healing Archives - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

Posts

Late Summer Revelation and Confusion (mine!) in a WNWR Bottomland Forest

December 23, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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

The Meadow at Pennsylvania’s Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area

December 18, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area, owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), is located 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 our passages (out from the trailhead and back) through a goldenrod-dominated autumn meadow.

The 243 acre Natural Area includes several distinct ecosystems: meadow; forest/field ecotone; upland forest, forested riparian zone; and the immediate Slippery Rock Creek. I like the openess of the meadow, accenting the vibrant autumn sky above. Meadows are temporary landscape features unless managed to short-circuit the natural successional impetus to transition to forest cover. I am not sure whether the ash sapling in the photo at right was planted or is a volunteer.

The perennial herbacious cover is dense, ideal for songbirds, small mammals, snakes, and other critters. As I drafted this text on December 2, 2025, western Pennsylvania was reporting several inches of fresh snow. I imagine diverse wildlife hunkered in the tangled vegetation beneath the snow.

I recorded this 58-second video in the luscious goldenrod meadow.

I can’t resist the image of goldenrod backdropped by the fall sky. The air, comfortable and clear, cut through my North Alabama mental fatigue with a long summer and a September dry spell. This a meadow still fresh, blooming, and vibrant, awaiting a first freeze, autumn rains, and an impending deep winter rest.

Hiking the meadow with Matt, sharing the autumn sunshine and exploration, reminded me of Einstein’s view of extending our life-reach beyond our own fleeting existence:

Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. (Albert Einstein)

Some videos express the essence of a special place better without narration. I recorded this 59-second video focusing on the sounds of autumn breezes and late season insects.

An ideal stage for late season bloomers, the meadow celebrates the end of a full summer of generous meadow sunshine with goldenrod, New England aster, and smooth blue aster. Bright flowers will greet the icy fingers certain to come.

Supplemental wildlife accoutrements (a bluebird nesting box) enrich the meadow bird habitat.

As does the bat house at the meadow/forest edge.

I compliment the LConservancy for both the artificial nesting structures and the excellent interpretive signage.

Pear leaf crabapple is both an excellent wildlife food source and an early meadow colonizer in the successional steps toward natural forest regeneration.

The same is true of northern arrowwood. Both species are prolific producers of fruit that wildlife consumes, digestively scarifies its seeds, and disseminates to enable further colonization.

Two red oaks (left) and numerous sycamore saplings represent the advancing forest along the meadow’s north flank, which is a separate ecotone, neither meadow or forest. View the oak and sycamore saplings as scouts from the advancing forest army. Imagine a squierrel caching an acorn in rich soil under the goldenrod, and then losing track of it. The acorn sprouts with spring’s warmth. The seedling oak flourishes in full sunlight, partially protected by the 4-6-foot-high meadow vegetation from deer and rabbit browsing. The oaks are now out of easy reach of the hungry mammals. This day’s northwesterly breezes may be carrying windborne sycamore seed, potentially extending the forest deeper into the meadow.

The scouts will give way to an outright forest invasion. This isn’t the forest successionary army’s first rodeo. Just 13,000 years ago, the vast continental ice sheet yielded to a warming climate. Hundreds of millions of acres of once fertile and forested land emerged from the deep icepack barren and stark, stretching from the former ice edge near here far into the sub-Arctic Canadian Shield. That wild expanse, now ruchly forested, attests to Nature’s capacity to reclaim devastated territory, whether blasted by Mt. Saint Helens (1980), incinerated by the Big Burn (1910 in Washington, Idaho, and Montana), or savagely innundated by tropical storm remnants flushing western North Carolina river bottomland forests (The Great Flood of 1916). A beautiful postage stamp upland meadow in modern day Butler County Pennsylvania is just a bump in the road for an advancing vegetative front intent on expanding a forest.

I recorded this 59-second video at the meadow/woodland edge ecotone.

The real challenge falls to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy managers. How do they hold the forest at bay, if indeed that is their objective, which I hope it is. I appreciate and value ecosystem diversity. I won’t attempt to recommend a treatment scenario. I have little relevant expertise, beyond thinking that fire may be among the alternatives.

I do know that the common garter snake we spotted in the meadow depends on the meadow ecotype, as do many other wildlife species.

How long will the meadow survive as a unique ecosystem without management practices, like bush-hogging, prescribed fire, selective herbicide treatments, and other alternatives? No matter where my Nature wanderings take me, I discover a constant: Nothing in Nature is Static. Nothing remains the same. In this case, human intervention will be necessary to keep the meadow…a meadow.

I often turn to John Muir for words that succinctly capture my sentiments…far better than my own feelings. Of my passion for the meadow, I turn to Muir:

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Nothing in Nature is Static. Nothing remains the same. (Steve Jones)
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. (John Muir)
Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

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

Subscribe to these free weekly Nature Blogs (photo essays) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief-Form Post #52: Late October Afternoon Scouting for Eagles and Nests at Lake Guntersville State Park!

