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Three Mid-September Nature Stops at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

November 29, 2023/in Updates /by Steve Jones

By September 16, 2023, nearly three months after my triple bypass surgery, I had healed enough to spend time alone at the nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge…unaccompanied by a fellow Nature enthusiast. I enjoyed three distinct facets of the Refuge that afternoon: driving and stopping along Rockhouse Bottoms Road on the north shore of Lake Wheeler; exploring the northern edge of my favorite riparian hardwood forest just south of HGH Road; and experiencing the tranquility of Blackwell Swamp.

Rockhouse Bottoms

I felt the liberating force of venturing alone into wildness, regaining confidence in myself, even if all three micro-explorations kept me within a few hundred feet of my vehicle. As they say, one step at a time! The Corps of Engineers and TVA tamed the Tennessee River 90 years ago. Lake Wheeler varies no more than five feet in elevation (water level) over a calendar year. The river no longer ebbs and flows with seasonal freshets, spring tempests, and extended droughts. Commercial tugs and barges ply its waters with assured full-pool ease.

Threatening clouds offered a hint of rain, yet my home rain gauge would not record a drop the remaining two weeks of September. Not to worry,…Lake Wheeler will continue to serve navigational (and power generation) needs. I watched a gentleman cast for game fish off-shore from his kayak. He landed several fish that I could not identify beyond most likely as bream. I had not brought my binoculars. The I-65 bridge crosses the river downstream just out of sight.

I recorded this 31-second video as the fisherman worked his bait offshore. My mind traveled back many decades to fishing with Dad and my brother along the rivers and creeks among western Maryland’s Central Appalachians. I regret not bringing along a folding chair to while away an hour enjoying the river and breathing in the summer afternoon’s soothing elixir.

I recorded this thirty-two second video along the Tennessee River:

I remind myself that these sandy river terrace floodplain fields are fertile, well-watered, and richly productive. This field is among the 4,000 acres of the Refuge that are under a Cooperative Farm Agreement.

I recorded this 0:31 video of Cooperative corn farming along Rockhouse Bottoms Road:

Under contract with the US Fish and Wildlife Service the producer manages the crop, leaving 15-18 percent of the harvest for wildlife consumption.

HGH Road: Thunder Echoes

The heavier (less sandy) soils inland nearly a mile, similarly fertile, support the riparian hardwood forest that I frequently bushwhack north to HGH Road. I spotted this recently bolted and scarred red oak as I cruised along HGH Road. Evidence suggested that the strike occurred the prior week when a cluster of thunderstorms raked Madison and Limestone Counties. This strike reached from the tree’s base as far into the crown as I could see. Long strips of bark and stout slivers of wood spear the ground within 50 feet of the bole.

This was a powerful blow! Will it be fatal? I’ve seen trees similarly struck that survived for decades. Others lost foliage within a week. Where do I place my bet? I don’t look for it to leaf out next spring. I stood in awe, camera in hand recording this 31-second video, sensing the absolute power of Nature’s ferocity just a week prior.

Because the tree stands within 50 feet of HGH Road, I will track its progress frequently.

Blackwell Swamp

Blackwell Swamp lies along Jolley B Road midway between the river and HGH Road. I love the habitat and ecosystem diversity represented by the open lake water along the river, the adjoining agricultural fields, the deep riparian hardwood forests along HGH Road, and the saturated swamp riverine habitat at Blackwell. Every ecosystem at Wheeler tells a compelling story.

I recorded this 31-second video as I enjoyed the sounds, visuals, and summer mood of the swamp:

I will revisit the Refuge trifecta once autumn weather takes a firmer grip on northern Alabama.

I grew up in country far removed from the Tennessee River. My Central Appalachian Ridge and Valley roots offered nothing remotely akin to the three stops I experienced September 16. Yes, I miss autumn in western Maryland…and on up into New England…where vibrant colors, sharp-edged weather shifts, and wide temperature swings prevailed. I also yearn for a little deep winter, lamenting that here our chances are slim. However, I refuse to succumb to memories that inflate the wonder of deep, fanciful recollections of falling and drifting snow, a roaring fireplace, and the pure frosted white a fresh blanket of snow brings to a sparkling dawn.

