I am pleased to add the 53rd 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.
Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area, owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), is in northwestern Butler County, Pennsylvania, just 30 minutes from where my son and his family reside north of Pittsburgh. Matt, his dog Oakley, and I circuited the 2.35-mile trail on the morning of September 22, the first day of autumn. My heart soared at the prospect of returning to an ecosystem shaped by a continental ice sheet just 13 millennia ago. This Post focuses on a recent blowdown within the Natural Area and my reflections on the implications for the affected stand.
Blowdown in the Forest
All forests are in flux. Individual trees germinate, grow, senesce, and die. Forests come and go with disturbance. Wind, ice, fire, insects, and disease affect trees and entire forests. I observe often that death is a big part of life in forested ecosystems and, for that matter, in any ecosystem. Within a discreet portion of the Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area old growth forest, a wind storm (thunderstorm downdraft or microburst; derecho; tornado; or perhaps sustained winter gales) toppled enough mature trees to give the affected stand a unique character.
The fallen trees align parallel to the wind direction, their lower trunks shattered or the entire tree uprooted. Based on the apparent progress of woody debris decay, I estimate that the wind event occurred within the past three years.
The wind eliminated enough overstory canopy to significantly reduce forest floor shading. Already understory woody and herbaceous plants are responding with increased vitality. Nature abhors a vacuum.
A cinnabar bracket fungus has colonized this downed American beech, evidencing that the windthrow-accelerated carbon cycling is in full gear.
Elevated root mounds provide ideal sites for herbaceous exploitation. White ash seedlings are quickly colonizing the forest floor on either side of the downed white ash tree.
Not all of the downed trees resulted from the discreet recent event. These trunks toppled more than five years ago. This hardwood stand, like most of Pennsylvania’s forests, is probably even-aged, regenerating following some catastrophic event, such as timber harvesting, widespread major wind, or fire.
An even-aged forest grows in a predictable manner. The inverse J-shaped diameter distribution is one such formulaic metric. Consider the graphs below as a generalized representation of the growth pattern across time. A young even-aged stand my have thousands of stems per acre. Look above at the many ash seedlings surrounding the single mature fallen ash. Over decades, the stand density (stems per unit area) declines. What may have been thousands becomes hundreds, and ultimately scores and dozens. Average stem diameter of the white ash seedlings (two rows above) is less than an inch. The fallen mother (seed source) tree is perhaps two feet.
The tendancy of an even-aged old growth hardwood forest is to gradually transition naturally to uneven-age. Some of the windthrow openings may be large enough to allow trees, their germination triggered by the recent storm, to emerge into the upper canopy, representing a younger age class. Many of the openings will at least be large enough to allow a sapling or mid-canopy cohort to establish, staging one or more of those individuals to rapidly ascend into the main canopy when a subsequent storm topples a large dominat tree, or a cluster of the original old growth cohort.
The forest is in no hurry. Its evolutionary pathway prepared this very successful admixture of species to flourish and persist when conditions are favorable and respond when change presents opportunities. The ash seedlings are already carpeting the ground now blessed with open canopy sunlight. Although my examinations were only surperficial, I observed that American beech, sugar maple, and white oak are stand components. They are shade tolerant species that can persist for decades under a full canopy. They and others are poised to constitute a greater percentage of the future dominant canopy.
The forest is changing, as are all forests. The wind event accelerated the change. I’d like to monitor it annually over another several decades, but my own life curve continues unabated. Perhaps I can revisit Wolf Creek Narrows another time or two, but there are no guarantees. I am grateful for having made this inaugural visit. I’ve learned something of this slice of Nature near to my son’s home and not too far from where I conducted my forestry doctoral research four decades ago.
I am addicted to special places and everyday Nature. Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area is one such Special Place.
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:
The forest is in no hurry. Its evolutionary pathway prepared it to flourish and persist when conditions are favorable, and to respond when change presents opportunities to exploit.
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
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/IMG_9139.jpg-09.22.25-WCN-NA-Blowdown.webp17641324Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-01-05 12:02:412026-01-05 12:02:41Brief-Form Post #53: Wolf Creek Narrows Forest Renewal in an Old Growth Northern Hardwood Stand!
I once again wandered the bottomland hardwood forest on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, south of HGH Road near the Madison-Limestone County line on the morning of August 30, 2025. I wanted to reconnoiter the forest with my recently acquired 1937 aerial photo of the stand. I present my preliminary observations, reflections, photographs, and brief videos as I attempt to make sense of forest history and lay the groundwork for reevaluation during the dormant season.
My Hesitant Working Hypothesis
I was convinced that the bottomland hardwood forest that I explore 3-4 times per year, had regenerated naturally from abandoned farmland since the Corps of Engineers completed construction of Wheeler Dam in the mid-1930s. However, I often found trees far older and individuals decayed beyond what I would expect in a forest freshly regenerated just eight and one half decades ago. Chris Stuhlinger, another retired forester, and I are digging into the question of stand origin. The area I frequent lies south of the red line (HGH Road) and west of the vertical line (Madison County to the east; Limestone to the left) on this 1937 aerial photo. I’ve placed a short vertical ink mark where I routinely enter the forest, which is clearly extant 88 years ago, discounting my supposition of a forest sprouting in the mid-30s from abandoned agricultural land.
I determined the age of a large wind-blown white oak just a few hundred feet south of the forest beyond the edge of the photograph: August 2025 Post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/08/27/huge-white-oak-blowdown-and-cleanup-at-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge/. I determined its age at 129 years, making it 30-40 years old when acquired by the Corps/TVA. Chris and I will closely examine the stand during the 2025-26 dormant season in the absence of mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, foliated poison ivy, and oppressive heat and humidity.
My Rationale for Accepting an Abandoned Farmland Origin
In the meantime, I reveal and reflect upon my recent saunter. Dominant yellow poplar and red oak trees could easily have been seedlings in the 1930s. These bottomland soils are extraordinarily fertile.
I recorded this 41-second video of a large black oak within a mixed stand that could have regenerated nearly nine decades ago.
The same is true of the forest housing this mid-story persimmon and a main canopy black oak.
Here is my 35-second video of the persimmon and black oak.
I recorded this 38-second video of mixed main canopy and understory species.
Evidence Casting Doubt on My Abandoned Farmland Hypothesis
The very large dominant trees, including standing dead and nearby grotesqueley swollen and decayed individuals (the final tree in the short video) suggest an older stand. The massive green ash and shagbark hickory, both about two and one half feet in diameter, also hint at an age beyond 88 years.
The same advanced age can be deduced by this 44.5-inch diameter chinquapin oak and the Carpinus carolinia (muscle wood tree) growing at its base.
I also encountered this hollowed three-foot diameter oak barely clinging to life. Eighty-eight years is too abbreviated a period to reach this size and advanced decay.
I recorded this 47-second video highlighting the hollowed oak.
Likewise for this hopelessy decayed and swollen four-foot diameter oak.
Here is my 47-second video of the individual.