December 15, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 52nd 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.

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhligher and I visited Lake Guntersville State Park (LGSP) on October 23, 2025, to scout a scheduled spring 2026 eagle view outing for the University of Alabama in Huntsville Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). The LGSP map in hand, we stopped by several indicated locations. I present an overview of our afternoon ramblings, keeping the narrative brief and technically superficial.

The eagle at the lodge set the tone for our scouting venture.

We enjoyed lunch at the lodge restaurant, our table overlooking the lake.

Cabins Shoreline

Our first suggested viewing spot was the shoreline adjacent to the cabins. We were to search the opposite bank for a summer-foliage-obscured nest. We did not find it, yet we spotted a pair of eagles soaring above us, an adult and an immature.

The photo at left shows the opposite shoreline, where the eagle’s nest, we were assured, lies hidden to our eyes. Regradless, who could not appreciate the cerulean sky, bright sunshine, and comfortable early autumn temperature!

Here is my 58-second video from the cabins lakeshore.

I’m a sucker for tall loblollies and shoreline vistas.

I wanted to revisit the nearby Cave Trail, hoping to quickly photograph the oak burled in the distinctive Big Foot image.

Brief Saunter at the Cave Trail

Here is my July 18, 2018 photo:

I intended to insert the new image here. However, just as there are days when I cannot remember what I had for lunch the day before, I failed to navigate us back the the infamous tree! I will try another day when we have more time for frivality. However, in searching, I did find a very unattractive, yet photo-worthy canker along the Cave Trail.

I recorded this 58-second grotesque Halloween canker video on an elm tree.

I sampled a twig from the elm and offer a still photo.

Town Creek Boat Launch

Our second viewing location forced us to look across the lake directly into the late afternoon sun. We imagined how much better the spot would be with the morning sun at our backs. However, the location kindly presented us with a great blue heron buffeted by persistent winds and surrounded by whitecaps.

I recorded this 59-second video of the windy great blue heron. Pardon the wind drowning out my narrative.

Unfortunately, the heron took graceful flight when I stopped recording.

As regular readers know, I am a huge fan of great blue herons.

Sunset Drive Greenway in Guntersville, Alabama

We drove to a final suggested site, this one off the State Park along Sunset Drive Greenway in the town of Guntersville. The shoreline and greenway are lovely. I intend to visit with Judy during the coming months, to enjoy a mid-morning stroll followed by lunch in Guntersville.

A highlight for such a stroll will be the massive eagle’s nest in a grand loblolly pine.

My 60-second Sunset Drive Eagle’s Nest.

Ours was not an outing requiring months of planning, air travel, and expensive lodging. We needed no reservations. Instead, we boarded Chris’ car after adjouring our 10:00 to 11:30 AM National Parks (LearningQuest) class session at Hampton Cove, drove 45 minutes to the park, grabbed lunch at the lodge, and began our scouting. I am a firm advocate of enjoying Nature near at hand…making the most of special places and everyday 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.

I cannot offer a quote more poignantly apropos than this anonymous statement:

The strength of the bald eagle lies not just in its wings, but in its unyielding spirit…its symbol of purity, grandeur, wildness, mastery, freedom, independence, integrity, and Americanism.

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

The Northern Hardwood Forest at Pennsylvania’s Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area

December 11, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area, owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), is located 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. I focus this photo essay on the exquisite old-growth northern hardwood forest.

My heart soared at the prospect of returning to an ecosystem shaped by a continental ice sheet just 13 millennia ago. The absolute freshness and newness stimulate wild conjecture and total admiration for Nature’s rapid recovery from thousands of feet of ice.

The Western PA Conservancy provided an online description:

Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area is particularly known for its spectacular display of spring wildflowers. An active floodplain, mature northern hardwood forest, and scenic cliffs make this property one of WPC’s most popular. It is believed that the steep, narrow gorge of Wolf Creek Narrows originally formed when the ceiling of an ice-age cave eroded and collapsed due to runoff from the melting glacier. The site now consists of a high-quality stream meandering through towering 50-foot cliffs. These natural processes, including annual flooding and ice scouring, as well as limited human activities, have resulted in diverse natural communities.

We have lots of karst topography and abundant caves in my present home range of northern Alabama, but nothing so exciting as ice-age caves and ice scouring!

The meadow trail below led into the deep forest.

Okay, I’ve opened the portal to Wolf Creek Narrows. Now comes the tough part. How do I package 31 photos and two brief videos into a Post digestible within 15-minutes? Species resident to the Allegheny Hardwood forests of my 1984-85 NW PA and SW NY PhD field research welcomed me with warm and comforting embrace.

