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Brief-Form Post #68: Special Features above the Center Farmhouse at Graham Farm and Nature Center

October 6, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

[Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from June 10 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/06/10/curiosities-oddities-mysteries-and-seasonal-features-on-the-n-al-land-trusts-oak-park-trail/)]

I am pleased to add the 68th 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 Stuhlinger and I returned to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s Graham Farm and Nature Center on July 30, 2026, to scope and lay out a Tree and Shrub Identification Route. I previously reported that venture (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/09/29/scoping-a-tree-identification-trail-on-the-waterfall-loop-at-graham-farm-and-nature-center/). Join me virtually as we ascend to the proposed Tree, Shrub, and Vine Identification Trailhead. I collected additional photographs, a video, reflections, and observations distinct from the I.D. trail.

I appreciate the location and interpretive signage across the Center property. The I.D. lies 200 feet above the quaint cottage being prepared for overnight guest accommodation.

Nita’s View looks over the Larkin Creek and Paint Rock River Valleys from the cottage porch.

The Center property is indeed a special place!

Enamored with Tree Seed Production

The mowed grass trail ascends to the cottage from the farmhouse, residence of the family who transferred the farmland and adjoining mountain forest to ACES. It is now used as an historic GF&NC feature, along the edge of a naturally regenerated forest.

My undergraduate silviculture text, The Practice of Silviculture (1962, David Martyn Smith), describes the critical forestry sub-science:

Silviculture has been variously defined as: the art of producing and tending a forest; the application of the knowledge of silvics in the treatment of a forest; the theory and practice of controlling forest establishment, composition, and growth.

I thrill at contemplating tree seed production and forest regeneration, which after all is critical to the practice of silviculture. I include this quote from Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) in my salutation, closing every email I send:

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

This young black walnut tree extended its branches to us as we passed. Walnut is among our nation’s most valued hardwood species, its beautiful wood treasured for the high-quality furniture and paneling. Every eastern USA-trained forester feels heart rate surging when encountering a well-formed walnut tree or, in this case, a healthy young walnut tree already producing fruit, a walnut nearly at eye-level.

An osage orange tree stood nearby, its crown filled with softball-size hedge apples.

I recorded this 58-second video of osage orange fruit near the Nita’s View cabin.

Shining sumac also grows at the edge of the emerging woods adjacent to the mowed grass. Also known as winged sumac, dwarf sumac, and flameleaf sumac, the tree’s foliage is true to its name. The petioles are prominently winged. Could the green be any deeper?! The leaves shinier? The young seedheads more promising? Their current light burgundy hints at the impending stark red of autumn.

Carolina buckthorn, another shrub species common in naturally regenerating forests, sported similar glossy green leaves and red berries.

All living organisms, from the perspective of evolutionary biology, share a common, primary purpose of existence: survival and reproduction. Each species’ genes strive, through the machinery of bodies, to copy themselves into the future. It’s basic, fundamental, and primal, whether a primitive bacterium or a yellow poplar tree… or a Graham Farm and Nature Center black walnut, osage orange, shining sumac, or Carolina buckthorn.

A Wildlife Sidebar

I love Nature’s mysteries. Along the same wood-edge trail, I spotted two very distinct bare-soil depressions. I puzzled momentarily, and then an old synapse fired. Driving along the valley road within two miles of GF&NC, I spotted a few adult turkeys leading several poults at field edge. I recognized the depressions as an American turkey dust bath.

From online Wild Turkey Lab:

This Turkey Tuesday is about an interesting behavior wild turkeys use, that sometimes gets spiced up with the inclusion of common insects. As spring turns to summer, dust bathing is something that all wild turkeys do – adults and poults alike. These baths are a form of self-maintenance, as they help maintain the condition of feathers, particularly as birds are growing new feathers. Dusting often happens in the same places each day, with the bird laying down where they press their wings and tails onto the ground. Once on the ground, the bird just lays on its breast and flaps its wings, which throws dirt all over the body – sometimes they will also use their head to sling dirt onto the back and wings. And if you’ve ever been blessed enough to watch turkeys dust bath, some of them really get into it! Interestingly, turkeys will also dust in ant mounds – intentionally, termed anting. By doing so, the bird provokes the ants to bite feathers and release compounds that are toxicants – a natural form of pest control. In fact, there’s evidence that some birds preen the ants into their feathers, which crushes them and wipes the compounds on their feathers. This behavior is believed to be a way for turkeys to help mitigate issues with feather mites and lice, but there may be other explanations as well. The take home is wild turkeys have behaviors such as dust bathing and anting that serve purposes ranging from self-maintenance to comfort, and likely some purposes that are entirely unknown – regardless, who doesn’t love wallowing around in the dirt?

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection. I include this quote from Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) in my salutation closing every email I send:

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

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

Scoping a Tree Identification Trail on the Waterfall Loop at Graham Farm and Nature Center!

September 29, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

[Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from June 3, 2026 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/06/03/brief-form-post-61-mid-february-olli-eagle-safari-at-lake-guntersville-state-park/)]

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I returned to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s Graham Farm and Nature Center on July 30, 2026, to scope and lay out a Tree and Shrub Identification Route on the Waterfall Loop Trail. Come along as we traverse the route, note special features, snap photographs, record two brief videos, and locate and catalog 33 species of trees, shrubs, and even a large vine. As is my custom in these Great Blue Heron weekly photo essays, take what you might from my observations and reflections… my musings, which 250 years ago in Ben Franklin’s time, would have been termed Natural Philosophy.

The Center, its setting, and its cause, where Conservation, Preservation, and Education Come Together, are special.

The trailhead lies on the lower Maxwell Mountain slope above the cabin at Nita’s View.

We departed on Bob’s Ledges Trail, then proceeded the full 1.31 miles on the Waterfall Loop Trail, returning us to the trailhead.

Bob’s Ledges Trail rose on a bouldered surface (below left). Waterfall Loop (see white blazes) returned us to the trailhead (below right).

Center Director, Themika (Mike) Sims, transported us on the all-terrain vehicle to Bob’s intersection with Waterfall Loop. We will walk that section with our autumn return visit to finalize the tree and shrub identification route. I feel certain that an additional species or two will enter the tally. I believe that Mike’s sly smile was attributable to his foreknowledge of how rough (terrifying; death-defying!) the ATV ascent to Waterfall Loop was about to be for Chris and me!

I won’t burden you with photographs of Chris tagging each specimen with a nail and red/pink flagging. Our division of labor was simple: he carried the hammer; I gave him a nail and a strip of flagging at each tree. As he so often does when identifying tree species, he nailed it! Here he is hammering the nail on the trailside face of a shagbark hickory.

Nearby, another shagbark hickory sported what my younger Alabama grandson would have termed a Native American war club, a branch stub sustained with living cambium by the tree. Ah, a topic for another photo essay. I casually spotted another half dozen or so such shagbark phenomena on our circuit. Five hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci observed:

There is no result in nature without a cause.

Every tree, stand, and forest has a story to tell. This massive sugar maple, leaning at 30 degrees toward the trail and the camera, seems a generation more senior than its sylvan neighbors. I’ll introduce other examples of individual elders we encountered within what otherwise appears to be an even-aged stand. This sugar maple has a sinister aspect, its crooked trunk’s threatening arms outstretched, reaching for the hapless, inattentive trekker ambling along Waterfall Loop. Might GF&NC staff want to consider caution (Beware: the trees are reaching out to grab you!) signs interspersed with the tree i.d. plaques!?