I need only remind myself of my mid-June triple bypass surgery and the reality that even if I resided in the land of blizzards and Hallmark winters, my spouse of 51 years would declare my snow shovel off-limits! So, I’ll occasionally welcome a bit of weather melancholy…and embrace our northern Alabama winter weather delight that counters our hot summers. I tell people who may not be familiar with our dormant season that fall ever-so-slowly grades into spring, sprinkled now and again with a day or two of winter.

I am ready for our extended fall-to-spring to begin.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations, from a single Louis Bromfield quote (Pleasant Valley):

By September 16, 2023, nearly three months after my triple bypass surgery, I had healed enough to spend time alone at the nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.
I felt the liberating force of venturing alone into wildness and regaining confidence in myself. As they say, one step at a time!
Every one of the diverse ecosystem elements at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge tells a compelling story.

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: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

Aerial Exploration of the Tennessee River from Guntersville Dam to Wheeler Dam

November 21, 2023/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On August 20, 2023, a friend took me aloft in his Cessna 182. We departed Pryor Regional Airfield, Decatur, Alabama at 7:00 AM under cloud-free but hazy skies, with the threat/promise (depending upon perspective) of expanding heat index…arriving long after our scheduled return to the airfield. We intended to focus primarily on exploring the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, yet we took advantage of the near-perfect morning to fly upstream to Guntersville Dam all the way downstream to Wheeler Dam. Very few residents of the Huntsville to Madison to Decatur to Athens to Rogersville communities have seen their strand of the Tennessee River and Lake Wheeler that connects all of us so intimately. Because this Tennessee Valley serves as the central element of the Nature that inspires me here in Northern Alabama, I feel obliged to share my Lake Wheeler transect with you.

Beginning at Guntersville Dam, I’ll offer a brief narrative on our aerial trip westbound to Wheeler Dam, a total of 74 miles along the river.

I recorded this 20-second video of as we flew from Guntersville Dam to the bank of fog hiding the river a couple of miles downstream.

The early morning fog obscured only this single stretch of the Tennessee River.

We made another pass recording this 44-second video of the foggy river and dam from above the north shore.

The Paint Rock River entered the Tennessee from the north a few miles downstream of the foggy stretch.

I admit to not taking the time to provide exact distances. The Flint River, also entering from the north (left), seemed no more than five miles from where the Paint Rock entered. The image at right looks south to the Tennessee River.

Ditto Landing, a popular marina and recreation area on the south side of Huntsville, sits on the north side of the river.

The Redstone Arsenal, a major Huntsville, Alabama landmark, covers 35,000 acres stretching south from Huntsville to the Tennessee River. The Refuge extends eastward along the River from Decatur, overlapping the Arsenal by 4,085 acres. Snapped flying westward south of the River, the photo below captures the Arsenal and the Refuge’s overlapping acreage, indistinguishable from the greater Arsenal. Just as property lines do not appear from the air, wildlife visiting and resident to the Refuge pays no heed to boundaries.

We approached and then crossed the I-65 bridge.

I recorded this 0:37 video of he tbridge.

The Brown’s Ferry nuclear plant site on the north shore about midway between Decatur and Wheeler Dam. I was surprised that we could fly directly over its airspace. Accustomed to seeing the squat round-based colling towers at power plants, I was surprised to see this linear arrangement.

I’ve visited Joe Wheeler State Park at least a dozen times. Familiar with its roads, trails, and adjoining lake waters, this was my first aerial introduction. The lodge and marina lie on the far shore of First Creek Inlet (below left; view to east). The JWSP campground and day use area (below right) line the shore of the smaller inlet just east of First Creek

I recorded this 39-second video of the lodge and marina overflight:

We ended our downstream tour at Wheeler Dam (view to north at left). The park extended to the dam and highway on both sides of Lake Wheeler. Lake Wilson lies downstream.

I enjoyed the 74-mile aerial tour. We saw lots of territory…thousands of acres of forests, fields, residential neighborhoods, commercial property, and water. The flight took less time than I have spent examining a single forested acre. From the air, I saw not a single mushroom, one hanging cluster of resurrection fern, a moss-covered rock, or a hollow tree trunk. Yet, I saw so much more than presented itself when I visually scouted that one acre of forest. Life and living are segmented by spatial and temporal scales. I welcome the occasional aerial tour. However, I cherish my far more frequent forest incursions…my saunters that reveal all that remains hidden in plain sight until my efforts to look, see, and feel, emerge from invisibility!