I’ve found that brief videos tell a richer tale than still photographs and written narrative. I recorded this 58-second video within the mixed forest. I hope that I’ve stimulated your interest in this special place.

The Narrows and Wolf Creek lie beyond the forest edge.

Matt stands six-feet tall, behind a 30-inch diameter American beech. The red oak beyond the beech (at left) is nearly 40-inches in diameter.

You don’t need my narrative to appreciate the beauty, magic, inspiration, and awe of this park-like northern hardwood wonderland.

Take a look heavenward into this cathedral forest canopy.

I love the deep shade and open understory far below.

I frequently lead or co-lead organized woodland Nature excursions (saunters) in parks, preserves, refuges, and sanctuaries near my Madison, Alabama home. Like John Muir, I prefer sauntering in the woods…abhoring hurrying through the forest. I noticed that Oakley takes the same approach, sniffing and scenting her way within the woods, reading the signs, never missing an olfactory clue. My iPhone camera substitutes for scenting. So much of what I seek in Nature lies hidden in plain sight. I believe my own joy in discovery matches Oakley’s!

I can’t imagine Oakley concerned with steps, miles, time elapsed, or other metrics. For her, each sniff tells a tale. My objective is to learn from every Nature venture, intent upon constructing a meaningful tale in form of a photo essay like this one.

In fact, my retirement mission, practiced in these Posts, is to: Employ writing (and photography) to educate, inspire, and enable readers and viewers to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

I keep my nose fine-tuned for sniffing tree form oddities and curiosities. A living, deeply decayed, cankered intermediate canopy sugar maple forced me to snap photographs of both the canker and the brown mushrooms above. How long ago did the fungus (or fungi) infect the sugar maple? How long will the tree survive? Death is a big part of life in the forest, whether west-central Pennsylvania or Alabama’s Tennessee River Valley.

Again, so much in Nature lies hidden in plain sight. Oakley discovered untold olfactory treasures. Most un-attuned hikers would not have seen, understood, and appreciated the visual treasures I encountered in our brief morning excursion. Allow me now to superficially catalog the more notable main canopy tree species.

Diverse Species Introductions

With little need for extensive narrative, I offer photos expressing the forest’s dominant upper canopy tree species. Yellow poplar reigns supreme at Wolf Creek Narrows, just as the species rules the high canopy at my favorite deep forest stand along the Wells Memorial Trail in Alabama’s Monte Sano State Park.

I recorded this 59-second video of the forest’s mixed species.

I conducted my doctoral field research in the Allegheny Hardwood forests within 80 miles of Wolf Creek…forests dominated by black cherry. I revere the species for its beautiful high grade furniture wood, superior height growth, straight form, and handsome bark and foliage. The white-trail-marked black cherry (image below right) delivered a message meant for me. The species marked my professional development re-route. I worked 12 years after earning my Forestry BS for a southern paper and allied products manufacturing company that relied heavily on loblolly pine, a utility species here in the Southeast. Black cherry is anything but a utility species. It’s the filet mignon of furniture grade timber. Black cherry served as the North Star for my second career launch. The big white-blazed cherry signaled that the species remains a major emblem and totem for my path well into retirement. Among my fellow Union Camp foresters, I chose the path less traveled…one lined by black cherry trees (the other edged by loblolly pine) leading to a PhD and 35 years at nine universities.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

(Robert Frost)

American beech and yellow birch reminded me of my love for northern hardwood forests.

Basswood (tree and leaves) also ranges into northern Alabama, but the entire mixed species forest package at Wolf Creek represents a special orchestration that strokes my psyche and lifts my entire body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit. The assemblage reached me as Art Garfunkel belting his full-bodied Bridge Over Troubled Waters!

Black walnut tree and nut.

Bitternut hickory.

And nut.

Cucumber tree and leaf.

Red oak, deep memories, and an older gent feeling young-at-heart experiencing a symbolic step into his past…at home in a place he’d never been before.

Forests like this netted me decades ago, never completely allowing release. I think of Robert Service’s The Spell of the Yukon:

The freshness, the freedom, the farness–

O God! how I’m stuck on it all.

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

And I want to go back–and I will.

