living and dead oaks. Other common names include weeping conk, warted oak polypore, and weeping polypore. Note the thick amber, honey-like liquid secretions

My beauty-of-the-day designation goes to coral-pink merulius, a colorful decomposer of dead woody debris.

Ganaderma sessile, a type of laquered saprobic polypore bracket fungus, decomposes dead hardwood logs, stumps, and other debris. One oneline site refers to the species as a beautiful polypore, yet I am not persuaded to elevate it to beauty-of-the-day! I recall from my long-ago forest pathology course hearing the moniker bear’s tongue fungus. I see the resemblance.

I have doubts about this being deer-colored Trametes (Trametopsis cervina), yet iNaturalist seemed at least marginally confident. I like this individual’s powder puff appearance, which drew me to powderpuff bracket (Postia ptychogaster), which is found in both Europe and North America.

Autumn is the season for bulbous honeytop, a delightful edible. I have found large colonies of honeytop mushrooms elsewhere. I don’t remember seeing bulbous honeytop. The photo at right shows the conspicuous swollen stem base.

The late autumn forest carbon cycle was in full gear, a surging, steaming stewpot of life, death, and renewal.

Other Lifeforms

I snapped the below left photo of the bracket fungi and coral-pink merulius, only to find the white-banded fishing spider later when I examined the image, which explains why the enlarged spider image at right is not in focus. The spider was indeed hidden in plain sight.

Resurrection fern shows full life during the moist North Alabama dormant season. Partridgeberry likewise displays vibrant green winter foliage, combined with its bright red berries. Some people complain of our winter dreariness and incessant drabness. Contrarily, I delight in its stark simplicity, exquisite contrasts, and unlimited delights. Summer woods present a visual maelstrom that can overwhelm an old forester seeking isolated delights. Dormant season performances present on isolated stages.

I’ll end with another gelatin mushroom, American amber jelly, which I found on the gravel road near my car. The infected dead twig fell from the canopy overhead. The background is my tailgate. I have harvested and consumed these uniquely-textured shrooms occasionally.

Thanks for accompanying me virtually. It didn’t match a six-mile circuit of Jenny Lake in the Tetons, but it offered everyday Nature delights almost in my backyard (15-mile drive), absent the time and expense visiting a world class National Park.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Fungi deepen forest exploration mystery and intrigue. (Steve Jones)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. (Aldo Leopold)
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. (Leonardo da Vinci)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Re-Visiting Auburn University’s Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve and Nature Center

March 5, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tree Form Oddities and Curiosities

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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