I thank my friend (and pilot), Ted Satcher, for lifting me above the Tennessee River (Wheeler Lake) and opening a window to enjoy a new perspective on the river that breathes economic, social, and environmental richness into our lives right here in our greater Huntsville backyard!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

What appears “in plain sight” is merely a matter of scale, both spatial and temporal.
The Tennessee Valley serves as the central element of the Nature that inspires me here in Northern Alabama.
I wonder what my own life looks like from a perspective comparable to a 2,00-foot overflight?!

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: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

Mid-September Wildflowers, Mushrooms, and Trees along the New Hiking and Biking Trail at Wheeler NWR!

November 16, 2023/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On September 16, 2023, I co-led an OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville) Nature interpretive saunter on the Hiking and Biking Trail at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge near Decatur, Alabama. Although the dual-stemmed yellow poplar tree beyond the sign is sporting a few yellow leaves, I view mid-September here in northern Alabama as late summer. The average daily high for September 16 in nearby Huntsville is 86.6 degrees. The official high in Huntsville for the cloudy and damp day we walked reached just 79 degrees.

Summer Wildflowers

It’s only fitting that we encountered diverse summer wildflowers, including these particularly showy common evening-primrose.

Giant ragweed towered above us in the more open areas. Its flowers, drab and unattractive, did not compete visually for our attention.

Bearded beggarticks (left) and late boneset added their beauty trailside.

We found rough cocklebur in flower, already showing its bristly seed pods. We’ve all experienced having the velcroed pods hitching a ride on our pants as we’ve brushed against its ripe pods a few weeks deeper into the fall. I could think of nothing negative about the downy lobelia with its glossy leaves and complex light blue flowers.

We strolled past dozens of other late summer bloomers, each one meriting inclusion in this post, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Perhaps on another day, my criteria may have yielded a far different portfolio.

Forests and Trees

This new trail at the Refuge passes through diverse habitats. The wildflowers prefer areas blessed (or cursed, depending on the trekker’s mood and the sun’s intensity) with sunlight reaching the ground with no more than partial forest shade. The trail below enters the full shade of an 80-year-old stand of mixed hardwoods. This riparian forest regenerated naturally on agricultural land abandoned when the TVA and Corps of Engineers acquired the Lake Wheeler impounded acreage and adjacent buffer land,

I record this 0:33 video as our OLLI entourage sauntered through the hardwood forest:

These are moist and fertile lands supporting a rich mix of hardwood species (left), and a handsome loblolly pine (right).

Along a forest edge fronting Cooperative Farm acreage, this slippery elm sapling reached long branches into the full sunlight. Direct sunlight is a precious resource, fueling this forest edge species in its quest to produce seed to ensure a next generation. Ulmus rubra is a medium sized deciduous tree common from southern Ontario south through central Alabama, with occasional individuals into northern Florida.

Cooperative Farms on the Refuge cover 4,000 acres, where farmers manage production, contractually agreeing to leave 15-18 percent of the grain crops for wildlife. This field, already harvested, grew corn. The trail is compacted, finely crushed limestone.

From open meadows lush with late summer wildflowers to deep riparian forests to agricultural crops, the trail transits diverse habitats assuring trekkers a rich portfolio of natural treats.

Fungi Kingdom

The maturing riparian forest we traversed is not static. Well into its ninth decade, the forest is producing tons per acre of dead and down woody debris. Blowdown and standing mortality occur routinely as stands age and surviving individual trees continue to grow ever-larger crowns. Eighty years ago a stand that carried thousands of sapling stems per acre now has fewer than dozens of 90-110-foot tall mature trees per acre. Growth and maturation and death occur naturally and predictably. Trees, branches, and woody debris are temporary features of the forest floor. Our long growing seasons, ample annual rainfall, and moist conditions encourage decay organisms, principally fungi.

We found false turkey tail (Stereum) ubiquitous on large downed woody debris.

Far less common, jelly tree ear mushrooms drew my attention. I am a dedicated edible mushroom forager. This is one of my preferred edibles when I am in areas where collection is permitted, unlike along this public trail.