We passed the Guardian Angels trailhead a few hundred feet after Mike dropped us on Waterfall Loop. The map places us at an elevation of 1,060′. Guardian Angels would have elevated us to 1,520′ in 0.67 miles, where it rejoins Bob’s Ledges Trail.

The sign sobered me. I am eager to establish a long-term affair with GF&NC. My personal profile features the following: 2022 — left shoulder replacement; 2023 — minor stroke and transient ischemic attack; July 2023 — triple bypass surgery; January 2024 — right knee total replacement; August 2024 — left knee total replacement; 2025 — bilateral inguinal hernia surgery; April 2026 — left shoulder reconstruction reversal/revision. So, what sobered me? Waterfall Loop is rated Level 3, Moderate Difficulty, which I handled. Guardian Angels earns a Level Five:

A difficult hike with steep elevation changes; hikers should know their limitations and proceed on the trail with caution!

A former marathoner, a dedicated athlete in younger years, I am not ready to yield easily to what my Alaska friends would refuse to call a mountain. Yet I shall test my limits. I’m getting better at learning when to go… and when to stay. Friends and loved ones care… and don’t trust my knowing when to cry Uncle (i.e., to admit defeat or plead for mercy, especially in an informal physical contest of some kind)!

A large shattered American beech represents another affirmation of senior citizens, a second age class, in a younger forest. This tree had reached a physical strength threshold, hollow with a solid wood rind less than one-third of its diameter. Wind toppled it; gravity is undefeated!

The beech stood just a hundred feet from this dry wash. A trickle passes across the limestone slab. I want to return when I can challenge my boot waterproofing.

We flagged a stem of this cucumbertree sapling. We subsequently located a mature representative of the species. In addition to distinctive leaf and bud characteristics, trunk and canopy form, bark, and preferred slope, soil conditions, and aspect are important identification criteria. We seek mature specimens for tree identification purposes.

For American beech, we need little more than its unique bark, yet numerous other distinguishing features assist identification.

‘Twas a perfect time of year to locate persimmon trees. Shed fruit littered the trail under a mature, mid-story persimmon tree. I photographed a line of persimmon sprouting from a mother-tree root crossing the trail.

A hickory eye socket protruded from a main-trunk branch stub, like the war club. The tree, I suppose, has its reasons for keeping the stub alive. In this case, as perhaps in the other, the tree is attempting to callous over the stub to prevent disease infection. Higher on the trunk (right), another war club faces the camera.

We encountered another sylvan senior citizen within a younger stand. This ancient white oak evidences severe basal decay and infection. The deformed, swollen base suggests a hollowed hulk. In my years as an industrial forester, I would have designated the tree as a commercial cull. However, wildlife species treasure its mast (acorns), covet its den shelter, and relish its spreading canopy and deep shade.

I recorded this 58-second video at the gnarled white oak. It sits at the base of the cascade descent, where Eastern redcedar guardrails aid hikers.

A massive limestone block carries the waterfall in wet weather. The quaint cedar rails helped me descend.

The view downhill attests to Maxwell Mountain’s rugged profile.

We finally found a mature yellow poplar, the only one we spotted along the entire trail.

A Unique Trail Maintenance Treatment

GF&NC crews blow fallen leaves from all trail surfaces 2-3 times annually. Because leaf-fall can smother any vegetation attempting to grow on the trail, the blown surface in places encourages a mossy (American tree moss), carpet-like trail surface. I had not seen this practice elsewhere.

I wonder, once GF&NC trails see more traffic, will the moss carpet persist?

Intermixed with the moss, we encountered dense patches of dog pelt lichen, one I don’t recall previously seeing.

Chris and I marked 33 species. Here is our working list of tree, shrub, and vine species:

Tree Species (Common Names Only) Found Along the White Trail at Graham Farm

Tree of heaven; American beautyberry; American beech; American holly; Basswood; Blackgum; Black walnut; Boxelder; Carolina buckthorn; Chinkapin oak; Cucumbertree; Eastern redcedar; Flowering dogwood; Hackberry; Honeylocust; Mockernut hickory; Muscadine vine; Northern red oak; Osage-orange; Pawpaw; Persimmon; Red buckeye; Redbud; Shagbark hickory; Shining sumac (Green trail); Slippery elm; Spicebush; Sugar maple; Sweetgum (Green trail); Water oak; White ash; Yellow buckeye; Yellow-poplar

We consider our initial foray successful. We’ll return as summer temperatures yield to autumn, to refine the list, add species we may have missed, select better examples, record GPS coordinates for final selections, and confirm identification for all individuals. I view this, again, as a long-term relationship with Graham Farm and Nature Center. Like all human relationships, I see my affair with the Center property akin to what Aldo Leopold viewed as a necessary facet of his Land Ethic:

That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics.

So far, so good!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics. (Aldo Leopold)
There is no result in nature without a cause. (Leonardo da Vinci)
What I see, feel, discover, and ponder ignites my passion, fuels my wanderings (and wonderings), and leads me to add a little new wood each year, even if at a reduced pace. (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 compile personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. They 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 #67: Autumn Signals on A 90+ Degree Mid-September Day in Beaverdam Swamp

September 25, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from May 27, 2026 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/05/27/early-signs-of-spring-on-the-goldsmith-schiffman-wildlife-sanctuary/)

I am pleased to add the 67th 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’ve mentioned often that I’m blessed to live within 10 miles of northern Alabama’s world-class 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. On Saturday morning, September 19, 2026, I slipped south to the Beaverdam Creek Swamp Boardwalk, a National Natural Landmark water tupelo forest along Beaverdam Creek. By 9:00 AM, the temperature was 78 degrees, the dew point 70, and the relative humidity 79 percent. Although I exited the forest by 11:00, the afternoon high reached 98 degrees! In contrast to the brutal mid-summer conditions, the forest was already exhibiting signs of autumn. Nature knows!

Here is my 60-second video noting the forest’s awareness of impending autumn. My video narrative says September 18; I was a day behind!

I shuffled more noisily than the weather suggested. Dry leaves covered the boardwalk.

One would expect tupelo leaves under the canopy of northern Alabama’s largest water tupelo forest.

Tupelo seedfall was beginning. I’ve visited during the dormant season, when water fills the swamp, and large mats of floating seed cover the surface.

A persimmon leaf lies in fall color near the delightfully patterned parent tree.

Virginia creeper’s greens are fading to yellow.

The same holds for roundleaf green brier.

Poison ivy’s leaves-of-three signal that reliably cooler weather is at hand. Please bring it on… and soon!

Ash seedlings (either green or white ash) were senescing, exhibiting leaf blemishes that iNaturalist identifies as gray mold spot. Molds often begin to infect multiple hardwood species’ leaves at season’s end.

Ground cover swamp chestnut oak has turned off its leaf factories.

Resident squirrels registered another clear sign of summer shifting to fall. Loblolly pine cones high in the forest canopy are ripe enough late in their second summer to attract the aerial rodents. They tooth-chisel the foliar twigs holding the cones, dropping them to the forest floor, or in this case, the trail surface.

The squirrels peel scales one at a time from the cones to expose and harvest the pine nuts. They either eat the nuts on the spot or transport them to a larder.

Yogi Berra once said, It sure gets late early around here! I suppose one could say the same of the season’s apparent hot-weather autumn advance in the tupelo swamp. I wish someone had informed the pesky mosquitoes that followed me to Beaverdam Creek and back.