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

It’s the forest where silence has lease;

It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

Some of me remains in the Far Northland of Alaska, where we lived 2004-08. Service nailed the place and my sentiment. In similar fashion, vestiges of these magnificent northern hardwood forests habituate my psyche. I want to go back–and I will, if only to the nearby Wells Memorial Trail, a suitable southern version of a rich upland forest.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

The rich northern hardwood forest is an orchestral composition, a natural Bridge Over Troubled Waters. (Steve Jones)
Black Cherry is a trail marker species, both a literal guide through the Wolf Creek Narrows forest…and a career/life path symbol and guidepost for me. (Steve Jones)
Mine is a story of passion for place and everyday Nature. (Steve Jones)

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

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

Subscribe to these free weekly Nature Blogs (photo essays) 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

Piney Run on the Allegheny Front in Western Maryland: Reminiscing on a Special Place

November 25, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Judy and I returned to our homeland in Western Maryland to attend the rehearsal and wedding for Judy’s great-nephew (her sister’s daughter’s son) on August 1 and 2, 2025. The venue was the Back Barn at Piney Run, located on the Allegheny Front in Garrett County, at an elevation of approximately 2,800 feet. I resided and performed forest inventory for two summers (1970 and 1971) on the nearby 52,000-acre Savage River State Forest. In my view then…and now…the upper elevations of Garrett County are Heaven-on-Earth! I love her terrain, forests, weather, and firmament.

Co-author Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit and I published Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature, which aptly characterizes my feelings toward special places. My story of Garrett County and its State Forest is undoubtedly one of passion. I cherish my memories of the place and my introduction to a central element (forest inventory) of forestry practice.

I recorded this 59-second video reflecting on this Heaven-on-Earth wonderland!

I’ll employ this Brief-Form Post to highlight sentiments stirred by our t00-condensed August 2025 visit. Visibility reached the horizon across rolling fields and woodlots. A split rail fence added character and ambience. What you can’t see in the images is the low humidity, fresh breeze, and upper-60s midday temperatures, blessedly much lower than what is typical back in northern Alabama. Breathing deeply, the scenery and feel whisked me back to my young adulthood.

I recorded this 60-second video to emphasize the glory of the afternoon.

Low-base clouds scurried across the hills, rewarding us with contrasting shades of grey, white, and blue. I wanted a lounge chair and far more time than festivities, chores, and familial socializing allowed.

Even the multitudinous shades of green strutted their stuff, their palette richly deepening as sunset approached.

I present a third brief video echoing my sentiments about this special place and its everyday Nature!

Some photo images require no narrative.

The split rail fence harkens to a time long ago. I view the countryside as timeless, unchanged in the half-century since the forester-in-training cruised the forests of Savage River.

The Back Barn venue served the occasion well. I hope the newlyweds’ embrace persists as long as this special place has gripped my heart.

Monarch Domain

A patch of milkweed bordered the cornfield adjacent to the grassy parking area. I wished safe travels to the adults who will transit to Central America before fall leads to winter.

Wild carrot complemented the wedding veil theme!

Windmills on the Ridge

I saw scores of windmills across the highland front in both Maryland and adjacent Pennsylvania. Are these 90-meters-to-hub mechanical monstrosities a solution or just another facet of rushing too quickly to adopt a fix-of-the-moment? Fewer than half of the rotors were spinning. Is that a typical percent utilization? You probably noticed my applying the term monstrosities, suggesting my present day bias. These things are ugly! I see them as scars upon the pastoral landscape…blemishes on the countenance of my special place! Have we prematurely abandoned nuclear in favor of wind? Is coal the evil that some people consider it? Is human-induced climate change truly an existential threat to modern human civilization? Our climate prediction models are not reliable, yet we place tremendous trust in their declarations of unprecedented consequence.

Just 13,000 years ago, these rolling hills, transformed by periglacial climate owing to a massive continental ice sheet less than 100 miles to the north, stood 400 feet higher above sea level than they do today. The ice age abated; the ice sheet melted; correspondingly, the sea level rose some 400 feet…all of these planet-altering results occurred naturally, long before the era of fossil fuel powered industrialization.

I write in my introduction to Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: I am sounding a clarion call to understand and appreciate our relationship to Earth and our imperative to act accordingly. Mine is not a perspective of doom and gloom; others have followed that route and fallen short of the destination. I am not ready to endorse wholesale, sole reliance on renewable energy, but that is a topic for another day. I will say only that my special place is diminished. I am not assured that the solution is worth the economic, social, environmental, and aesthetic price. Rash action is the folly of fools.

I offer the counsel of Albert Einstein and Galileo Galilei:

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods. (Albert Einstein 1879-1955)
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. (Galileo Galilei 1564-1642)

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Breathing deeply, the scenery and feel whisked me back to my young adulthood. (Steve Jones)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. (Aldo Leopold)
Even the multitudinous shades of green strutted their stuff, their palette richly deepening as sunset approached. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief Form Post #49: Lessons and Observations from a Maryland Mountain Hardwood Forest Fire

November 17, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 49th 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 July 29, 2025, my grandson, Jack (then 17), and I hiked the Evitts Mountain Homestead Trail at Western Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park, ascending 1,100 feet to the summit of Evitts Mountain, a six-mile round trip. A mile from the parking area, an extensive burned area rose uphill on the east side of the mountain. The trail, an old jeep road, obviously served as an effective fire break. I estimated that the fire burned within the past three years, running hot enough to kill at least half of the upland hardwood (oak-hickory) main canopy trees and all of the understory trees and shrubs.