We also encountered several clusters of ringless honey mushrooms, which I could identify for our OLLI hikers.

This large cluster of ringless honey mushrooms beckoned me, yet I left it undisturbed! Our purpose was Nature discovery, education, and interpretation…not foraging!

Not an edible, crowded parchment handsomely adorned smaller dead branches.

We also discovered a log decorated with dog vomit slime mold, a mercifully non edible mushroom with a demonstrably non-appetizing moniker!

I thoroughly enjoy trekking with my OLLI colleagues, who generally share my demographic — retired professionals who are eager to learn and experience more about Nature. My retirement mission fits remarkably well with teaching in this population of lifelong learners:

Steve’s 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:

Nothing in Nature is static.
All of us hunger to learn more about Nature.
I am grateful to live within 15 miles of a national natural treasure: Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

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: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

Mid-August 2023 Aerial Exploration of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

November 8, 2023/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On August 20, 2023, a friend took me aloft in his Cessna 182. We departed Pryor Regional Airfield, Decatur, Alabama at 7:00 AM under cloud-free but hazy skies, with the threat/promise (depending upon perspective) of expanding heat index…arriving long after our scheduled return to the airfield. Our flight plan encompassed exploring the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. I focus this Post on our aerial exploration of the Refuge.

Redstone Arsenal

The Redstone Arsenal, a major Huntsville, Alabama landmark, covers 35,000 acres stretching south from Huntsville to the Tennessee River. The Refuge extends eastward along the River from Decatur, overlapping the Arsenal by 4,085 acres. Snapped flying westward south of the River, the two photos below capture the Arsenal and the Refuge’s overlapping acreage, indistinguishable from the greater Arsenal. Just as property lines do not appear from the air, wildlife visiting and resident to the Refuge pays no heed to boundaries.

Blackwell Swamp

My Refuge wanderings often take me to Blackwell Swamp (summer at left; winter to the right).

I’ve spent many hours airborne (fixed wing and helicopter) during my 12 years practicing forestry with Union Camp Corporation (1973-85), as well as over my higher education career at nine universities across 35 years. During my 21 years in senior administrative roles at seven of those institutions, I somehow always managed to sweet-talk my way to a local aerial excursion. Lift me a couple of thousand feet above terra firma and I see features with a clarity not available to my earthbound eye. I know it sounds like a 1960s weed-effect, but soaring into the sky expands my mind. So much lies hidden when I am road-bound. Sure, detail leaps at me when I saunter within our forests, but strange as it may seem, when I am on the ground, I simply cannot see the forest for the trees, much less the broader landscape and terrain.

Here’s Blackwell Swamp from the south (left) and the view from north to south (right). The Tennessee River runs across the image (right) a quarter of a mile below the swamp. The swamp from tip to tip extends about three miles.

Here’s my 22-second aerial video of Blackwell Swamp.

Rockhouse Bottoms Road

Jolly B Road runs north/south along the west side of Blackwell Swamp, extending south to the river, where it turns to border the river to the west several miles, the river to the south and Cooperative Farmland to the north.

The paired May 2023 photos above came from lower left corner of the image below at left. The image at right shows Jolly B Road emerging from the north (lower right in the photo) and meeting Rockhouse Bottoms Road along the river.

Buckeye Impoundment lies north of the Tennessee River and nearly two miles west of Blackwell Swamp. From the air, one might wonder why these open fields carry the Impoundment moniker.

However I photographed Buckeye Impoundment several winters prior, the views to the south and north northwest, respectively. The Fish and Wildlife Service manages water levels by way of control gates, flooding dormant season habitats for waterfowl overwintering on the Refuge.

Diverse habitats encourage both seasonal and year-round wildlife. My aerial reconnaissance raised a curtain on the complex integrated ecosystem that the Refuge manages for wildlife.

Limestone Creek Bay (left) lies just east of I-65. Its year-round water derives from Lake Wheeler backing into the Limestone Creek Basin. Likewise, the Lake backs into the northeast side of the Bay, where Beaverdam Creek enters the Bay (right). The Beaverdam Creek National Natural Landmark lies upstream in the upper left corner of the photo at right. When on the Boardwalk Trail I’ve wondered what lay downstream from the end-of-trail deck. Now I know.