This ancient oak stands along the old lane 150 feet from where I parked. Three and one-half feet in diameter, a windstorm took half of its canopy in the summer of 2020. Hidden from this view, the tree is hollow and open at the base, extending at least 30 feet to where the wind ripped half the crown away,
This violently uprooted three-foot diameter cherrybark oak toppled earlier this past summer.
I recorded this 57-second video of the fallen giant.
Here’s another view of the oak.
Nature has work to do, returning the tons of recently deceased wood to the soil. The carbon cycle is a BIG deal! Powder post beetles, wood-boring insects that deposit eggs just under the bark of dead or dying trees, are first in line to feast on the mighty oak’s cellulose and lignin. Drafting this narrative triggered an urge to ask many questions that at the moment I will not take time to answer. Questions such as, “How do the adult beetles know the oak is dead? Do live and dead wood smell different? Does living cambium emit sounds a beetle can hear? Does appearance change subtly with death? More obviously, does a horizontal trunk light up with a neon invitation to Come and Get it!?” Trust me, the beetles know! Within the two months since the tree fell, beetles have deposited eggs, the larvae have hatched, and begun voraciously consuming wood fiber. The beetles have already progressed from egg, to larva, to pupa, to adult. The emergent adult exit holes pepper with the fallen trunk with powdery frass.
Death and life are inter-twined in the forest. The forest air is seasonally thick with fungal spores that have already entered every beetle exit hole. Infecting hyphae have found purchase within the oak. Mushrooms will appear on the oak trunk by the end of next summer. Five years hence, the bark will have sloughed and decay will have penetrated deeply into the wood. Nature abhors a vacuum!
Temporary Closure and a Revised Hypothesis
The 1937 aerial photo is clear. The area I felt had been in agriculture when engineers completed Wheeler Dam was, in fact, forested in 1937. I have a new hypothesis to test with Chris when we conduct our dormant season on-site forestry forensic sleuthing after New Year’s. The largest trees in the stand are overwhelmingly diseased and battered, suggesting that they may have been unmerchatable individuals when crews commercially harvested the forest that was present when the Corps/TVA aqcuired the land adjacent to the land destined for Lake Wheeler inundation. The resultant forest 88 years later is two-aged:
The naturally regenerated 88 year old hardwood stand
Scattered mostly unmerchantable individuals left by loggers
I look forward to learning as we go. As with most elements of Nature, the more I learn, the less I know. Every revelation uncovers new mystery. Such is the joy of curiosity.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. (da Vinci)
Every revelation uncovers new mystery. Such is the joy of curiosity. (Steve Jones)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Einstein)
As with most elements of Nature, the more I learn, the less I know. (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
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/IMG_8842.jpg-08.30.25-Oak-Windfall.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-12-23 08:04:562025-12-23 08:04:56Late Summer Revelation and Confusion (mine!) in a WNWR Bottomland Forest
I drafted this Post a dozen weeks ago. Oh, the sweet memories it rekindled…of the hike itself and of the deep recollections of my wanderings there with Dad, as well as with Judy and our kids. And on November 14, I will take Jack, who has since turned 18, for a second visit to Auburn University. Life races ahead of memories. I’m trying my best to keep up, yet I know that one day I will trundle along as only a memory, which spurs me to plant seeds, prompted by one of my favorite quotes from Robert Louis Stevenson:
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
I once again visited the Pawpaw Tunnel, located within the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) National Historical Park, on July 28, 2025. Alabama grandsons, Jack (17) and Sam (11), accompanied me. I grew up 30 miles upstream along the Potomac River in Cumberland, Maryland. I wanted the boys to experience the Nature, history, and engineering marvel of the tunnel and canal. We walked through the 3,600-foot tunnel, traversed a mile beyond it, and then hiked the Tunnel Hill Trail over the mountain to return to the parking area. Part One carried us through the tunnel (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/09/25/part-one-175-year-old-co-canal-pawpaw-tunnel-where-nature-meets-engineering-and-history/); Part Two took us back over the Tunnel Hill Trail.
Tunnel Hill Trail
The Tunnel Hill Trail rose from the towpath on the same route used extensively during the construction era 175+ years ago. Signage indicated where work crews resided during the 14-year construction period. We viewed a hollow filled to the brim with rock debris blasted and excavated from the tunnel and its east-end approach. Sam and Jack assumed a victorious pose on a more current debris mound. Jack and I rested beside a white oak tree.
Dare I admit that the 362-foot ascent winded us? We rested on logs at the gravel parking at the top of Sorrel Ridge, where a Green Ridge State Forest dirt road met the no-access terminus of the NPS tunnel hill jeep trail. Green Ridge State Forest holds deep sentimental and professional meaning for me. Between my junior and senior undergraduate academic years, I worked under the Green Ridge Forest Supervisor, the inimitable John Mash, who demonstrated the essential need to know the land…both its natural and human history…to effectively manage it.
Jack and Sam agreed that the view more than compensated for our effort on a hot summer mid-day. CaCapon Mountain rises in the distance above Pawpaw, West Virginia.
I recorded this 53-second video at the summit.
The overlook revealed far more than the scenery…sparking fragments of memory across seasons, decades, life stages, and generations.
Forest Life along the Trail
A forest ecosystem is a complex community of plants, animals, fungi, and the physical environment. I give you a sampling of photo-worthy life forms we encountered along the trail. View this as a teaser to what could have filled volumes. This Amanita beckoned us to look closely…side view and its gilled underside.
And its handsome top.
Old-man-of-the-woods grew among the green of a cushion of moss.
White-pored chicken of the woods stood silently along the trail, mocking me for all the times while foraging locally in Alabama, I found nothing approaching the size and quality of this specimen. We took home only a photo of this gem.
I delight in spring wildflowers even as I rally to see late summer beauties like these pigeonwings
The tunnel and nearby West Virginia town monikers suggest that Asimini triloba might grow abundamently in the area. We saw lots of pawpaw, an understory and lower canopy tree. Sam lends a personal touch to its elongate shade-tolerant foliage.
We found a contorted white oak trailside as we ascended. I can only conjecture what injuries, and subsequent fungal infections, owing to humans and their equipment along the trail, permanently marred the tree and its future growth.
Sam spotted this agreeable tiger moth larva.
Same for this black-and-gold flat millipede.