Once again, I’m reminded of John Muir, who oft repeated:

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

In Summary

I invested two Saturday-morning hours sauntering along the boardwalk. I could have slept in, read a book, watched cartoons, edited a Great Blue Heron photo essay, played online solitaire, or countless other mind-numbing activities on a too-hot late summer (or early autumn) morning. I thank my lucky stars that I chose otherwise… and wisely.

The return on my two-hour informed woods-ramble: this brief-form GBH Post; three additional Posts to compile and draft… watch for them; seven 60-second videos (three already posted on my YouTube channel: Steve Jones Great Blue Heron@stevejonesgreatblueheron); and scores of photos! Lest you deem this effort burdensome, keep in mind that this IS my golf. I enjoy practicing my five essential verbs of woodland venturing:

Believe, Look, See, Feel, and Act. I begin within the forest and extend to writing and publishing the weekly photo essay.

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

My weekly photo essays encapsulate all five into a comprehensive, sometimes compact and succinct statement of passion for place and everyday Nature.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection. John Muir nailed it:

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

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

P.S. Along Beaverdam Creek, the canopy evidenced a general yellowing, even as the old forester’s crown showed its stark whitening!

A Couple of Mid-Summer Hours to Kill at Huntsville’s Gateway to the Majestic Tennessee River!

September 23, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from May 17, 2026 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/05/17/lawson-branch-loop-shoal-creek-preserve-spring-2026/)

A friend requested transportation to and from a hospital in Huntsville, Alabama, for a diagnostic test that would take 3 hours from admission to release on July 14, 2026. I had no time to go home and no desire to sit in a waiting room, so I drove ten miles south of Huntsville to Ditto Landing Marina on the Tennessee River (Lake Wheeler). I was curious to see what I might find hidden in plain sight along the gravel road on the waterway’s north side downstream. This trail (west of the Highway 231 bridge) is within the easternmost extent of the 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Come along with me virtually as I kill two hours within the wilds of what is technically the City of Huntsville, Alabama!

The River

I recorded this 53-second video from the park bench at Ditto Landing Marina.

I wanted to luxuriate longer after my trek, but I didn’t want to keep my friend waiting in the recovery room.

I find an undeniable magnetism in rivers, lakes, skies, and the great outdoors. Although traffic over the bridge consumed any silence and overwhelmed Nature’s music (breezes, soft-wave sloshing, birds, and even children laughing and playing), the distance softened the distraction to an acceptable soothing.

Yes, I would prefer a more isolated natural setting absent a busy highway, a marina behind me, and a modern bridge spanning the river. However, I remind myself that I am within 40 minutes of my residence in Alabama’s largest metropolitan area. Also, I must keep in mind that the Tennessee River is not some wild and scenic waterway. I am viewing Lake Wheeler, one of the necklace of TVA impoundments (Nickajack, Guntersville, Wheeler, Wilson, and Pickwick are the five dams stretching from Chattanooga downstream through Florence and beyond. I can’t both celebrate that I live within an hour of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, a national treasure, and lament that being here doesn’t provide a wilderness experience… pristine and untrammeled by man.

I recorded this 59-second video within earshot of the highway. I accept and salute it for what it is, and for the fulfillment the place and its special Nature awards a lifelong outdoor enthusiast.

The main channel is alongside the gravel road (left). An adjacent backwater (a slough) is situated beyond the riverway on the inland side of the trail.

At several spots along the road, secret pathways and visual portals reach through the forested buffer to favorite fishing spots at the river’s edge.

The Forest

I recorded this 63-second video along the gravel road about one mile downstream from where I parked.

Loblolly pine trees grow luxuriously on agricultural land abandoned and planted when the TVA or COE purchased the property to be inundated and adjoining buffer lands tied to the same owners. These floodplain fields are extraordinarily fertile.

Here is my 60-second video of these ~90-year-old forests.

A planted row of loblollies lines the road.

A heavy summer shower wetted the forest the prior evening. Stem flow reached the ground, leaving a patterned trunk as the bark plates began to dry.

A lush understory paw paw patch caught my eye.

Roadside Summer Flowers and Plants

A longtime enthusiast of spring ephemeral wildflowers, I’ve grown fond of our prolific summer bloomers. The spring flowers arrive when dormant woodlands are otherwise grey and drab. I suppose my vernal exuberance for the new blossoms is owed to living further north, where winters were more serious and relief more deeply appreciated. My appreciation now stretches from emerging spring into continuing summer. Here’s a brief catalog of the beauties I photographed along the trail.

Common morning-glory and large bindweed.

Plains coreopsis, a magnificent portrayal of mid-season grandeur.

Dayflower’s cerulean majesty.

American trumpet vine blossoms and seed pod.

Not yet blooming, this hollow Joe-Pye weed is nearly as tall as a basketball hoop.

Its base and top represent a single season’s growth. A perennial, it will die back to ground level in the autumn, and then loft again to ten feet next year.

American pokeweed is another perennial that will produce a tremendous amount of biomass.

Although I allow myself to enjoy the beauty and fragrance of Japanese honeysuckle, I refuse to celebrate the success of the aggressive Asian invasive.

This overwhelmingly successful and particularly combative legume arrived in the US from Japan and China in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In 1953, the USDA stopped advocating the use of kudzu for erosion control, and in 1972 the agency officially designated the plant a weed. Just imagine how our poor native pokeweed feels bearing an official common moniker of American pokeweed!

I celebrate what something as simple as Two Hours to Kill can reveal and return as satisfaction and fulfillment!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I can’t both celebrate that I live within an hour of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, a national treasure, and lament that being here doesn’t provide a wilderness experience…pristine and untrammeled by man. (Steve Jones)
I am pleased that something as simple as Two Hours to Kill can reveal and return as Nature’s satisfaction and fulfillment! (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 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 #65: Large-scale Southern Pine Bettle Kill on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville State!

September 10, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from May 6 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/05/06/brief-form-post-59-nashville-tn-finding-nature-where-you-are/)

I am pleased to add the 65th 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.

On-site to attend the Alabama State Parks Foundation board meeting (June 18, 2026), at Lake Guntersville State Park, I arrived the prior morning to explore trails I had not yet wandered. I enjoyed a sweeping loop that covered the Terrell Connector, Terrell Trail, Graveyard Road, Service Road, Cave Trail, and Lodge Road, then returned through Terrell Trail and the Terrell Connector. I focused on what I could discover hidden in plain sight. See my weekly photo essay presenting highlights of my discoveries: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/08/31/mid-june-exploration-on-trails-new-to-me-on-lake-guntersville-state-park/. I address this essay to a major forest transformation sweeping Lake Guntersville State Park and other sectors of northern Alabama: the southern pine beetle.

Lake Guntersville State Park experienced hundreds of acres of pine mortality from the summer of 2024 through 2025. I passed through extensive acreage of total pine stand decimation.

Clemson University’s Southern Pine Beetle Information Center tracks and reports SPB infestation activity southwide:

Southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann, SPB) is a native, eruptive forest pest that has caused significant damage to pine forests since it was first reported in the 1700’s. SPB has been found in the southeastern U.S. for decades, and was first documented as a major mortality agent in southern pine forests more than 120 years ago. Charles Zimmermann originally described the SPB in 1868, placing it in the family Hylurgidae under the tribe Hylurgi. He synonymized it with Bostrichus frontalis Fabr. in his description. This was later corrected by Le Conte (1876), and SPB was placed in the family Scolytidae. SPB is now placed within the family Curculionidae: subfamily Scolytinae. While frequent, severe, and widespread SPB outbreaks occurred throughout the Southeast in the last half of the 20th century, recent SPB activity in the region has been localized and short-lived. Reports from the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s indicated that outbreaks then were also less common.