Other Refuge Features

The image below (left) looks west at the I-65 Bridge and the city of Decatur lying beyond. The second photo peers north. The Refuge borders the river on both the north and south shores.

I recorded this 0:37 video of the bridge and the mixed forest, fields, and impoundments on both shores.

I’ve stopped by the Visitors Center scores of times. When there, I feel as though I am in a wild area, surrounded by tens of thousands of sandhill cranes (November through mid-February); as many as a dozen whooping cranes; untold hundreds (thousands) of ducks and geese; and diverse mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, trees, flowers, fungi, and other lifeforms…on and on! And yet, there is a negative element of such aerial perspective, revealing that within a broader context, my sense of wildness diminishes with the reality that roads, houses, and commercial properties are nearby.

The Visitors Center (parking lot and a few buildings lower left center below left) is just one-half mile from a primary state highway…and two miles from I-65. The two-story observation building is at the left edge of the copse of trees (right photograph). This is clearly not wilderness, yet when I view the flooded flats on a cold and blustery January day, viewing and hearing the cacophonous flocks of cranes, ducks, and geese, I am in a metaphorical wilderness, as distant from civilization as one can wander here in the southeast USA.

I delighted in seeing this near-urban refuge from 2,000 feet. I thank my friend (and pilot), Ted Satcher, for lifting me above the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and opening a window to enjoy a new perspective on a national treasure right here in our greater Huntsville backyard!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations from my aerial flight and the breath-taking perspective from 2,000 feet above the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge:

Although this is not remote and distant wildness, the Refuge is a metaphorical wilderness, as distant from civilization as one can wander here in the southeast USA..
On such flights, the whole notion of my taglines…Nature-Inspired Life and Living; Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!…come alive in crystal clarity.
I am mesmerized by flying above a natural landscape, where beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration reach into my soul.

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: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

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

Early September Potpourri at Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park!

October 24, 2023/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I returned to Joe Wheeler State Park on September 6, 2023, to meet with Renee Raney who had recently been appointed as the Alabama State Park System’s first Chief of Education and Interpretation. Appointed from within the System, Renee is a consummate nature devotee, experienced naturalist, and committed champion of the System’s three-part mission of conservation, recreation, and education.

Introducing Alabama State Park System’s Chief of Education and Interpretation

Here is the 58-second video I recorded on September 6, and posted on my YouTube channel to introduce Renee:

I’ve known Renee since retiring to Alabama in 2017. She and I will be co-teaching a winter term OSHER Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) course on Connecting Nature and Wellness at Alabama’s State Parks at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. We took advantage of our wanderings at JWSP to brainstorm ideas for the six-week course. Rather than focus on the course, allow me to present this 44-second video promoting the course, and then move on to the potpourri of Nature delights we encountered in our Park sleuthing:

Potpourri of Park Delights

I enjoy the signs across the state welcoming me to our state parks. Shortly after entering Joe Wheeler, Wheeler Lake reached out to greet me.

I am an avowed soft touch for clouds, water, and forested shoreline. The view from the boat launch did not disappoint. If I had not entered forestry school, I may have pursued meteorology. I admit to a lifelong addiction to and fascination with all things weather. In fact, forestry is inseparable from weather: tree planting and soil moisture; prescribed fire and wind, humidity, and smoke dispersal; road maintenance and storm forecasts. The fair weather clouds in the photos below don’t portend an incoming storm, although a local isolated thunderstorm did drop 1.31 inches at my home (40 miles to the east) that evening. Since then, I have measured just 0.40 inches over the intervening 48 days!

I recorded this 0:32 video from the dock at the First Creek inlet boat launch.

White morning glory hung tightly to the marina railing near the Joe Wheeler State Park Lodge. Finding Nature’s many gifts and delights does not require incursion deep into the park backcountry.

We appreciated the late summer frost flower in full bloom.

Renee and I found both kousa dogwood, an Asian ornamental dogwood resistant to anthracnose fungal infection, and Carolina buckthorn near the Lodge, both bearing ripe fruit..