I will repeat the circuit (through the tunnel and over the Tunnel Hill Trail) another time, when I return, preferably during the dormant season. Like so many of my special places and the everyday Nature that defines them, the C&O Canal and Pawpaw Tunnel extend roots deep into my mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit. Where do those intense feelings and vivid memories go when we are called Home? Perhaps fragments will live on through my children, Matt and Katy, and in Jack and Sam, Katy’s boys. Robert Louis Stevenson nailed the sentiment:
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
A Post Script
Contemplating the inevitable, I once thought my ashes could be spread in Teton National Park, a majestic place where I once planned a sabbatical leave after securing promotion to Full Professor at Penn State. An ascending career path instead led me immediately to Auburn University, bypassing the sabbatic. Nearly 30 years have passed since then. From my current vantage point, the Tetons is a step too far. Upon considerable thought, why not have the five grandkids and children, Matt and Katy, leave a dusting at the Potomac River overlook…and another bit in the Cathedral Forest along the Wells Memorial and Sinks Trails on Monte Sano State Park.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
My Dad was called Home 29 years ago, yet he once again accompanied me (and two of his great grandchildren) in July 2025, as I covered ground we walked together many times in my youth. (Steve Jones)
I am hopelessly addicted to Nature. (Steve Jones)
My experiences from those formative years shaped me, sculpted my lifetime addiction to Nature…propelled me to a forestry degree, and a meaningful career committed to natural resources sustainability. (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
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8250.jpg-07.28.25-PawPaw-Tunnel.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-11-05 07:03:052025-11-05 07:03:05Part Two 175-Year-Old C&O Canal Pawpaw Tunnel Hill Trail
On July 29, 2025, my older Alabama grandson, Jack (17), and I hiked the Evitts Homestead Trail on Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park. We ascended 1,100 feet from Lake Habeeb to Evitts’ 2,200-foot summit. I wanted to share the magic of the place with Jack and rekindle my aging memories. Still in high school, I had explored Rocky Gap Canyon and Evitts Mountain before authorities created the state park and built the dam. We discovered the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe of Nature hidden in plain sight along the trail.
Those youthful excursions are now two generations past. I was about 17; Jack’s age. He is my daughter’s son. Time marches on at 24 hours per day, just as it did 57 years ago, yet its relative pace accelerates. I heard my maternal grandmother say more than once, “The older I get, the faster time passes.” I thought she was old and confused; I now recognize her wisdom.
Ascending the Trail: Moss, Ferns, and Fungi
I recognize another truism: the older I get the more challenging trails become. I hiked this trail five years ago, prior to a series of surgeries: shoulder replacement; triple bypass; bilateral inguinal hernia repair; two total knee replacements; and kidney stone blasting. Add in a minor stroke. It’s no surprise that my recent hike proved tougher. I view summitting Evitts as a major recovery benchmark…and a family milestone. This time next year, Jack will have departed for college and a demanding and rewarding life journey. I pray that he carries the memory of his Evitts hike with Pap into a bright and promising future.
The trail is an old jeep path, rising at a steady rate. I noticed greater erosion and rutting since my 2020 ascent. Park crews are not controlling surface water flow. Instead, runoff is in control, seeking and finding a route with no concern for trail integrity. I saw no recent evidence of constructed water bars, broad-based dips, or other measures to usher overland flow from the trail. Without immediate attention, the trail will degrade beyond easy repair. Ongoing road maintenance cannot be ignored.
Okay, so much for critiquing park trails and their management. Across my decades of wandering eastern forests, moss is ubiquitous. Pincushion moss embraces tree bases and often covers rocks (right).
This patch of broom forkmoss welcomed the dappled sunshine penetrating the forest canopy. An online dictionary defines moss as a small flowerless green plant that lacks true roots, growing in damp habitats and reproducing by means of spores released from stalked capsules.
Ample rain during the early summer stimulated prodigous mushroom growth. Mushrooms are the reproductive (spore-producing) structures of common fungi in our eastern foressts. Fungi include tree disease organisms, decomposers, and mycorhizza. Two-colored bolete is a beautiful polypore mycorhizzal fungus, this one with a pink/red umbrella and a smooth cream/yellow undersurface. Although some boletes are choice edibles, I haven’t achieved a necessary level of confidence in distinguishing among the group members. This bolete is symbiotically engaged with oak species.
A distinctly polypore underside.
I like the moniker of yellow American blusher, another mycorhizzal fungus associated with oak. this one is gilled. Mushrooms of the Southeast offers an explanation of what prevents me from expanding my culinary foraging to species about which I am not 100 percent certain:
In North America Amanita rubescens has historically been considered edible and relatively distinctive; however, since it is related to some of the most toxic mushrooms, we cannot recommend eating it.
Life in our eastern upland hardwood forests is amazingly complex.
Yellowing rosy ruella, or brittlegills, is a gilled Russula mycorhizza fungus, common in hardwood forests. Considered edible but seldom occurs in numbers sufficient to collect.
iNaturalist identified these tiny golden mushrooms as clubs and corals, genus Clavulinopsis. Mushrooms of the Southeast steered me to golden fairy club, C. laeticolor, but the book image differed somewhat from my photographs. One reference declared this fungus a mycorhizza; another said that it’s a forest litter decomposer.
I am a mushroom novice. My fascination with their unique kingdom of life grows with each woodland Nature excursion, where I learn how little I know.
White-pored chicken-of-the-woods (or sulphur shelf) is a decay fungus at home on both living trees, primarily oak, or dead individuals of the same host group. The speices is a choice edible when young and tender, like this one growing at the trail edge.
Were I wandering closer to home other than on a state park, where the rule is to take only what you bring, I would have made several meals from this perfect specimen! I wondered how many more flourished within 100 feet of our six-mile circuit.
Umbilicaria mammulata, smooth rock tripe, is among the largest lichens in the world. The species forms large sheets (rarely, up to 2′ across), like aged curling leather sheets, on cliffs and boulders. This patch is on a sandstone boulder. The sheets are attached at only a single point (hence the genus Umbilicaria). They are reddish- or grayish-brown on top, and velvety black below.
From an online source regarding edibility:
An hour of boiling is said to convert this leather-like lichen into an edible source of protein, palatable by itself or when added to soup or stews. Soak for 2-3 hours first to remove acids that, while not dangerous, may send you running to the bathroom in a hurry. Even after all this soaking and boiling, you’d better be good and hungry—many say it still tastes like shoe leather.
I will not be adding this species to my foraging list!
I recall moist forests in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Hampshire, all former woodlands haunts where I’ve rambled, covered with common bracken fern. I noticed only this single specimen.
Our journey covered the distance with as much haste as I could muster. I would do it again on a mid-60s-degree October day, devoting hours to extensive study and exploration. Drafting this narrative reminds me to saunter future wanderings with greater attention to full discovery, seeking more than a surficial inventory of what lay hidden in plain sight.
Ascending the Trail: Turtles, Millipedes, Invasive Plants, and Sign-Eating Tree!
An eastern box turtle hurried across the trail. Yes, he moved quickly, not at an exagerated turtle’s pace.
I captured his rapid gate in this 21-second video.
An American giant millipede compelled us to take a closer look.
A dense growth of mile-a-mintute-vine infesting at least an acre of forest, stopped me cold.
A Penn State Cooperative Extension online resource tells the tale of this aggressive invasive:
Mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata) is a trailing vine with barbed stems and triangular leaves. In contrast to other invasive vines, mile-a-minute is an herbaceous annual, meaning it dies each fall and new plants grow from germinating seeds in the spring. Originally from India and East Asia, this species was first reported in York County, Pennsylvania, in the 1930s in contaminated nursery soil. Mile-a-minute is listed as a “Class B” noxious weed by the State of Pennsylvania, a designation that restricts sale and acknowledges a widespread infestation that cannot feasibly be eradicated. The dense foliage of this invasive weed blankets and slowly suffocates native vegetation, making it extremely destructive and persistent despite being an annual plant.