A hardwood forest fire of this intensity occurs only under special circumstances, generally a very windy spring day after forest ground surface fuel has dried. One may think intuitively that autumn’s leaf litter would be more likely to burn. High winds with low humidity occur more often in the spring. Autumn seldom brings the intense dry winds that follow a late spring cold front. By mid to late April in these Central Appalachian forests, the prior year’s leaf litter and fine fuels cure rapidly. In late April of 2016, such a day in nearby west-central Pennsylvania saw nearly 10,000 acres of hardwood forest burn, the largest Pennsylvania forest conflagration in 26 years.

I imagined such a day triggering the fire leaving the evidence I observed. The fire left an impression of a wildfire racing up the slope consuming understory and killing overstory trees, a fire more intense than I would expect from a prescribed fire.

However, my online search discovered a November 7, 2022, announcement (Cumberland Times-news.com) of a planned 90-acre prescribed fire in the park on the east slope of Evitts Mountain, the location where I snapped these photographs and recorded the video. Excerpts from the notice:

Controlled burns for forest and wildlife habitat management are always conducted with safety as the top priority. Burn staff are trained practitioners who monitor the weather leading up to and during a burn to ensure the fire remains at the desired intensity and smoke is carried up and away from roads and homes. If the required conditions for temperature, humidity, moisture levels, cloud cover, and wind are not met or they unexpectedly change, the burn will be postponed.

Foresters and ecologists recognize that fire is a critical ecological process for many environments, including the typical Appalachian forests of oaks, hickories and pines that cover most of western Maryland. Since the 1930’s however, a lack of fire has unintentionally harmed forest health.

The controlled burn at Rocky Gap State Park is being conducted to help a variety of fire-adapted native tree and plant species, including table mountain pine (which needs fire to regenerate), pitch pine, oak trees, blueberries, huckleberries, and many native wildflowers. A more open forest will also improve habitat for birds, bats, and other animals, while also making it harder for destructive pests like pine beetles to travel between trees.

Another significant benefit of controlled burns is the reduction of dry wood and organic matter on the forest floor that build up over time, which then reduces the likelihood and severity of dangerous wildfires.

Part of the controlled burn will also be conducted through the use of an ignition drone, which allows a drone operator to drop incendiary devices on the interior of the burn site. This not only results in a more precise ignition pattern, but also reduces the need for crew members to traverse difficult terrain near the active burn.

Unfortunately, I found no online commentary or YouTube videos of the fire or its results. Clearly, I view the burn rationale and intent as well-reasoned. The results, a full two growing seasons after the November 2022, prescribed fire, suggest that the burn exceeded the planned level of intensity. Too many main canopy oaks succumbed. Survivors suffered basal scarring that will allow heart rot to infect.

I’d like to see an official assessment of the burn. How do results compare to purpose and expectations?

I recorded this 58-second video of the burn area above the trail.

Midway through the third growing season after the burn, some areas (left) remain mostly barren of regrowth. Other areas, like the two photos above the video and the image at right show robust understory resurgence, including tree regeneration.

The stand beyond Jack shows the desired intact overstory and vigorous regeneration.

At my request, Jack ascended 75 feet above the trail to capture these images of the uphill side of a sawlog-size chestnut oak. Because leaf litter and fine fuels aggregate on the uphill side of trees, the fire burned hotter in the concentrated debris, killing the cambium. Witness the mushrooms from decay fungi already infecting the tree that is otherwise undamaged.

A closeup of the colony of decay fungi mushrooms.

We found a number of trees below the road that showed deep decay and hollowing of oak trees similarly scarred on their upslope side from a fire decades earlier.

Controlled fire can be a valuable tool for forest management:

During my 12 years with Union Camp Corporation (1973-1985), I oversaw prescribed burning on tens of thousands of acres, including a single day in Alabama when we ignited 4,300 acres, intentionally (by aerial ignition) and under control. Like all tools, the use of fire requires careful planning, responsible and informed implementation, and post-treatment assessment and learning. Again, I would like to see the review of this particular prescribed fire.

I will not pass judgement. I wasn’t there. I refuse to criticize. I can only posit that the result does not appear to have yielded what was intended.

All of us who have accomplished much, have missed our mark, fallen short, or failed from time to time. Always, our intentions were sound:

A good intention, with a bad approach, often leads to a poor result. (Thomas A. Edison)

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. (Samuel Johnson)

Over my career, I missed 9,000 shots; I was on the losing side of nearly 300 games; on 26 occasions when my teammates entrusted me to take the last minute winning shot, I missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again, and that’s why I succeeded. (Michael Jordan)

I hope the various agency planners and pratitioners learned from the November 2022 prescribed fire.