I had seen scattered clusters of pine mortality during the first half of my circuit, where second-growth hardwood dominated. Widespread infestation appeared as I entered pine forest along the latter stretches. I recorded this 59-second video along a section of trail with a pine stand decimated by SPB.

Park crews felled dead pine bordering active trails to remove overhanging hazzards. The tremendous volume of regional mortality overwhelmed markets, shutting down salvage opportunities. Already, a second or third year of full sunlight reaching the forest floor is unleashing the understory vegetation (see lush growth at right). Invisible at the moment, decomposers are hard at work returning dead and down woody debris to the soil. The carbon cycle is functioning at full speed. The booming sequence of forest growth, death, and renewal is well tuned and remarkably well practiced with a millennially-seasononed native eruptive forest pest!

A dozen years from now, standing pine skeletons will have fallen, the downed trees will not be recognizable in decay, and the trailside hardwood forest will seem intact. Sure, the astute observer will read telltale signs of the devastating insect outbreak and the shift from pine forest to hardwood.

The periodic fatal infestations are nothing new across the southeastern US. Such is the case with an eruptive forest pest like SPB. The insect is native and has been as long as foresters and entomologists have paid attention. Union Camp Corporation, a then Fortune 500 Paper and Allied Products Manufacturer, hired me as an industrial forester in May of 1973. Among other assignments, I managed. We foresters kept vigil on SPB cycles, alert for eruptions, quick to salvage, and vigilant to establish buffers. We strove to stay ahead of the hopeless predicament the state park faced. Sometimes we succeeded; other times we, too, were overwhelmed.

There are management measures we can practice with our native SPB devil. However, across my 53-year career, forest scientists and foresters have lamented destructive invasive agents (insects and diseases).

Gypsy moths entered our fair land in 1869, posing a widespread oak and related hardwood devastation threat. Fortunately, 157 years later, the insect is mostly endemic, a naturalized insect pest, now buffered and controlled by its own introduced pests, including selective biological insecticides (Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium) and a small parasitic wasp (Encyrtidae) introduced in North America in 1909.

Chestnut Blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) entered the US from Asia in 1904, when it began its relentless devastation of american chestnut. Chestnut forests from southern Maine to central Alabama. I recall encountering abundant surviving chestnut saplings during my summer forestry employment on state forests in western Maryland. There remains hope for eventual, long-term recovery. From its website, The American Chestnut Foundation:

During the past 100 years, chestnut blight, caused by the Asian fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, killed an estimated four billion American chestnut (Castanea dentata) trees, and pushed the iconic species into a state of functional extinction. Human interference triggered the American chestnut’s demise–now scientific innovation offers us the best chance to save it. As reliable and productive as the American chestnut tree was, the species now exists in forests primarily in a state of stunted vegetative regeneration from surviving root systems, and this population continues to dwindle. The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) is leading an unprecedented rescue mission to return the iconic American chestnut to its native range.

The goal of our forest restoration work is to implement plantings of genetically diverse and disease-resistant American chestnut trees that are capable of sustained population growth across the native range in the ever-changing landscape of our Eastern hardwood forests.

Dutch Elm disease entered the US in 1928 and decimated our native elm forests. I lived in Keene, New Hampshire several years ago. Know as Elm City, its once magnificent Elm-lined avenues and lanes are elm-barren.

An online USDA source indicates that the Emerald Ash Borer was first detected in North America in 2002 (southeast Michigan.)

The emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive wood-boring beetle from Asia, is responsible for the death and decline of tens of millions of ash trees in North America. EAB lays its eggs in the bark crevices of ash trees. The eggs hatch and the larvae burrow into the tree where they feed. This feeding is what damages the trees. We have detected EAB infestations in 38 States and the District of Columbia. EAB is difficult to detect early when pest populations are small because damage to the trees is hidden under the bark and tree decline is gradual. The beetle is well-suited to our climate, is a good flyer, and spreads naturally. People contribute to the long-distance spread of the beetle when they move EAB-infested ash firewood, logs or nursery stock.

In early May of 2010, I chronicled in a single Great Blue Heron photo essay (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2018/06/05/six-hundred-sixty-mile-transect/), the ecology of my 600-mile drive from Madison, Alabama to Fairmont, West Virginia, noting my deep concern encountering the EAB mortality front:

Midway between Chattanooga and Knoxville, I spot a disturbing first along the route — dead ash trees along the highway. The imported (an international shipment stowaway) emerald ash-borer is spreading rapidly in North America across the range of genus Fraxinus. It is decimating ash. We saw the ubiquitous mortality from this point north to our destination, and beyond to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. Oh, the price we pay for our shrinking globe. We do business in a global economy; we and all Earth species must sustain within a global ecosystem. I find the ash decline and imminent peril particularly disturbing. I have been a big ash fan from my days conducting forest inventory on State Forests in western Maryland during undergraduate summers… to conducting forest fertilization on planted green ash stands for Union Camp Corporation in Virginia and North Carolina… through my PhD research on Pennsylvania and New York Allegheny Hardwood stands (white ash a major component). I have revered its preference for high-quality sites, its fast growth, straight boles, strong wood, and deep green foliage. Nothing beats its easy response to a splitting maul, its non-sputtering flame and hi BTUs in a fireplace or stove, and the crack of a Louisville Slugger bat connecting with a fastball. As we’ve faced before with American Chestnut and American elm, how on Earth do we contend with vanishing ash!?

We encountered the dead ash for reasons other than crossing some ecological divide. Instead, we entered the geographic margin of spread from the borer’s Cleveland point of entry. Officials have already noted the green beetle’s presence in Alabama, though not yet widespread. Time will tell. We can hope for some climatic barrier… yet I fear the insect will continue its spread of infestation and death.

I am hopeful that the southward spread has slowed. I am not seeing widespread mortality in my northern Alabama forest wanderings. Are environmental conditions at work? Are 20 years of biological control programs (e.g., parasitoids) proving successful? See this comprehensive USDA APHIS report to learn more: (chromeextension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.eppo.int/media/uploaded_images/MEETINGS/Meetings_2026/Agrilus%20presentations/Dodge%20Current%20status%2C%20successes%2C%20and%20limitations.pdf).

Natural barriers (oceans, mountains, deserts, etc.) used to limit the spread of invasive plants, animals, insects, and diseases. Today we have a difficult enough problem controlling native eruptive forest pests, like SPB. Toss in exotic insects and diseases, and we must turn to new and emerging technologies like biological control programs in addition to an arsenal of traditional control practices.

We are a wood-dependent human species. Mess with elements of this incredible renewable resource, whether chestnut, elm, ash, oaks, or other species, and you impair our ability to practice sustainable forestry. I’ve watched the battle intensify over my 50+ year forestry career. Don’t despair. Know that diligent and responsible science will prevail. Continue to enjoy Nature, learn more about the biological and physical factors affecting our forests, and embrace and promote informed forest stewardship.

Closing

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

Don’t despair of forest pests and diseases: embrace and promote science-informed forest stewardship.

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

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

Mid-June Exploration on Trails New to Me on Lake Guntersville State Park!