I wondered whether park managers are aware of this infestation. When we returned to the Lake Habeeb dam I told a maintenance worker of our discovery. He seemed concerned. Enough to take action?
I always remain alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, including sign-consuming black cherry trees!
I love the Central Appalachian forests of my childhood and early professional days. Rocky Gap State Park drew memories, warm and fuzzy, from more than five decades ago. At age 74, I can say with confidence and satisfaction that those were the good old days…and that blessedly these, too, are the good old days. Life was…and is…good!
Thoughts and Reflections
I revisited my October 10/15/20 post from the prior Evitts Mountain ascent: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/10/15/a-tough-hike-and-deep-reward-at-rocky-gap-state-park-in-western-maryland/
I offered three lessons from my late September, 2020, solitary trek:
The extraordinary Nature of place is indelibly written in my head, heart, mind, body, and soul. I am a creature and product of place… place defined by Nature.
Countless days in Nature define my life across these 69 years — I look, see, and feel Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe… and find immeasurable lift.
My connection to Nature is unmistakably SACRED!
Today, five years later, I would modify only minimally: My connection (across these 74 years) to Nature (and Family) is unmistakably SACRED!
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
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
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8256-1.jpg-7.29.25.webp15731511Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-10-08 08:33:032025-10-08 08:33:03Hiking the Homesite Trail at Rocky Gap State Park
My two Alabama grandsons (Jack Disher, 17, and Sam Disher, 11) accompanied me on June 24, 2025, to the North Alabama Land Trust’s Green Mountain Nature Preserve. We explored the Alum Hollow Trail, where I was scheduled to lead a Land Trust Nature Hike on June 28, 2025. I wanted to scout the trail for features worthy of focus for the planned Land Trust nature venture. Most importantly, I treasure time in Nature with Jack and Sam. I want my passion for the natural world to live in them far beyond my fleeting time on this pale blue orb. Come along with me (and Jack and Sam) through observations, reflections, photos, and brief videos.
Four days later I led the Land Trust Hike with ten eager Nature enthusiasts.
The trail is relatively flat along the 1,400 to 1,500 foot plateau top of Green Mountain. Mixed second-growth upland hardwood is the dominant forest cover, yet shortleaf (below) and Virginia pines occupy the WSW-facing ridge rim where the trail took us. I’ll say more about the preserve’s pine, represented here with a trail marker sign.
Every time I saunter along a forest trail I find magic, wonder, beauty, awe, and inspiration hidden in plain sight. The Alum Hollow Trail was no exception.
Notable Non-Tree Species
Vaccinium aboreum is a species new to me since retiring to Madison, Alabama in 2018. It’s the largest member of the blueberry genus. My fascination may or may not derive from its mirthful common names: farkleberry, sparkleberry, and winter huckleberry. An NC State University online Cooperative Extension publication describes this large vaccinium:
Sparkleberry is a small, deciduous to evergreen shrub or tree that may grow 10 to 20 feet tall. It can be found in rocky woodlands, sandy woodlands, and on cliffs. The leaves are alternate with a smooth or finely toothed margin. The bark is shredded and patchy with reds, browns, and grays present. In early summer, small, white, bell-shaped flowers mature. In the fall, this plant has excellent color. The tall shrub produces a black fruit that matures in the fall and is a good food source for wildlife.
It’s a tough lower-story shrub, seeming to prefer harsh dry sites. I admire it for thriving where more demanding species fear to tread.
We found cedarglade St. John’s wort in flower. Also from an online NC State sourse:
St. John’s Wort is native to SE USA and in NC it is found in the western mountain areas. It is a small, dense shrub that grows 2-4 feet tall and wide with a rounded dense form. It inhabits glades and dry limestone ledges. The foliage may appear slightly bluish-green and is evergreen in its southern range. The showy yellow flowers are bright yellow with numerous stamens on new wood and appear in June-July.
Its foliage and yellow flower drew me in for a closer look.
Greater tickseed is a member of the aster family and is found across Alabama from the Gulf coast to the Tennessee line. I love its whorled leaves.
We feature hydrangea (oakleaf; endless summer; little lime) in our home landscaping. Near the falls the boys and I found wild hydrangea in full flower. Grandson Sam snapped these images.
Although I missed seeing naked-flowered tic-trefoil with the boys, the Land Trust group oohed over its delicate pink blossoms. Note its tri-leaf (i.e. trefoil) foliage. The species is a Legume, a member of the pea family.
I had never asked Jack or Sam to record a brief interpretive video. They have heard me record many, when their role was to be quiet for a moment. I decided to give Sam a try. Without hesitation he recorded this 39-second sassafras identification lesson. He performed as though he’d done it a dozen times! Jack and I walked far enough away not to distract him. He needed only one take. I am grandfather-proud of the result — he may be catching the Nature bug!
We’ll hone his and Jack’s video artistry time and time again!
Selected Curiosities
My third book, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits (co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), highlighted our passion for place and everyday Nature. The term everyday Nature is adequate but falls far short of sufficient. My eyes wander, seeking the unusual, the bizarre, oddities, and curiosities. I say that, yet I must confess that unusual, bizarre, odd, and curious are within the realm of everyday Nature. Nothing in Nature is strange; some things may be unexpected…but strange in Nature is commonplace!
A vividly green vine spiraling a pole-sized hickory tree may strike the uninformed as strange, but its not at all uncommon for a supplejack vine to have hitched a ride to the full sunlight of an upper story hickory.
A large chestnut oak pointed ahead to the left as we progressed. Jack stood atop the tree’s crook. Some would opine confidently that Native Americans modified the then much smaller stem long ago to create an Indian Marker Tree. Sorry to disappoint, but some natural force (branch or fallen tree) clobbered the young erect tree, bending and breaking it about five feet above ground. The bend remains, supporting a new vertical stem that reaches into the main canopy. Nature’s primary life-imperative is to secure a pathway to immortality, whether me through Jack and Sam, or a crushed chestnut oak by way of an adventious bud sprouting a new shoot that reaches skward. The bridge to immortality extends through generations.
John Muir, too, spoke of immortality.
After a whole day in the woods, we are already immortal.
Nothing in Nature is static. A few weeks prior, this chestnut oak’s crown spread over one-fifth of an acre. One of its progeny may already be feeling the sunshine streaming in from the vacated canopy above. Adjacent trees will extend branches laterally to fill the void. The forest will persist even as individual trees succumb.
But in every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)
I recorded this 59-second video of the fallen chestnut oak and a larger one standing regally nearby.
To many trail trekkers, a windthrown oak is merely an obstacle. To the trail maintenance crew…a task. To me, a prompt for mental wandering and contemplation. I wondered whether Native Americans traversed Green Mountain across their 13-15 millennia of occupation. How many times over those 140 centuries did a windblown chestnut oak bar their transit?
Southern Pine Beetle Outbreak
Summer 2024 was a banner year for southern pine beetle infestations across central and northern Alabama, killing thousands of acres of pine forests. Although upland hardwoods dominate the preserve, the Alum Hollow Trail passes through several hundred linear feet of mostly Virginia pine and, to a lesser extent, shortleaf pine. Beetle-killed pine trees posed a threat to trail users.