I’ve photographed this unique loblolly pine tree on prior visits to the park. I wanted Renee to see some of Nature’s hidden magic. The horizontal ridges result from sapsucker bird pecks introducing some type of organism (fungal, bacterial, or viral) that triggers swelling and ridging along the axes. I have never seen such raised ridges on hardwood trees,

We also found several downed logs heavily infected with Trametes fungi. These wood decay agents are strictly dead wood consumers, one of the many organisms that return dead and down woody debris to the forest floor. Renee carries a tiger stuffee to serve as a frame of reference for forest critters, novelties, and all manner of delights.

We photographed the tiger on the sweetgum roots below. A strong wind leaned the tree 20 degrees downwind, lifting the windward roots until the tree found sufficient support on a downwind neighbor. A future blow may uproot the tree…or the sweetgum may resist the pressure for many decades. Nothing in Nature is static.

Much of the woodland extending from the Lodge to the Day Use area and campground shows clear evidence of having been pastured when the COE and TVA acquired the impoundment buffer lands 90 years ago. Evidence of such past land use includes black locust exiting the present forest and large muscadine vines fully enveloping the 90-year-old main canopy. I snapped the image below right during a March 2023 LearningQuest tour I led in the same stand in March 2023.

Black locust is an aggressive pioneer species, rapidly colonizing abandoned pasture across north Alabama. The species commonly declines when the stand reaches age 70-plus years. I included these two images of dead black locust in this same stand from a January 2022 nature photography course I co-led at the park. Here’s the Great Blue Heron photo-essay I published about the declining black locust stand in March 2022: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/03/22/black-locust-decline-and-two-champion-trees-at-joe-wheeler-state-park/

The evidence of the former black locust stand occupying this area of Joe Wheeler State Park is slowly disappearing…with mortality and subsequent decay and organic matter recycling. I have championed the idea of systematically establishing permanent photo-points within all 22 Alabama State Parks to document and chronicle changes every 5-10 years. The demise of the black locust forest would be memorialized in the historic photo record.

Chimney Memorial within the Campground

Renee and I examined this old chimney on a hilltop within the campground. Like every tree within a forest stand, the chimney has a story to tell. Its tale will become part of the education and interpretation narrative at Joe Wheeler State Park.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I am so pleased that the Alabama State Park System has appointed Renee Raney as Chief of Education and Interpretation!
Every tree, every stand, and every forest within our State Parks has a compelling story to tell.
Albert Einstein understood the wisdom of Nature education and interpretation: “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

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

Note: All blog post images created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2023 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 Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

I love hiking and exploring in 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 actually 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 grand kids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future

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

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

Brief-Form Post #20: Aerial Tour of Blackwell Swamp at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

October 19, 2023/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to offer the 20th GBH Brief Form Posts to my website (Less than three minutes to read!). I tend to get a bit long-winded 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.

Brief-Form Post on my August 20, 2023, Aerial Overflight of Blackwell Swamp within the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

On August 20, 2023, a friend took me aloft in his Cessna 182. We departed Pryor Regional Airfield, Decatur, Alabama at 7:00 AM under cloud-free but hazy skies. Our flight plan encompassed exploring the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and cruising the Tennessee River from Guntersville Dam downstream to Wheeler Dam (and Joe Wheeler State Park). I focus this Brief-Form Post on our aerial exploration of one of my favorite on-the-ground destinations: Blackwell Swamp within the Refuge.

I snapped this photo at 7:59 AM over the north end of the Swamp looking south deeper into the Refuge and the Tennessee River (Wheeler Lake). The Swamp stretches roughly three miles from end to end.

I recorded this 0:22 video as we circuited the southern end of Blackwell.

The view below to the northwest reaches across County Line Road (running diagonally from lower left to upper right) separating Limestone County (left) from Madison. The Huntsville Airport appears north of the Swamp at center right.

The summer (left) and winter views from the SW corner of the Swamp signal no indication that we are anywhere but in the wild interior of the 35,000 acre Refuge. No sign of the nearby agricultural fields, the landing and takeoff patterns for the airport, or recreational boats and commercial tugs and barges plying Lake Wheeler. I am sure that a Native American plucked from the 15th Century and placed on the Blackwell shore would have heard, smelled, and felt the presence of strange and peculiar forces. I am grateful that I can still sense the wildness of the refuge.