August 31, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from April 21 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/04/21/brief-form-post-57-reflection-in-on-beaverdam-tupelo-swamp-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge/)

On-site to attend the Alabama State Parks Foundation board meeting (June 18, 2026), at Lake Guntersville State Park, I arrived the prior morning to explore trails I had not yet wandered. I enjoyed a sweeping loop that covered the Terrell Connector, Terrell Trail, Graveyard Road, Service Road, Cave Trail, and Lodge Road, then returned through Terrell Trail and the Terrell Connector. No, I refuse to claim mine was a hike. Like John Muir, I sauntered these forest trails and park roads to experience yet another northern Alabama second-growth Cumberland Plateau forest. I walked within the forest…not through the forest. I was absorbing all I could discover hidden in plain sight, not to reach benchmarks, score miles, and log elevation gain. Come along with me virtually.

The entire route transited second-growth forest. However, second-growth is a broad characterization encompassing nearly every acre of forest in the eastern USA. Very little of the original pre-Columbian forest escaped domestication, settlement, logging, and other disturbances. Although all second-growth, the LGSP forest is anything but uniform.

Entering a Forest Stand with an Ancient Aura

The Connector Trail transits a rich bottomland forest exhibiting old-growth characteristics: large-diameter towering hardwoods, abundant dead and down woody debris, and tiered canopy. I felt I had entered an ancient forest.

A planked boardwalk kept my boots dry.

A channel directed water through the bottomland. The waterway appeared to be human-made, suggesting a dragline or backhoe excavation drainage ditch through fertile farmland prior to the Corps of Engineers or TVA acquiring the basin property for Lake Guntersville. I have often observed that every parcel of forest has a story to tell. I can discern some of the tale from hints, allegations, and evidence on site, yet there is a juncture where conjecture blurs from certainty.

Tufts of Christmas fern highlighted the fertile bottomland near the channel. Dense shade reduced understory growth, leaving the fern standing in isolation…alone in the gloam.

I continued beyond the ancient feel of the Christmas fern glade.

Exiting the Apparent Old-Growth

The Connector Trail brought me to a spaghetti intersection. Several hours later I worked my way back to this loblolly pine tree, and then on to my car.

The remainder of my transit stayed on uplands. Long ago when I was managing company-owned forest land, I would have subdivided the property into management units. Such was not the intent of my LGSP wanderings. I sought not to understand, differentiate, or consolidate…nor to consider the forest. I wanted only to discover the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration that linked one marvel, curiosity, and oddity to another. This trail segment served as matrix, revealing nothing special… just a peaceful, quiet stretch that offered no distractions. This stand of mixed oaks and associated upland hardwoods seemed to fall within the age range of 80 to 110 years, typical of northern Alabama.

A little further along, the fun began. The seeming even-aged matrix of 80-110-year-old forest was peppered with significantly larger, older, disfigured, and decayed individuals, like this chestnut oak. I offer an explanation for this apparent two-aged forest. Loggers harvested commercially valuable individuals about a century ago, leaving unmerchantable trees behind. This chestnut oak will never secure a berth on a logging truck, yet in this public park setting, the tree’s non-forest-product value may be nearly incalculably high.

Among other benefits, the tree produces vast quantities of mast (acorns for animal consumption). The tree is hollow and likely has been since the logger noticed it was not worth felling early in the twentieth century. This oak occupies land, air, and soil covering at least one-fifth of an acre. Think of the vast quantities of organic matter processed by the tree, associated organisms (micro and macro), and energy flowing through this single tree ecosystem.

And nearby a healthy, vibrant, ~90-year-old hickory reached high into the canopy, its bark revealing vigorous growth, distinct from the old denizen in the turtle-head massive monster image below.

I recorded this 59-second video along the trail.

Again, imagine this gnarled hickory ignored by the forest sawyer so many years ago. Every tree has a story to tell. I’d like to hear this unique individual’s tale.

I recorded this 60-second video of the gnarled hickory:

Eyes closed, the turtle (or is it a dragon!) relaxed as I snapped photographs and recorded the short video.

A black oak signaled internal decay with its severly swollen branch stub at chest level above the trail surface. I’m reminded of the 12 weeks of bi-weekly physical therapy I endured following my April 13, 2026, total left shoulder reconstruction. People with braces, recent scars, bandages, and gimpy, healing limbs surrounded me. Nine weeks after surgery, here I was at LGSP in the midst of trees bearing wounds, injuries, infections, and diverse infirmities and imperfections!

Even among the affected trees, including this blemished black oak, a glance upward revealed the beauty, promise, and inspiration of the sun smiling through its crown.

A nearby white oak stood among the stricken, its decay-swelled old branch stub opening a portal to its hollow core.

Not all oaks are misshappen, decayed, and physically disabled. However, all sourwood trees (Oxydendrum arboreum) rebel against growing in accord with the basic, fundamental dictates of negative geotropism and positive phototropism. Most trees grow opposite the attraction of gravity or directly toward the sun. Sourwood prefers sinuosity, a characteristic I’ve admired since first meeting the species in freshman Dendrology! Compare the curvy sourwood cluster below right to the three clumped yellow poplars beyond them standing at ramrod attention.

Some Additional Curiosities:

Our native loblolly pines accumulate resins in core wood as they age and mature. The resin-soaked heartwood is decay resistant, as is evident from this old cut stump. Only the bark and the core remain.

This corewood skeleton remains intact on the forest floor where it fell decades ago. When I fueled a fireplace in prior residences, I collected such lightered wood to start evening fires.

So many stories to interpret, record, and later share as I sauntered through LGSP; so little reader’s time to consume!

Kings Chapel Cemetery

I abruptly entered a sacred opening, dropping back 100 years. The cemetery bordered a community then tethered to Kings Chapel and anchored to the Tennessee River. I found no interment that postdated Lake Guntersville’s 1939 completion.

The Terrell and King families were prominent citizens. These individuals died in 1938 and 1927. Imagine the tremendous family, community, and economic tremors imposed by dam completion.

The King inscription reads: Their toils are past, their work is done, they fought the fight — the victory is won. Who now tends their graves? Who remembers them?

Friends, neighbors, and kinfolk, these King and Strange residents passed in 1918 and 1926. Did any still-adjacent trees witness their burial?

The John and Willie Strange epitaph: We trust our loss will be their gain, and that with Christ they have gone to reign.

The Terrell memory lives on via a named trail. I can think of less favorable ways to be memorialized!

Some Worthy Postscripts

Two lovely mushrooms appeared, the first this hintapink (Russula paludosa), a brightly colored, edible brittlegill. I harvested only one of several, mostly to secure an underside photo for identification. I cooked the morsel with butter, pepper, and salt, finding the flavor mild and pleasant, but not nearly enough to truly gauge whether I’d want a full-omelette measure.

I saw a handful of this meaty ornate-stalked bolete, identified as edible with a caution that the species can be too bitter for consumption. I found it disagreeably acrid.

This violet-toothed polypore occupied an oak sapling snag, performing its dedicated decomposing mission. No, not edible!

Pin cushion moss colonized a long decaying stump and trunk, both visible only as an outline of the organic matter remains of the downed woody debris.

A supplejack vine clings to its black oak anchorage. I admire its smooth green bark and tendency to wrap in sinuous coils on tree stems and adjacent supplejack vines.

I leave you with an image of the LGSP Mabrey Rock of Ages, along the Service Road as I returned to to the Connector Trail.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Take heart, not all oaks are misshapen, decayed, and physically disabled. (Steve Jones)
However, all sourwood trees (Oxydendrum arboreum) rebel against growing in accord with the basic, fundamental dictates of negative geotropism and positive phototropism. (Steve Jones)
I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. (John Muir)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief-Form Post #64: Mid-June Visit to a WNWR Bottomland Forest and a Drying Buckeye Impoundment!