Land Trust crews felled dead trees. Jumbles of dead pine debris line the trail. Importantly, the forest persists. Species composition has changed. The piles of pinewood will decompose. Adjacent trees will reach into the crown opening; new stems will grow from the forest floor.
Sam found intrigue in a dead pine carcass recently fallen below the trail.
Curiosities and oddities are commonplace. Strange encounters are the norm to those sauntering and paying attention.
Fungi along the Alum Hollow Trail
Beetles belong to the animal kingdom; oak trees represent the plant kingdom; fungi are members of their own kingdom. Mushrooms are the spore producing reprodctive organs of fungi, which variously decay living organic matter, consume dead biomass, or grow symbiotically with living plants. I won’t go beyond that generalization. Go to the Blog page of my website (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/) and search for mushrooms, which will direct you to multiple photo essays focusing on my mushroom encounters. I give you below a few photos of fungi we found along the Alum Hollow Trail.
Coker’s amanita (Sam’s photos) is a common pure white gilled mushroom.
iNaturalist does a good job identifying mushrooms when given top, side, and underside photo views.
Red chanterelle (Sam’s photos) attracted us with their vivid laterns along the trail. A coarsely gilled edible mushroom genus, chanterelles are mycorrhiza fungi with mycelia growing within tree roots, benefitting both the tree and the fungus.
Flaming gold bolete, a member of a polypore (hollow tubes rather than gills) group common in northern Alabama.
Some bolete species are mycorrhizal; other species are parasitic. Some are delectibly edible, while others are not table-worthy; distinguishing among species can be difficult. The boletes are not among the mushrooms I forage!
Alum Shelter and Waterfall
On both days, we turned at the waterfall and shelter.
I asked Jack to record a brief video at the falls. Like Sam, he performed well, recording this 25-second video.
I’ve seen the falls with greater flow, and I’ve visited with far less.
Uncertain of my ability to clamber down to the falls after my two 2024 total knee replacements, I recorded this 59-second video from the trail above the falls.
The Alum Cave is a misnomer. It’s a ledge overhang.
Protected from sunlight and rain, the shelter provides a pleasant spot for resting and reflecting.
I recorded this 60-second video at the shelter.
A child of the central Appalachians, I feel at home in the preserve’s rugged terrain. Pausing at the shelter prompted me to step back six decades. Nature has a way of transporting me, physically, mentally, and spiritually!
A Final Critter
Although the final image in my photo essays, this eastern fence lizard greeted the Land Trust entourage early on our venture. I offer it in closing only because I did not concieve it as a good place to start.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
He who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle. (Albert Einstein)
The cycle of life is without end…as long as our sun shines, rain falls, and Earth remains otherwise inhabitable. (Steve Jones)
Nothing in Nature is static, whether a mountain range or a northern Alabama upland forest.(Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives…sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_7856.jpg-06.24.25-Green-Mtn-Alum-Hollow-Trail-Alum-Shelter.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-07-30 09:58:242025-07-30 09:58:24A Return to the Alum Hollow Trail at North Alabama Land Trust's Green Mountain Nature Preserve
I intended this to be one of my brief-form posts, but I recorded too many short videos to meet my less-than-five-minutes-to-read criterion!
A colleague interested in our northern Alabama human and natural history recently observed that the forests on Madison, Alabama’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve have not changed over the 55 years he has visited this North Alabama Land Trust property. I walked the Rainbolt Trail and circuited the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail on April 29, 2025, snapping photos, recording brief videos, and assembling observations and reflections that tell the story of constant change within the forests of this residential-surrounded Nature Preserve. I invite him (and you) to accompany me on this photo essay trek. He and I later will find a time to saunter the trails.
A volunteer crew from Madison Greenways and Trails (I am an MG&T Board member) built the Rainbolt Trail. The group helps maintain all trails and polices the preserve for trash, graffiti, and other nuisances. Like so much of what the Land Trust does, volunteers do the heavy lifting at Rainbow Mountain.
Mark Tercek, former CEO of The Nature Conservancy, characterizes Nature as infrastructure essential for ecosystem services (fresh air, purified water, wildlife habitat, recreation, aesthetics, etc.). I believe that Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve is a necessary infrastructure complement to the City of Madison, Alabama. I express appreciation to the Land Trust of North Alabama and MG&T!
Nothing in Nature is Static
I parked at the Kensington Road trailhead of the Rainbolt Trail, which rises approximately 220 feet over its half-mile length on a WSW aspect (facing WSW). In our region of intense summer heat, slopes (particular convex-shaped) facing west to south (the souwest quadrant) are the least productive, i.e. of poorer site quality. Trees are shorter and living biomass per acre less. The forest along the Rainbolt Trail meets the poor site quality expectations. One does not see towering trees or dense stocking, nor do they sense a vibrant robust stand. Dead and downed woody debris carpets the forest floor. The two downed trees below are in a state of decomposition suggesting they’ve been on the ground no longer than 8-12 years. They occupied the living forest in 1970 (55 years ago), albeit as smaller and younger individuals. The forest is changing; nothing in Nature is static.
Still on the lower slope, I recorded this 58-second video — note that my narrative states the date as April 30 — take my word, the date on all videos in this post was April 29!
Life on these harsh low quality sites is of finite duration. The upturned stump below left likely toppled within the past dozen or so years. The standing dead oak below right died within the past three years. The decomposing bark clings to at least a third of the circumference, evidencing the tree’s near-term demise. I did not need to wander from the trail to find ample evidence of the ever-changing stand.
These trees fell within the past year. The action is continuous…maintaining an environmental and biological biomass constant. The living forest adds biomass through individual tree height and diameter growth and ingrowth of new recruits, which over the decades maintains equilibrium with living biomass loss through death, decay, and toppling.
Fungi are living biomass dedicated to decay and decomposition, the chief architects of recycling carbon resources and reserves. Fifty-five years ago, fungi and other decomposers were hard at work on dead and down woody biomass that was present. A living forest then and a living forest today, static and unchanged to a layman walking the trails, but unendingly shifting and modifying to students of the art and technology of forestry, ecology, and environmental science. These luminescent panellus, a gilled polypore fungus, may be direct descendents of fungi decomposing oak when my friend walked the site 55 years ago!
I ascended through midslope, still on the WSW facing slope, recording this 59-second video, revealing that every tree has a story to tell.
Another cedar tells me that disturbance has visited this domain routinely. Cedar demands full sunlight to regenerate. Firewood harvesting and periodic fire resulted from the past 200 years of European settlement. Native Americans nomadically occupying and farming the nearby bottomlands may have periodically burned the Rainbow Mountain highland to encourage berry production and enhance small game habitat.
I recorded this 57-second tale of continuing disturbance on the upper slope.
This large cedar near the juncture with the topside Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail yielded to the ravages of a summer 2024 tempest. A wrenching gust shattered the trunk about 25 feet from the base. The top leans hopelessly (gravity will eventually prevail) against a sturdy tree downwind. The cedar’s rich green foliage has faded to brown. The forest carbon cycle knows no end. The cedar tree was in vigorous midlife when my friend wandered the mountain in 1970.