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. Thomas Edison implored that good intentions must be matched with a good approach. Russell Stevens focused his related admonition to prescribed burning:

Prescribed fire is a process and should be well planned to safely accomplish desired goals. (Noble Research Institute)

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

Part Two 175-Year-Old C&O Canal Pawpaw Tunnel Hill Trail

November 5, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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

Brief-Form #48 : Demons, Ogres, Wraiths, Ghouls, and Other Halloween Forest Spectres!

October 31, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 48th 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.

Happy Halloween!

I wander (and wonder) in North Alabama’s forests during daylight hours. Even in full sunlight, I encounter spooky sights, sounds, and situations. Were I marauding the sylvan haunts in darkness, I might be more unsettled, deranged, and addled than I already am! Take a stroll with me among some of the weird forest demons, ogres, wraiths, and ghouls I’ve photographed since retiring to North Alabama.

I see an oaken dragon’s head — an eye, its ear, a smiling mouth, and a nostril. A friendly daytime image…but what visage materializes when we transition into deep dusk?

In the age of Harry Potter, a Whomping Chestnut Oak!

From my term as NC State University Vice Chancellor (2001-04), I see a red oak Wolfpack mascot!

A hickory-carved African tribal mask, its stern glance, forebodingly rigid brow, and flared nostril. Nothing amiable in that countenance!

A not-so-happy white oak’s wide mouth. How dare I trespass through his glen!

Reflecting the dark mood of the forest, one of Gary Larson’s best!

Trees can be unabashedly hostile, demonstrating their evil intent by devouring the human insult of posting metal signs. Beware!

A ram’s head awaits the unwary passer-by. Don’t bend over to tie that loose boot-lace!

This angry cycloptic black locust, glaring across the 200-year-old Mooresville Cemetery, sent a chill down my spine midday! There is no tolerance in that singular occular portal…malice prevails! My soul trembled.

I shivered standing within reach of the threatening smoke tree along the Green Mountain Halloween Forest Trail!

Fine literature expresses magic in words far more effectively than my photos and feeble narrative. Consider Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

There is nothing like the silence and loneliness of night to bring dark shadows over the brightest mind.

Startled by this bigfoot oak tree at Lake Guntersville State Park in 2018, I returned for a fresh photo on October 23, 2025, but could not find it. Where did it go? When might it reappear? Have any park guests been reported missing?

Grandson Sam and I risked life and limb under this creepy crawling oak carcass on Monte Sano State Park.

Most of these apparitions appeared when I’ve been alone. Would they have ventured forth were I sauntering with others? Perhaps being alone signals a confidence and power of which I was not aware. To be honest, I see far more when I wander alone. So much is hidden in plain sight. Companions can be a distraction…or at other times a visual catalyst. I embrace the wisdom in this poster. As a lifelong certifiable introvert, I accept the power and comfort of being alone!

I know that I am never truly alone in Nature. A mature white oak offered a branch stub stegosaurus head to greet me as I drifted past!

Among the strangest sights I’ve encountered are the bearded tupelo men in the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary tupelo swamp.

Wherever my life and living have taken me, I’ve cherished the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of woodland Nature. I find myself again and again.

Contrary to the dark Halloween theme, I prefer the mood and tone of Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

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 poignantly apropos than Washington Irving’s from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveler.

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

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

Brief-Form Post #47: Strange Bearded Tupelo Trees — Air Root Mysteries and Curiosities!

October 27, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 46th 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.

I frequent forest wildness wherever my excursions take me, searching for the beauty, magic, mystery, wonder, and awe that lie hidden in plain sight. This Post derives from years of experience, study, and contemplation, inspired by some recent discoveries (August 15 and October 14, 2025). My focus is on two examples of specialized tree roots.

Adventitious Water Roots

I published a GBH Post on September 17, 2025, chronicling a mid-August visit to Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary (the Sanctuary), reporting:

We found a puzzling phenomenon, 100-feet from the shore and out of our reach, on the upstream section of Jobala Pond. Two clearly living red maple trees (Acer rubrum), standing in water, called out to us with a pinkish circumferential ring 2-4″ immediately above the water line. I magnified the image up to the limits of resolution clarity, showing the fibrous nature of the feature. I shared via social media, generating speculation. Chris and I agree with several persons who suggested that the trees, attempting to survive the saturated soil environment, sprouted air roots above the water for supplemental aeration.

Niether of us, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I, had previously seen such a curiosity. I scoured the literature and found no succinct explanation. Note: Scoured the literature may be a little overstated! I looked, but it wasn’t like I was preparing my doctoral Literature Review. Shall I say, nothing relevant jumped out at me.

Then, lo and behold, just two months later while solo-exploring the dry-season water tupelo swamp on the Sanctuary, a Eureka moment surged from among the mosquito-infested early autumn dampness!