August 26, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from April 15 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/04/15/brief-form-post-56-quick-circuit-of-the-dallas-fanning-nature-preserve/)

I am pleased to add the 64th 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 am fortunate to live just a dozen miles due north of Alabama’s 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, where I decided to wander for several hours on June 9, 2026. I searched in a familiar bottomland hardwood forest for wild edible mushrooms: early chanterelles, oysters, boletes, chicken of the woods, and black-staining polypores. Finding only non-edibles, I made acquaintance with a road-crossing river cooter, photographed new Singing River Trail signage, and explored the sights and sounds of the Refuge’s Buckeye Impoundment, an important wildlife management feature.

Bottomland Forest

Search my website Blog link (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/) for Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge; choose from more than 50 prior posts on aspects of this nationally significant refugium. Were the refuge a single mile wide, it would extend 55 miles. Here is the interior road (HGH Road) that runs east-west about a mile north of the Tennessee River (Lake Wheeler), just into Limestone County, adjoining Madison County to the east. I often bushwalk (bushwhack) through this rich bottomland, which if not for the TVA/COE purchasing land to buffer the 1936 Wheeler Dam inudation property, would now probably be in private agricultural production.

Mushroom Venture

I ventured for 90 minutes in the bottomland finding abundant mushrooms of various inedible species.

Amanita were scattered in the deep and damp understory shade. This one served as a luncheon buffet for underside invertebrates.

Amanita color hue and sharpness vary with age.

Yet another Amanita species.

Unlike the gilled Amanitas, all Boletes have spongy pores under their caps. This is known as bitter Bolete, a common name that suggests it may not be inedible, but it assuredly is not suitable for consumption.

This Caloboletus firmus, considered too bitter to consume, bears perfect leaf impression artwork.

Its pink underside shows the characteristic spongy Bolete pore surface.

A Mushroom Consumer

I stopped for a friendly river cooter gravel road crossing chat. The shell-shocked retile refused to share edible mushroom location secrets with me!

I recorded this 43-second video of my turtle friend.

Singing River Trail Thoroughfare

The Singing River Trail will be a 200+ mile greenway system once completed. The Refuge recently posted signage delineating the SRT route. I recorded this 60-second video introducing the route. My narrative incorrectly identifies the road as Jolly B. It is HGH Road, which ties in to Jolly B a mile to the east.

The sign below is at the northern entrance to the Refuge on Jolly B Road.

Buckeye Impoundment

Buckeye Impoundment lies just beyond the point where HGH Road turns north (where I recorded the SRT video). Here is my Great Blue Heron Post from my 2024 overflight of WNWR and the image below of Buckeye Impoundment: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/12/05/buckeye-impoundment-in-early-october-on-the-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge-part-one/

I entered the aerial photo image above on June 9, 2026 where the straight N/S road candy-canes into Buckeye Impoundment from the bottomland forest to the east.

I recorded this 60-second Buckeye Impoundment video.

The views below are to the SSE and the SW. I plan to return to examine and compare end of summer vegetative growth to this early June visit.

The impoundment is drying after an extended dormant season of intentional engineered flooding.

Summer Wildflower Profusion

Here are my observed early summer flower highlights at the marge of the impoundment.

Carolina desert chickory

Wild potato vine

Annual fleabane

Carolina ruellia

A quick, low investment visit into Nature pays high dividents in peace of mind, satisfaction, exercise, and learning and discovery. John Muir nailed it:

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

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, this one cut, modified, and pasted from above:

I am fortunate to live just a dozen miles due north of Alabama’s 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, where I decided to wander for several hours on June 9, 2026. A quick, low investment visit into Nature pays high dividents in peace of mind, satisfaction, exercise, and learning and discovery. John Muir nailed it:

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

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 #63: Mid-Summer Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Nature Walk at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

August 19, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from April 9 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/04/09/mid-december-delights-and-mysteries-on-the-wnwr-hiking-and-bicycling-trail/)

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I am pleased to add the 63rd 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 Stuhlinger and I co-led an OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Alabama in Huntsville) Nature walk on June 13, 2026, at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur, Alabama. We planned to saunter through the rich bottomland forest along the Flint Creek Trail, slowly exploring the beauty, magic, awe, and inspiration of Nature hidden in plain sight. Three of us appropriately dallied, immersed in wonder, wandering within the forest, truly focusing on the intended discovery and learning. The other dozen or so participants yielded to resident bottomland blood-sucking mosquitoes. As a result, the three of us were persuaded to abandon the trek and head to the nearby Refuge Visitors Center instead. I’ll take you there with me.

I had arrived at the trailhead early enough to examine the parking area Refuge buffer of sowed wildflower mix. Bergamots were among the plants already flowering.

I recorded this 53-second video of the beds dominated at the moment by bergamots and black-eyed Susans.

Black-eyed Susans are among my favorite summer natives.

We began our trek within sight of the beds, by crossing the boardwalk, which carried us across a sunny, breezy, mosquito-free (a relevant point as I will soon reveal) passage into the forest.

I recorded this 59-second video as we approached the trail via the boardwalk.

Pond cypress, a water-tolerant deciduous conifer, stood in the Flint Creek inlet at the boardwalk trailhead.

My Musings on What Warrants Doing as Time Wanes

We entered the forest where wonders awaited some of us… and two-winged, six-legged terrorists inflicted intolerable annoyance on the others. Summer passage through certain northern Alabama ecotypes exacts a toll. The circumstances of this day lead me to pledge (to self) that I will heretofore exercise greater caution in agreeing to which particular OLLI (or any other) missions I shall choose/decide to accept.

None of us knows how many woodland excursions lie ahead. I do know that the window eventually closes. The clock continues ticking. I love my deliberate, succinct retirement mission:

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

Mightn’t I have been better advised to persue a Nature jaunt of my own design, intent, passion, purpose, and ken, rather than one where the participants are easily dissuaded from the effort? As I draft this text, I will enter my fourth quarter of a century in two days. Chances are slim (to none) that a fifth awaits me (Well, maybe it’s with partaking a fifth of Old Forester that my chance improves!).

Without belaboring my disappointment, allow me to point out that at least eight of our 14 participants wore short-sleeve shirts/blouses, despite our advance suggestion to avoid attracting unwanted insect attention and voracious feeding.

An Abbreviated Woodland Exploration

The bottomland forest presented abundant mushrooms for those of us not flushed ahead by the pesky skeeters. Rather than escort you with deep narrative, allow me to introduce our welcoming fungi. Lactarius psammicola gave us palm-size shrooms.

Golden-gilled gerronema showed their characteristic biege funnels.

Although very attractive, the species is not considered edible.

Bolete mushrooms are a group of fungi with spongy pores under their caps instead of gills, including some edible species. I’ve reached a point in my foraging where I’m gaining enough knowledge and confidence to begin selecting certain boletes. This individual is in an advanced state of decay, rotting with a bolete mould.

Nearby we spotted dog vomit slime mold, a fungus that has a moniker that, even if it were edible, would discouraged human consumers.

I spotted an unfamiliar understory plant, whitenymph. By this point of progress, the mosquito-spurred group had raced way ahead of us.

I felt compelled to photograph Carolina ruellia, a lovely little ground-hugging early summer wildflower.