A nearby eastern red cedar escaped the wild wind. I recorded this 57-second video at the juncture of Rainbolt and Loop Trails.
Beyond the low quality Rainbolt slope forest, I encountered more diverse plant life along the Rainbow Loop Trail. You’ll note in my narrative for this 53-second video that I hesitated after mentioning poison ivy; I could not recall the name of an adjacent plant that resembles poison ivy. I knew that the neighbor is fragrant sumac, but the name was lost in a senior moment fog!
A Couple of Special Spring Ephemeral Treats
Woodland pinkroot is a spectacular spring ephemeral. Its red and yellow blooms are special visual treats.
Purple phacelia is also among my spring favorites.
The lower eastside forest is a far different world and ecosystem from what I encountered on the poor site quality Rainbolt Trail. The woodland spring where I recorded this 58-second video rewards those making the circuit.
Along my personal and professional life journey, I somewhere picked up the term landscape amnesia (I believe from my reading years ago of Jared Diamond’s Collapse. It’s a condition that overtakes those who live long term in an area of great familiarity. Seeing the same location day after day, week after week, year after year can blind us to gradual, persistent change. An online source (Yeah, you caught me — its from Wikipedia!) described the condition:
Creeping normality (also called gradualism, or landscape amnesia) is a process by which a major change can be accepted as normal and acceptable if it happens gradually through small, often unnoticeable, increments of change. The change could otherwise be regarded as remarkable and objectionable if it took hold suddenly or in a short time span.
American scientist Jared Diamond used creeping normality in his 2005 book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Prior to releasing his book, Diamond explored this theory while attempting to explain why, in the course of long-term environmental degradation, Easter Island natives would, seemingly irrationally, chop down the last tree:
“I suspect, though, that the disaster happened not with a bang but with a whimper. After all, there are those hundreds of abandoned statues to consider. The forest the islanders depended on for rollers and rope didn’t simply disappear one day—it vanished slowly, over decades.”
I forgive my friend for suffering a common afflection: creeping normality or landscape amnesia!
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
He who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle. (Albert Einstein)
The cycle of life is without end…as long as our sun shines, rain falls, and Earth remains otherwise inhabitable. (Steve Jones)
Nothing in Nature is static, whether a mountain range or a northern Alabama upland forest.(Steve Jones)
The Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve is a necessary infrastructure complementing the City of Madison, Alabama. (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
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
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_7319.jpg-04.29.25-No-Static-at-Rainbow-MNP.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-06-25 10:31:462025-06-25 10:43:49Rainbow Mountain Loop--Refuting the 55-Year Claim of a Static Forest!
Note: I am flagging this photo essay as one of a sub-series that introduces the emerging Singing River Trail:
A 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.
On the morning of February 8, 2025, as I frequently do, I wandered through the bottomland hardwood forest along HGH Road in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge near the border between Limestone and Madison Counties. I desired only to see what of deep dormant season interest might lie hidden in plain sight. Mission accomplished!
Spiraling Oddities
HGH Road is gated during the winter at the gravel parking area along Jolly Bee Road. I walked the one-half mile west to where an old farm lane drops south toward the Tennessee River. Yes, an old farm lane. I believe the bottomland forest was in agricultural production when TVA purchased the land scheduled for Lake Wheeler inundation and the adjoining upland property 90 years ago. I restricted the morning’s sauntering mostly to hardwood-dominated forests. I found this spiraled mid-canopy elm, back-dropped by a stand of loblolly pine, at roadside before I reached the now heavily forested farm lane.
I have never seen a tree that spirals of its own accord absent a directing force, which in this instance is no longer present. Imagine the elm when younger and smaller, wrapped in full spiral embrace with a supplejack vine. The supplejack species spirals upward clockwise as evidenced by the permanently spiraled elm. In effect, the growing tree prevailed, literally crushing life from the vine…a death spiral.
Leonardo da Vinci offered insight to seeing, questioning, and understanding such phenomena:
There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.
The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.
Leonardo would have appreciated my seeming aimless traipsing. Albert Einstein, too, would have approved:
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Nearby a supplejack co-spiraling with a 3-4″ sweetgum tree offered more direct evidence, the vine still visible at left. The photo at right below shows the same supplejack vine closer to the ground, where it emerged victorious in its embrace of a sapling long since dead and decayed. The clockwise-spiraled vine remains intact. However, I don’t think it will survive its mutual grasp with the sweetgum.
I recorded this 58-second video of entanglement:
Infrequent sylvan visitors believe our forests are stagnant, timeless, never-changing. I recall asking workshop participants their perceived age of the mature hardwood forest we were visiting. Answers ranged from hundreds of years back to the time of Christ. Most of our northern Alabama hardwood forest are 80-100 years old. Nothing in Nature is static, absolutely nothing.
Death and Decay in the Forest
Life and death define the forest. The carbon cycle is the symphony, an elaborate ecological composition. Movements surge and flow across days, months, years, decades, centuries, and millennia. This ancient oak, with its decayed see-through base, rises to a snag. Gravity will soon prevail; decomposers will return its organic matter to the soil, which in turn will cycle its energy to new life, perhaps to an oak tree or a millipede, a rattlesnake, or a woodland spider lilly!
Here is my 58-video tour of the snag:
I prefer short quotes from sage conservationists like da Vinci, Muir, and Leopold. However, the lyrics and music of some timeless poets and musicians shaped my life, Johny Cash among them. Lyrics to his classic The Highwayman stand as a metaphor for the forests I know, whether Alabama, Alaska, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, or any other of the places I’ve lived or roamed:
I was a highway man along the coach roads I did ride
With sword and pistol by my side
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive
I was a sailor, I was born upon the tide
And with the sea I did abide
I sailed a schooner round the horn to Mexico
I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow
And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed
But I am living still
I was a dam builder
Across the river deep and wide
Where steel and water did collide
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around, I’ll always be around
And around and around and around and around
I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I’ll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I’ll be back again, and again
And again and again and again and again
I understand the co-spiraling signature of tree and vine. No mystery there. Explaining the spiral wood grain of individual trees eludes me still. Search “spiral grain” on the blog page of my Great Blue Heron website. You’ll see prior posts where I have probed the subject, all to no avail or conclusion, yet I frequently see dead hardwood trees with sloughed bark, clearly spiral-grained, taunting me to discover their secret!
I recorded this 48-second video of a nearby snag adorned with multiple scars of death and decay, as well as evident spiral grain.
A still photo of the same tree highlights advanced decay that suggests that undefeated gravity will soon triumph.
Commercial television these days offers all manner of cosmetic and pharmaceutical treatments for dry, crepey, warty, sagging, and blotchy skin and flesh. Thank God trees possess no such vainglorious tendencies! I recorded this video of a snag carrying its blemishes beyond death and decay.
Stills from of the same tree memorialize its countenance.
Every tree has a story to tell. These weathered individuals express volumes!