This three-foot diameter (dbh: diameter breast height) water tupelo, standing in persistent water in the dry-season swamp, evidenced that the winter water level reaches more than two feet higher. Although this stem stands out of my reach in my upland hiking boots, other nearby tupelos stood on dry season upland. And what a surprise to see a band of fibrous air roots ringing the high water marks.

Perseverance does indeed reward the patient and persistent Nature enthusiast. I did not visit the swamp intent on discovering the phenomenon; I went only to seek what delights might be hidden in plain sight! Even the literature opened slightly to my focused stealth…inquiring specifically of water tupelo air roots. I found:

LENTICEL AND WATER ROOT DEVELOPMENT OF SWAMP
TUPELO UNDER VARIOUS FLOODING CONDITIONS
DONALD. HOOK, CLAUD L. BROWN, AND PAUL P. KORMANIK
Forest Service, USDA, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, Athens, Georgia 30601; School of Forest Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30601; Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, Athens, Georgia 30601

Plant physiology is a is not a subject for the faint of heart, or well-suited to an old retired forest generalist. Suffice it for me to conclude:

Experts confirmed the existence of such a phenomenon.
The authors observed, Water roots developed primarily under continuous flooding in moving water, some apparently originating beneath the phellogen of a lenticel and others within the phellogen or its derivatives.
Chris and I correctly explained the curiosity we observed two months prior on the red maple trees standing in water at the edge of Jobala Pond.

I discovered another facet of delight. Dr. Paul Kormanik, the third listed author, was an acquaintance during my forest industry research period (1975-79), a half-century ago.

Leonardo da Vinci relied on observation and experience to inform reason. He would have applauded Chris and me:

Wisdom is the daughter of experience.
Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.

I recorded this 59-second video of what I termed incredible adventitious air root beards.

I loved the incredible adventitious root beards! Shall we call these trees the old men of the Tupelo Swamp? I plan to revisit when winter rains fill the sloughs.

Another Variety of Air Roots

Muscadine grape vines drape the bottomland forest at GSWS. I photographed these curtains of air roots south of the tupelo swamp. I’ve encountered the phenomenon in other wetland hardwood forests across northern Alabama. I presumed their purpose was to reach the ground (as these do), take root vegetatively, and provide propagation of their genotype. Now I am less than certain.

Once again, my uncertainty spurred additional literature scouring, if you will. A Mississippi State University Cooperative Extension on-line bulletin amplified my uncertainty:

Aerial root formation in Vitis has been documented on different grape species; however, the driving forces behind the formation of adventitious roots are not well understood.

So, where does that lead me? I have yet to document a case of the air roots sprouting regenerates when contacting the forest soil. I can suggest alternatively that thess drapes capture moist air condensation (swamp fog) to supplement aeration when soils are saturated. I pledge to continue observations and exploration, in the spirit of Albert Einstein:

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

One cannot help but be in awe when [one] contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.

In my realm of forest Nature exploration, I conclude: The more I learn, the less I know!

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 poignantly apropos than Albert Einstein’s:

One cannot help but be in awe when [one] contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.

I add my own bullet of Nature wisdom:

The more I learn, the less I know! (Steve Jones)

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

MD’s Rocky Gap State Park: Habeeb Lake and the Canyon

October 22, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On the morning of August 2, 2025, my son Matt, Alabama grandson Jack (17), and I hiked to the Canyon Overlook at Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park. We then visited the Habeeb Lake spillway and returned to the parking lot along the Lakeshore Trail. We enjoyed Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe hidden in plain sight along the trails. I dutifully captured the bounty with photographs, brief videos, observations, and reflections.

Habeeb Lake

I’ll begin with the 243-acre lake, which post-dated my high school era visits to what is now Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park.

The spillway cuts through its own geologic history written in sandstone strata. The view west from the dam shows the beginning of the canyon and the southern toe-slope of Evitts Mountain.

I recorded a 59-second video from the footbridge crossing the spillway.

The life-circle is rounding. I visited the park when I was 17. Matt visited with me when he was 17. Now he is there at age 48 with me and his sister’s 17-year-old son. They are a core element of what I consider Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe. The image of them and the lake speaks volumes to me on life and living.

Life is great; God is good!

Rocky Gap Canyon

I walked with friends to the canyon 57 summers ago (age 17), with no signage, just a crude path through the woods. All that has changed, but the canyon has not; it is still a marvelous natural gift.

The southern toe of Evitts Mountain, where Jack and I hiked four days prior, extends downhill from right to left. Rocky Gap Run flows past Evitts’ toe.

I reecorded this 59-second video of the gap.

I never tire of rocky crags and surrounding forests, whether back in Alabama or within the Appalachians into Pennsylvania, New York, and beyond.