Quick Trip across the Highway to the Visitors Center Cypress Pond

The larger group hailed us before we had traversed half the distance they covered. We agreed to return to our vehicles, and then leave to the visitors center about a mile away, across the highway, where we anticipated far fewer human-blood-consuming insects. Some of the original group did not transfer to the visitors center.

I’ll touch briefly on our mosquito-abatement alternative. I always enjoy the bald cypress pond and boardwalk near the visitors center.

Stems are packed tightly and reach high. Cypress knees perform their function, whether securing incremental anchorage or assisting in gaseous exchange.

I recorded this 60-second video within the cypress pond, adding a little Righteous Brothers accompaniment.

I always glance heavenward from the boardwalk. The dense trunk-stocking suggests crowded, intersecting and overlapping crowns. Instead, cypress expresses crown shyness… faithfully, maintaining space-margins and no-touch zones separating one crown from another! Is it my own certifiable introvert personality that explains my admiration of sylvan crown shyness?

Perhaps I overreacted to our change in plans; perhaps not. However, in no small part owing to my seminal life benchmark (75 years!), my angst and pique were real… and persist. I shall be recalibrating priorities. From a time-of-life-dawn, the brim-full hour glass left plenty of room for judgement error. Today, with a setting sun ahead, the sand grains rush unceasingly. The relative cost of each one amplifies. My maternal grandmother, a country girl from Appalachian-region West Virginia, said as much: “The older I get, the faster time goes!”

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, this one cut, modified, and pasted from above:

None of us knows how many woodland excursions lie ahead. I do know that the window eventually closes. The clock continues ticking. I love my deliberate, succinct retirement mission:

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

Mightn’t I have been better advised to pursue a Nature jaunt of my own design, intent, passion, purpose, and ken?

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

A Chilly, Saturated Late May Morning at a Butler County, PA Horse Barn!

August 11, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

[Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from April 1 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/04/01/squeezing-a-90-minute-woodland-saunter-into-four-hours/)]

Our 18-year-old granddaughter, Hannah, graduated from high school the week of May 18, 2026, in Butler County, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburgh. Judy and I enjoyed five days with our son Matt and his family. The three PA grandkids attended school on the weekdays of our visit. Judy and I accompanied Matt and 15-year-old granddaughter Mallory on Saturday to the horse barn, 20 miles north of their Cranberry Township home, where Mallory rides and tends the stables. Although still wearing a sling/brace from April 13, 2026, shoulder replacement/revision surgery, I gathered Nature observations and reflections based on wandering the grounds, snapping photographs, and recording brief videos.

Overview of Barn and Grounds

The temperature on the unseasonably cold late spring midday barely topped 50 degrees. This stoic equine seemed content to remain indoors. To the contrary, I was elated to embrace weather conditions I will not see again in northern Alabama until October.

I recorded this 40-second video of Mallory riding indoors, verifying that I appended my Nature-Inspired Life and Living field research to a genuine grandfatherly pursuit!

I’m a glutton for springtime, flush with new greenery, borderline cold breezes, surface runoff, deep mud, and low clouds skudding across hillsides adorned with white fences.

Here’s my 59-second video of the farmstead residence, entrance road, and pond I recorded from the front side of the horse barn and arena.

I grew up just 150 miles SSE of this location on the east side of the Allegheny Front in western Maryland, a landscape peppered with valley farmsteads similar to this. I am a student and champion of special places and everyday Nature.

Ascending pastureland behind the barn, I came to a fenced outdoor riding track and performance ground, where Mallory will train and exercise the horses in the pleasant months ahead.

The riding track lies beyond the decorative horse-head post top.

I recorded this 59-second video of the surrounding landscape, capturing the seasonal essence of this special place.

Over an inch of rain soaked the barn grounds overnight.

I’ve often observed that the spring-green pallette may be as rich with shades, hues, and moods worthy of comparison to the colors of autumn.

I admit that I miss the depth of seasonal fluxes evident here at 40.86 degrees north latitude, relative to the 34.71 at my Madison, Alabama home. My many years residing in cold weather regions leave me occasionally aching for a deep winter, epic snow, blow, and several days of homebound isolation. Even rows of planted Norway spruce reminded me of the mantle of snow that will grace the lane and out-building behind the barn. Although I failed to snap a photo, wind trembled the leaves on a nearby hilltop quaking aspen tree, another reminder of northern forests that sets my heart aflutter (i.e. in a state of tremulous excitement)!

So, too, does a working farmstead lift my soul. I love the wildness of forests, yet I am in love with the grandeur of a land and its owner/caretaker committed to informed and responsible Earth stewardship, generating intentional ends through applied means. Conservation entails wise use and management, applying scientific principles and practices to yield desired outcomes, whether forest products, productive pasture, baled hay, or the compelling essence of a well-managed landscape.

The Norway spruce edging the barn is one element of the landscape magic. I recorded this 58-second video of the Norway spruce hedgerow.

Shingle Oak and Bacterial Crown Galls!

Shingle oak is a deciduous tree in the red oak group. It is native primarily to the Midwestern and Upper South regions of North America.

I don’t see the species often in my Alabama wanderings, although I did chronicle the demise of the Alabama State Champion shingle oak on Joe Wheeler State Park (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/10/19/a-state-champion-yields-to-decay-and-gravity/). I found this unusual shingle oak specimen just 300 feet from the barn. This individual drew me closer. Standing pondside, promising delightful summer shade weeks ahead, the tree carried a heavy load I could not identify until I came closer.

The tree was laden with a heavy burden of woody bacterial crown galls.

An online Missouri Botanical Garden reference describes the condition for many ornamental plants of the rose family:

Crown gall is a plant disease caused by the soil-inhabiting bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The bacterium causes abnormal growths or galls on roots, twigs, and branches. The bacterium stimulates the rapid growth of plant cells that result in the galls. In addition to being unsightly, the galls weaken and stunt the growth of the plant. Although galls can disrupt the flow of water and nutrients up the roots and branches, they usually do not cause total plant death. The disease can spread to other susceptible plants through contaminated soil and tools. Most chemical treatments are not effective.

However, the same online reference suggests a different causal agent for these similar galls on oaks:

The galls on forsythia, viburnum, highbush blueberry, American elm, hickory, maple, oak, and privet are believed to be caused by a fungus, Phomopsis sp.

I am confident that the oak is diseased, perhaps by fungal…or maybe bacterial agents. Fatal? Probably not. The tree appears robust, with a emerging full foliar canopy, and a tremendous flower crop. A curiosity? Absolutely! A tree condition oddity worthy of highlighting for readers of these Great Blue Heron weekly photo essays!

Shingle oaks are what during my forest industry years (1973-1985) I termed ELROs, entire-leaf red oaks (without lobes). The leaves are much like the willow oak leaves of the tree in my Alabama backyard. I admire the appearance of the newly emerged leaves, fresh flowers, and a woody gall against the bakdrop of the weathered-wood picnic table.

The galls portray character, each one a distinct size and shape. One might expect a mishappen product of disease to look a little less mirthful!

A Farm Pond Celebration of Life and Living

I wondered whether these Canada geese are recent arrivales from the southland 0r, like those on my Alabama neighborhood pond, are they year-round residents. If so, how do they survive a pond frozen for many weeks of bitter winter and shrouding snow?

Aldo Leopold knew geese well, yet he spoke of the magic of their mystery:

What a dull world if we knew all about geese!

One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring.

So sad that our Madison, Alabama geese know nothing of cleaving the murk of a March thaw. I love them just the same.

I recorded this 57-second video at the horse barn pond.