Beauty is Far Moore than Skin-Deep
Fungi infect all the prior dead individual trees I’ve included so far in this photo essay. Let’s now delve into the fruiting bodies (mushrooms) of the organisms whose hyphae are the actual within-wood decomposing fungi. Puffball mushrooms signal hyphae hard at work.
I recorded this 60-second video of a wind-toppled oak heavily infected with Stereum:
Our north Alabama forest breezes, I am sure, are super charged with clouds of fungal spores. I imagine competing species of fungi rushing to the scene of a recent windthrow, armies of spores laying claim to square millimeters of surface on a multi-ton sylvan carcass. Down for less than a full year, this tree already bears thousands of saprophytic fungi mushrooms.
Life, death, decay, and renewal dance in symphonic splendor.
A hefty lumpy bracket mushroom clings to a downed oak trunk.
Its underside is salting the air with countless spores catching the breeze to another multi-ton oak.
Bracket fungi are common throughout our north Alabama forests, especially in these fertile, productive hardwood bottomlands. I pledge to devote more time on future treks to identifying groups and species. So far only the edibles have merited my deeper attention.
I believe this is a latte bracket.
Fungi are biological wonders worthy of their own kingdom.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. (da Vinci)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Einstein)
Life, death, decay, and renewal dance in symphonic splendor. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
The Nature of the Singing River Trail
The Singing River Trail will pass through significant portions of the 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge…perhaps not HGH Road per se, yet I know that Rockhouse Bottom Road along the Tennessee River, just two miles from HGH Road, will be a primary SRT route.
The Singing River Trail will be a 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.
The SRT will prominently feature the Refuge. As a lifelong devotee of hiking/sauntering, running, biking, and Nature exploration, I envision another Great Blue Heron weekly photo essay series focused on The Nature of the Singing River Trail. I will incorporate individual essays into my routine Posts that total approximately 450 to-date (archived and accessible at: https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/). I offer these photo essays related to my WNWR wanderings as the beginning of the new component series. Watch for more!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/IMG_6288.jpg-02.08.25-HGH-Road-WNWR-Spiral-Design.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-05-07 14:04:302025-05-07 14:04:30Winter Dormant Season Wonders in a Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Bottomland Forest
I am pleased to add the 44th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.
January Fungi Discoveries
I spent January 23 and 24, 2025, at Joe Wheeler State Park primarily to learn more about the 1930s Wheeler Dam Village (housing construction workers and their families) and the 1930s to early 1950s Recreation Area remains along the CCC Trail on the hillside above Wheeler Dam overlooking Wilson Lake, which lies just downstream of Wheeler Dam. This photo essay reports on mushrooms I photographed as we performed our intended archeological pursuits.
I am not a mycologist. I am simply a fungi hobbyist and edible wild mushroom enthusiast. Lumpy bracket mushrooms densely occupy this fallen hickory. Their nearly luminescent whiteness evidences freshness; algae have not yet darkened their surfaces. They are not edible due to their hard, woody nature. Located within the old Recreation Area, English ivy proliferates as a ground cover. The ivy-mushroom combination (right) presents an aesthetic package.
This is another Trametes species (aesculi), which like lumpy bracket is a saprophyte (consumes dead wood). It is an agent of decomposition, not a parasite that infects and decays living trees.
Pseudoinonotus (dryadeus?) is a bracket fungus with inedible fibrous flesh. The genus commonly grows at the base of oak trees infected by its wood-consuming hyphae. My forest pathology professor would have characterized this genus as a disease when I took the course in 1972…more than a half-century ago. I admit to needing a forest pathology update! Just yesterday (I’m drafting this on April 9, 2025) I wandered through a bottomland hardwood forest on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Conks, brackets, burls, hollows, catfaces, rusts, scars, and and other disfigurements are ubiquitous. As with so much in Nature, the more I learn, the less I know!
What I do know is that a mushroom known as funeral bell is likely not edible!
And I do know that spore-ripe puffballs are fun for those of us who never age beyond finding mystery, joy, and amusement in the natural world. Einstein recognized the magic of wonder:
The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle.
Poofing puffballs never grows tiresome…and I refuse to age beyond enjoying such a simple pleasure.
Sure, I understand the biological function of ripening puffballs and the reproductive necessity of spore dissemination. Perhaps most importantly, I also know the basic tenet of foraging and consuming puffballs: The inside of edible puffball mushrooms should be solid and pure white, like a marshmallow, or fresh mozzarella balls (eartheplanet.org). Lord, give me a wet field loaded with giant puffballs at the perfect stage of purity. I will do the rest with sharp knife, a light flour coating, seasoning salt, wide skillet, and sizzling butter. Oh, the wonders of Nature!
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. A single trek along a forested trail discloses only a brief moment in time, obscuring the decades prior and the future ahead, isolating us from the scope and scale of the grand forest cycle of life. Albert Einstein captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the Wonder of decay and renewal:
He who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
Alabama State Parks Foundation
I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition 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.
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/IMG_6138.jpg-01.23.25-CCC-Trail-JWSP-scaled.webp25601920Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-04-22 10:06:062025-04-22 10:06:06Brief-Form Post #44: January Fungi Discoveries along the CCC Trail at Alabama's Joe Wheeler State Park
On March 8, 2025, at the request of local history buff Gilbert White, I visited the Mooresville, Alabama Cemetery as a group of a dozen friends of the 200-year-old graveyard (Madison History Association) cleared brush and storm debris. I snapped photographs and recorded brief videos to develop a photo essay with observations and reflections. I developed a tale of the multi-tiered web of life and death (Nature and Human) intersecting across this hallowed land, a permanent resting place for more than 100 deceased former residents. Volume One introduces the historic cemetery and sets the stage for the two succeeding volumes.
The story of Mooresville Cemetery encompasses several components:
The overlapping natural environment and human community over time and generations.
A deeper view into the elements of interaction and overlap.
The macabre (and lighter) dimension of an old forested cemetery.
Another story along the fledgling 200+ mile Singing River Trail.
I’d like you to please watch for subsequent Great Blue Heron photo essays (The Nature of the Singing River Trail) I will feature as whistle stops along the fledgling 200+-mile trail.
I viewed the burial ground as a provocative subject. The town is historic:
Historic Mooresville, Alabama is the first town incorporated by the Alabama Territorial Legislature, on November 16, 1818. The entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of Alabama’s most important and intact villages. Historic homes and buildings, gracious gardens, and tree-shaded streets make a visit to Mooresville seem like a step back in time.
I beamed myself back to 1822, when the first documented burial took place on the grassy knoll three hundred yards southeast of the town. Young trees grace the heights, still too young to cast shade over memorial services. Albert Einstein granted me the means to travel back two centuries:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
I often speculate in these posts about the past from reading today’s forests. Borrowered from an online file, this image depicts the Mooresville Cemetery site as I picture its grassy knoll 200 years ago.
This monument welcomes visitors today. The background trees are not leaning to the south (left); I tilted the photograph to righten the leaning stone.
The crew labored for two hours. Their work made a dent in restoring order to a sunny hilltop long ago captured by time and a relentlessly advancing forest.