Summer’s peace and tranquility often include egrets, herons, owls, ducks, geese, an occasional eagle, ospreys, songbirds, frogs, manifold insects, and other teeming wildlife. Nature doesn’t seem to notice a dearth of wildness.

Spring is a season of special joy for me. I appreciate the eternal spring of youth, epitomized here by grandson Sam.

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Today, I borrow a distinct reflection from Aldo Leopold, one of the great minds of conservation, wildlife ecology, and environmental antiquity:

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

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

Old CCC Camp Tranquility at Oak Mountain State Park

October 2, 2023/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I visited Oak Mountain State Park on June 8, 2023. I focus this Post on our exploration of Camp Tranquility, constructed by Civilian Conservation Corps artisans to house the work crews assigned to build infrastructure at the Park.

The 1930s photograph below left depicts a youthful group at the entrance sign. The sign indicates Oak Mountain State Park even as it references the National Park Service and the US Department of the Interior. The crew below right is clearing and grading Peavine Road in the 1930s. Note the cutover forest, which in time developed into the typical second-growth forest that covers most of the Park’s 11,600 acres.

Camp Tranquility housed the CCC crews through the 30s. Once WWII absorbed the Corps workers, the Camp eventually transitioned to the Boy Scouts of America after the War.

Although this was my first visit to the site, I had previously spent nights at the Park’s Tranquility Lake cabins. The lake lies just 100 vertical feet below the Camp summit, on the hill at left in the image below right.

The CCC’s stonework is notoriously permanent, in this case appearing unweathered 90 years after being laid around the flag pole. This cabin stands at the hilltop peak, clearly the main building for the Boy Scout camp. I wonder what morning reveries sounded to greet the new day during CCC days…and subsequent to them.

I recorded this 39-second video to capture the timeless hominess of the camp.

What incredible workmanship these stone masons exhibited! I puzzled with how many coats of forest green paint preserve the cabins. How many young scouts wandered home from camp with green paint accenting their camp uniforms? How many rich memories persisted into adulthood?

Did those scouts appreciate that an entire generation of CCC stalwarts learned their life trades building the Camp and the park, then ventured into WWWII saving the world from absolute evil? Late at night atop Tranquility Camp Hill, do the echoes of thousands of hard working young men and adventuresome scouts brighten the darkness? Are memories alive in these woods?

I believe I felt their presence. We strolled through the Camp, musing about the past. Only the buildings reflect the 90-year-old Camp. The forest, while some trees date back to those long-ago days, does not resemble the forest surrounding the Camp in the 1930s. Individual trees and the forest they reside within change over the years and decades.

The photo below depicts a cluster of scouts reviewing a scouting Handbook. The photo is faded, yet I can only speculate when the shutter exposed the image. The haircuts and manner of dress place the image around the time of my youth, but I am far less than certain. Lets say 1960. Note the tree to the right and the stem in front.

Here is the same cabin the day we visited. The tree in front is gone. The one to the right is now 18 inches in diameter. The forest around the cabin is much matured, a deep forest. Oh, to have CCC-era photos of Camp Tranquility! I am now ever-more committed to sleuthing the interconnected human and natural history of our state parks and the Civilian Conservation Corps. I want park naturalists and interpreters armed with historic facts and photographs charting the pace of forest development since the 1930. Then I wish to see each park establish permanent photo points now to systematically monitor development at those points from this day forward.

These two images provide a human interest snapshot in mid-summer 2023, including an Eagle Scout footnote from 2012. What will remain in 2033? In 2043? What of the tree that I’m leaning on above? Let’s find a way to memorialize some of the stories that are yet to be told.

Oak Mountain State Park contains a rich on-the-ground library of tales and remains from the 1930s CCC era. Let’s capture that history with current photos, descriptions, GPS coordinates of features like this old CCC-constructed culvert.

Just seven days after my Oak Mountain SP visit I failed my stress test, leading to my June 19, 2023 triple bypass surgery. I am writing these reflection August 24, a little more than nine weeks after surgery. I feel confident that I will regain strength, endurance, energy, and general wherewithal to continue pursuit of this mission. However, none of us can guarantee even a single tomorrow.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations, from a single Louis Bromfield quote (Pleasant Valley):

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 it better by wisdom, knowledge, and hard work…

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: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Three Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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