The physical landscape remains constant. Rough and weathered sedimentary geology, trees rooted on steep hillsides, and ecosystems that change subtly over shorter segments, yet tremendously over the entire 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail.

Trees and Shrubs: Echoes from Decades Past

Table mountain pine’s range does not extend to Alabama. I encountered it often when I served as a forester’s aid on western Maryland’s Green Ridge State Forest between junior and senior undergraduate years. I found it mostly on xeric stony sites in ridge and valley Allegany County. Its form is gnarly, seldom growing straight and tall. Its needles are coarse and spiny. It finds anchorage in shallow soils.

Contrarily, white pine, whose range barely extends into northeast Alabama, grows well in western Maryland. Among the eastern US pine species, white pine is my favorite, especially on rich sites from the Smokey Mountains north intoPennsylvania, New York, and New England. Its history intertwine significantly with the birth of our nation.

The strength and size of Eastern White Pine is so renowned, it may have been a bigger factor in the start of the Revolutionary War than tea and taxes. King George I assumed ownership of the tallest Eastern White Pines in the forests of New England, appointing a legion of surveyors to mark their choices with a symbol of three hatchet slashes known as The King’s Broad Arrow. This indicated that they were for use by the British Royal Navy only. They were shipped back to Britain.

Already rankled over the issue of taxation on tea, many colonists whose livelihoods depended on Eastern White Pines disregarded the mark and harvested the trees anyway. When six mills in New Hampshire were searched for trees bearing The King’s Broad Arrow, the owners were charged with disobeying the King’s law, and many townspeople rioted in protest.

Some historians believe that this conflict was a key in bringing about the American Revolution and the first real acts of rebellion against British rule. The Eastern White Pine was such a potent symbol for colonists that it became the emblem emblazoned upon the first colonial flag. (Northeatern Lumber Manufacturers Association online)

Paraphrasing Aldo Leopold, I love pine trees, but I am in love with white pine!

I recorded this 58-second video highlighting white pine and hemlock.

Hemlock thrives in lower slope forests of Rocky Gap and vicinty.

Rhododrendron and mountail laurel likewise transported me to those halcyon days.

Black huckleberry evoked strong memories.

Black gum (aka sour gum and black tupelo) grows commonly from northern Pennsylvania deep into Alabama. The photo at left demonstrates the species’ tendency for lateral branches to extend at right angles to the bole. An insect injury on the leaf at right has discolored the leaf spot to its distinctive autumn red.

As is so often the case, I could have traipsed this forest for hours, discovering the riches hidden in plain sight.

Special Features

I like naturally expressive tree faces. A physical injury began the process, opening a portal for internal decay. A woodpecker excavating a nesting hollow. A squirrel gnawing edges to enlarge the opening. Both tree are actively callousing the edges in attempt to close the openings. The tree at left has successfully closed the left upper opening. The other tree has almost buttoned the lower hole.

Each of these red oaks can tell a story of your choosing. At left, I see two eyes, one covered by a patch; the other eye wide in surprise or amazement. Its mouth could not be more expressive! The one-eyed oak at right is fearful…deeply concerned. I categorize both inviduals as tree form oddities or curiosities. Our forests are rich with wonder, awe, and mystery.

I seldom explore Nature without detecting magic in plain sight, prompting deep thought and mirthful musings, igniting a burst of wild imagination. Albert Einstein, the preeminent theoretical physicist of the twentieth century elevated imagination above laborious scientific rumination:

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

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

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

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Pinchusion moss embraces a back oak base, bringing to mind a neck scarf on a breezy winter morn.

Orange jelly or orange witch’s butter (Dacrymyces chrysospermus) is a species of jelly fungus that grows on dead pine wood. Trail crews bucked the fallen pine to clear the trail, I’m estimating within the past two years. Already the fungus has infected the wood and is now producing spores to secure the future, a goal embraced by all organisms.

We saw two timber rattlesnakes sunning near the dam, this one more exposed than the other, a yellowish variety. The beautiful individual, sporting nine rattle buttons, kept its head behind a rock. I wanted a better image, yet not enough to stumble over the stones for a full-length image!

Such is the case with many subjects of my Nature exploration and photography…we must be satisfied with what she reveals. I know she unveils little to nothing if we do not venture into her realm. A fishing enthusiast friend reminded me often that there is one way to guarantee not catching a fish — stay home! My photo of a snake with hidden head, although not complete, came with a full-bodied set of memories. A first (and second) rattlesnake sighting nearby for my son and grandson. The depth of their awe and amazement, awakening some admitted level of primal fear. Their reaction to hearing the second one vigorously rattle an alert. My thrill in being there with them.

John Muir long ago captured the thrill:

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I never tire of rocky crags and surrounding forests, whether back in Alabama or within the Appalachians into Pennsylvania, New York, and beyond. (Steve Jones)
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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