A single frame expressing Nature-Inspired Life and Living!

I spent 35 years at nine different universities, rising through faculty ranks to serving senior adminstrative positions to holding the presidency at four institutions and chairing the governing board at the University of the Arctic, a consortium of 110 northern circumpolar colleges and universities enrolling 800,000 students. Throughout my academic career, I shared a fundamental concern that academic conservationist Aldo Leopold so elequently expressed:

Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers. (Aldo Leopold)
One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring. (Aldo Leopold)
Sadly, our Madison, Alabama geese know nothing of cleaving the murk of a March thaw. (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. Until I can’t!

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

I 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

First Time Visit to Graham Farm and Nature Preserve

August 5, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

[Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from March 24 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/03/24/mid-december-above-ground-exploration-at-cathedral-caverns-state-park/)]

I toured the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) Jackson County Graham Farm and Nature Center on June 24, 2026, with friends Chris Stuhlinger, Bill and Becky Heslip, and Roxanne Pennington. I served as ACES Director from 1996 to 2001, leading the unification of Auburn University and A&M University’s distinct extension programs under a Federal Court Order that settled a long-standing legal dispute involving both institutions and the state of Alabama. I had looked forward to seeing the 491-acre outdoor education, conservation, and preservation enterprise borne of a dedicated joint endeavor. Come along with me for my initial observations, reflections, photographic images, and brief videos.

Doorway to a Special Place: Wisps of Memories and Vapors of Possibilities

I had driven past the Center on prior trips through the valley to visit a waterfall owned by friends about two miles beyond. I saw the GF&NC signage, but knew only enough to whet my curiosity and prompt me to arrange a tour and orientation, which led to scheduling this visit. I felt a deep connection, sentimental I suppose in part, from my intimate role in forging and leading the inter-university, involuntary (Federal Court-ordered) cooperative venture that stood during the era of my tenure in the national spotlight. My purpose is not to focus on what we then termed The Unification. The ACES directorship was the toughest role of my university administrative career. I’ll mention only that Auburn University President Bill Muse said, “We asked Steve to do the impossible, and he damned near did it!”

Driving onto the property, the Paint Rock Valley and surrounding Cumberland Plateau terrain beguiled and bewitched me. I reflected on my third book, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature, co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit (published in 2019). My book Introduction included:

Awakening to nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi. Nature is in our backyard, a trip to a nearby city park, or a state park just down the road. Anyone can develop a relationship with nature wherever you are, a point I reiterate in each and every nature-inspired life and living address I deliver. My relationship with nature is spiritual. I view my engagement as a calling, and a noble cause to sow seeds so that others might do their own part to change some small corner of this Earth for the better.

I awakened to the Nature of this special place when I entered the Graham Farm and Nature Center. The sense and spirit beckoned me, pulled me into its magic. It was real and palpable, strengthening with each moment during our six hours on the property, seeing and inhaling its essence, meeting and getting to know staff, and sharing ideas and dreams. Wisps of memories and vapors of possibilities infused my vision of a potential volunteer niche role for me, an admittedly self-satisfying venture for yet another chapter of my retirement. I recently crossed my 75th birthday threshold, entering my 4th quarter of a century of life on Earth. A senior former forestry faculty colleague remarked in response to my fourth quarter of a century comment, “Remember that in football, in the 4^th quarter, every play counts!”

I share a relevant excerpt from Notes from the Field: Paint Rock and the New Nation (July 4, 2026) by Bill Finch, Founding Director, Paint Rock Forest Research Center, located in the same valley and ecosystem as GF&NC:

Paint Rock appears to have escaped the worst of 19th and 20th century deforestation and plowing. But the modern forest is a dim reflection of what it was in the 18th century. Mountainsides then as now likely supported the most diverse assembly of deciduous trees and shrubs in the United States, in some places so tall and dense they blocked the sun for much of the year. But the slopes may have been less uniformly covered in trees. Fragments of sun-loving, summer blooming sunflowers, tall green gentians, lilies, moon-flowered silphiums, and warm season grasses still dot the slopes, the remnants of what must have been extensive nearly treeless glades. Plants that are now rare in that forest, like smoketrees and the federally threatened Morefield’s clematis vine, are struggling to find the light they once knew.

I have no doubt that this Paint Rock Valley is a Special Place. I recorded this 60-second video as a brief introduction to Graham Farm and Nature Center.

I will not burden you with tireless narrative based only upon a preliminary superficial reconnaissance. I’m hooked enough to return to get to know her better, and share what I learn, both the obvious and the mystery.

The Center

As Chancellor, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, America’s Arctic University, I fell in love with America’s Last Frontier. Alaska is not just a vast place…it’s a spirit, an abiding spirit. Robert Service, a Brit who spent several years in the Yukon during the turn of the prior century goldrush days, expressed the Far North essence more clearly than any I’ve read. Excerpting from his The Spell of the Yukon:

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 forests where silence has lease;

It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

Granted, Alaska is unmatched. It’s also not within an hour and 15 minute drive of my house! I welcome a Nature affair with a special place of beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration… where I want to go back — and I can… and I will. Graham Farm and Nature Center fits the bill!

Allow me to rely upon selected photos and brief videos to present a GF&NC overview. I pledge to develop focused photo essays from future visits. The pavilion and operational hub occupy a commanding knoll at the valley core of the 491-acre property.

An old photograph of the pre-ACES Graham farm is among exhibits that reach back into the farm and valley’s rich history.

Our June 24, 2026 contingent consisted of Bill and Becky Heslip, me in the rear echelon, Center Director Themika L. “Mike” Sims, Chris Stuhlinger, Roxanne Pennington, and Administrative Support Specialist II Donna Sands behind the camera.

Although we didn’t have an opportunity to visit this charming woods-edge cottage, we understood that it will see future use as an overnight accommodation.

We visited the trailhead of a mountain forest trail. When summer’s heat abates I will return to explore this and many other trails.

The valley does indeed beckon.

Even the open land near the creeks promises discoveries in ecotype transition from field to meadow to brush to forest to wetland to stream channel.

Meadowland transitioning to brush then to forest will afford learning and discovery to Center visitors for the ages.

Wild carrot presented its lacy blossoms in the lower meadows.

I’m eager to follow and admire the Center’s changing seasonal faces. Multiply the one-hour-of-one-afternoon a hundred fold to anticipate the Nature-magic that lies ahead.

Larkin Creek enters Paint Rock River at this juncture on the property. I look forward to seeing the flow when it is not turbid from recent flooding, and also when the streams are at overflow. This landscape feature lies 1,000 vertical feet below the property’s highest. Spring at the union arrives more than a week in advance of the peak; autumn a week later. The place and its seasons are complex, varied, and exhilarating.

I recorded this 60-second video of the Larkin Creek juncture with Paint Rock River.

Perhaps I will find reason to stay overnight in the Connestoga Wagon Pampering Accommodations!

Here is my 60-second video of the overnight pampering wagons.

Chris and I are returning to GF&NC on July 30 to scout a tree and shrub identification trail, providing fodder for a subsequent Great Blue Heron GF&NC photo essay.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I view my engagement (with Graham Farm and Nature Center) as a calling, and a noble cause to sow seeds so that others might do their own part to change some small corner of this Earth for the better. (Steve Jones)
The sense and spirit of this special place beckoned me, pulled me into its magic! (Steve Jones)
Remember that in football, in the 4^th quarter, every play counts! (Dr. Russell Briggs)
Awakening to Nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi. (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