I often observe in these photo essays that life and death are constant, cyclical companions in our forests. Humans have added an overlapping dimension of life and death to the cemetery hilltop. The forest tells its own story. Each tombstone, every unmarked rectangular depression, and every echo of human memorial service, graveside visit, and fading memory, jubilation, and grief combine to reach across the two centuries. I felt the presence of others as I criss-crossed the knoll.
I wondered whether this fallen shagbark hickory bore witness to teary-eyed ceremonies, grieving loved ones, and soothing spring mornings.
I recorded this 57-second video of the uprooted tree:
I’ve studied our northern Alabama forests enough to know that neither the red oak (left) nor the shagbark hickory (right) witnessed the first 70-90 years of burials. They most likely were no more than seedlings or saplings when Wheeler Dam engineers closed the gates that flooded the adjacent Limestone Bay in the 1930s.
How many interred former Mooresville bones did this crashing oak rattle when it succumbed to undeafeated gravity?
What manner of disturbance did this decades-old hickory tree lightning blast create among the lingering spirits? Resident squirrels and other critters relying upon tree cavities celebrated as fungi infected and enlarged the wound and the tree survived the electrical insult. Life and death hand in hand — the cycle of renewal and demise persisting!
The cavity the critters appreciated served for how long…before the hollow they valued yielded to forces beyond the woody rind’s ability to hold the tree aloft?
Maria Rakoczy, The Madison Record news writer, worked feverishly with loppers across an area dominated by flat monuments.
Imagine the cleared summit view northwest into Mooresville (left) and southwest into Limestone Bay (fed by Limestone Creek, Mooresville Spring, Piney Creek, and Beaverdam Creek) two centuries ago. Mooresville’s checkerboard streets, homes, the brick church belltower, and the 200-acre Bay would have been visible, unobstructed by the invading forest. Today only the deep dormant season allows a glimpse without imagination.
I observe often that every tree and each forest grove has a story to tell. The tales told at the Mooresville Cemetery are overlain by layers of deep memories and generations past.
I recorded this 59-second video of a poignant, heart-rending tombstone message:
Margaret Alice Morris’ engraved tombstone (An angel visited the green earth and took the flower away) occupied a grassy hill (now a closed-canopy forest) above Limestone Bay.
As I said at the outset, the story of Mooresville Cemetery encompasses several components:
The overlapping natural environment and human community over time and generations.
A deeper view into the elements of interaction and overlap.
The macabre dimension of an old forested cemetery.
Another story along the fledgling 200+ mile Singing River Trail.
I’ve taken us through chapters one and part of two. I’ll begin Volume Two where this one ends.
The Nature of the Singing River Trail
The Singing River Trail will be a 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.
The SRT is headquartered just two miles west of the cemetery. The trail will prominently feature Mooresville. As a lifelong devotee of hiking/sauntering, running, biking, and Nature exploration, I envision anew Great Blue Heron weekly photo essay series focused on The Nature of the Singing River Trail. I will incorporate individual essays into my routine Posts that total approximately 450 to-date (archived and accessible at: https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/). I offer this essay as an orientation to the new series.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Life and death sustain a natural forest over time; a human cemetery within adds deeper complexity and layers of sentiment, emotion, and memories.
Natural processes overtake all traces of human habitation in the absence of intervention and maintenance. Even a north Alabama graveyard yields to forest.
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. I saw an aging forest and felt my own mortality, yet embraced the comprehension of both.
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/IMG_6661.jpg-03.08.25-Mooresville-Cemetary.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-04-08 10:28:392025-04-08 10:28:39Mooresville, Alabama Cemetary: A New Dimension to Life and Death in the Forest! [Volume One]
I am pleased to add the 43rd of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.
On January 17, 2025, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I visited Beaverdam Creek Boardwalk, a National Natural Landmark at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge near Huntsville, Alabama. Accept this Post as a visual photo essay, rich with dormant season imagery and light on science-based interpretation. Take a relaxing saunter through the forest with us. Flow with our boardwalk pace; view our stroll as a forest bathing. I offer this brief-form post with 16 photos and five less-than-one-minute videos, keeping my narrative intentionally abbreviated.
The tupelo stand pulls us in…and up!
I recorded this 58-second video tour among crowded stems, slanted sunrays, and mesmerizing crowns.
The boardwalk ends at Beaverdam Creek flowing toward Limestone Bay and Lake Wheeler.
I never tire of the endless reflections afforded the patient viewer and the soulful thinker. The placid water surficial images reward me visually and fill me with spiritual and emotional fuel.
I recorded this 58-second video of sunshine filling the tupelo forest.
Some tree seeds (like maple) are wind-blown. Oak trees rely upon squirrels for seed dispersal. Birds scatter cherry seeds. Tupelo seeds lie thick on the forest floor, awaiting winter rains filling the swamp to lift them into floating mats, transporting them downstream.
I recorded this 58-second video of Beaverdam Creek at the boardwalk’s terminus.
Leonardo da Vinci recognized the true Nature of water 500 years ago:
Water is the driving force of all nature.
Tree Oddities and Curioisities
Persimmon trees occupy a wide range of site types, from well-drained uplands to the bottomland forests adjacent to the tupelo swamp. Their dark blocky bark, complemented by the regimented horizontal yellow-bellied sapsucker drill holes, fascinates me, pleasing my eyes and warming my heart. Visual delicacy made all the more sweet by fall persimmon fruit suitable for all manner of wildlife as well as human wanderers.
Shouting a subtle do-not-touch alert, this thick mane of poison ivy air roots suffices even absent the “shiny leaves of three” growing season warning.
The ancient tupelo trees populating the swamp are declining, decay advancing at pace (perhaps faster) than the annual rate of stem diameter increment. Life and death spar, advance, and retreat in our north Alabama forests. This magnificent tupelo forest will one day yield to the inevitable undefeated forces of Nature.
However, there will be no end…only a new beginning…a cycle without completion.
Fungal Friends
Decay and decomposition carry the burden of cleanup, recycling organic matter from carbon residue to the stuff of new life. Stinking orange oyster fungus is just one species of fungus performing the forest floor heavy lifting!
This 47-second video captures its magic.
I can’t resist more photos of stinking oyster mushrooms, its moniker worthy of repeated exposure.
These standard white/pearl oyster mushrooms are one of my culinary favorites. Collection of any sort within the protected National Natural Landmark is prohibited. Taking photos is permissible!
Here is my 23-second video of the edible oyster mushrooms.
The towering tupelo trees throughout our forests, the hollowing aging trunks, the seed mats, and the vibrant decomposing fungi remind us that life and death are at play
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. A single trek along a forested trail discloses only a brief moment in time, obscuring the decades prior and the future ahead, isolating us from the scope and scale of the grand forest cycle of life. Henry David Thoreau captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the Wonder of decay and renewal:
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/IMG_6001.jpg-01.17.24-Tupelo-Crowns-Beaverdam.webp15441158Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-03-18 15:08:132025-03-18 15:08:13Brief Form Post #43 -- January Afternoon Saunter along the Beaverdam Creek Boardwalk
