Note: I am flagging this photo essay as one of a sub-series that chronicles the Nature of the emerging Singing River Trail:
A 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.
I am pleased to add the 46th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.
I co-led a group of University of Alabama in Huntsville OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) members on a Sunday afternoon Nature Walk on July 13, 2025 on the Richard Martin Rails to Trails segment of the Singing River Trail. We departed from Elkmont, Alabama, and sauntered along the trail south to the September 1864 site of the Battle of Sulphur Creek Trestle. I was pleased to see the SRT signage in Elkmont.
Elkmont is an historic whistle stop mid-way between the Tennessee line and Athens. Completed in 1859, the railine brought Union troops and war materials south druing the Civil War. Elkmont is a gem along the otherwise woodland and agricultural 11-mile Rails to Trails.
The scenic crossroads is rich with history and rural beauty. Signage at Elkmont tells the story.
Some of our group biked the trail; others walked.
I enjoy the quaint village, yet I relish trailside Nature. I recorded this 60-second video south of Elkmont.
Next year, I vow to plan no mid-afternoon OLLI Nature activities during peak summer months. I will limit my summer ventures to morning outings. When we retired to southern climes, I recognized that hot season outings should begin at dawn and end before noon. I violated that rule to accommodate hosting OLLI participants. I now affirm that I’ve been there…done that. My retirement spirit demands of me that I will lead and co-lead future ventures on my heat-of-the-day terms.
I find delights hidden in plain sight on every walk in the woods. Charlotte directed my attention to one such marvel. A three-inch diameter dead tree hung suspended in mid-air, held aloft by a clinging supplejack vine. She and Dave demonstrated that the tree’s base, since rotted away, no longer supports the stem. This is my first photograph of sylvan suspended animation.
Here is my video approaching the battle site as we walked across the earthen fill that carried the railroad traffic across the span where the trestle once stood.
Although uncomfortably warm in the open, we enjoyed the shaded trail. Small wonder I am a lifelong fan of full canopies. John Muir mused:
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
I recordeed this 59-second video at the Battle of Sulphur Creek site.
Although we did not tally the tree species we encountered, I believe we exceeded a dozen during our meager one-mile sojourn to the battle site and return. A cool season exploration will be perfect for such intensive woody botanizing.
Several summer flower photos merit inclusion in my Post. Brown-eyed Susans populated the trailsides, the edge between trail and forest.
Moonseed vine earned its place in our brief journal, its dark green foliage meriting a photograph.
A member of the aster family, giant ragweed is common along roads and trails across north Alabama. Like brown-eyed Susans, giant ragweeds proliferate wood edges.
Domesticated hydrangeas in Elkmont proclaimed their urban beauty.
I published a Great Blue Heron photo essays from my May 17, 2022 Richard Martin Trail venture, providing more detail than this Brief-Form Post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/06/07/early-summer-on-the-richard-martin-rails-to-trail/
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. The dual identity (SRT and the Rails-to-Trails) belies the multiple dimensions inherent in this linear stretch of diverse Nature (from swamp to forested upland to streams to meadow to pastures to small town Elkmont) and rich history (Civil War to cotton gin to railroad to Grand Ole Opry stars). The Delmore Brothers, Elmont natives, captured the essence of their whistle-stop hometown:
I’ll be riding that midnight train when I’m leaving And I’m goin away to stay Always wanted to know where this engine did go Gonna go where it goes today
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
The Singing River Trail will be a 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.
The trail will prominently feature many off-shoots of the core trail. The Richard Martin Trail is an 11-mile (22 out and back) route segment reaching from Athens to the Tennessee line. My hope is that SRT venturers can search these Great Blue Heron Posts to better understand the Nature of our region. Again, here is my May 2022 Post on the Richard Martin Rails to Trails: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/06/07/early-summer-on-the-richard-martin-rails-to-trail/
As a lifelong devotee of hiking/sauntering, running, biking, and Nature exploration, I envision another Great Blue Heron weekly photo essay series focused on The Nature of the Singing River Trail. I will incorporate individual essays into my routine Posts that total approximately 450 to-date (archived and accessible at: https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/). I offer these Mooresville Cemetery related photo essays as an orientation to the new component series.
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/IMG_8075-1.jpg-07.13.25-RMRT-Elkmont.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-09-03 13:44:112025-09-03 13:44:11Brief Form Post #46: Singing River Trail at Richard Martin Rails-to-Trails in Elkmont, Alabama
I initially developed this Tenth-Anniversary photo essay as a single post. However, its length exceeded even my generous tolerance for content and length. Here is the link to Part One: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/07/18/part-one-huntsvilles-goldsmith-schiffman-wildlife-sanctuary-tenth-anniversary-of-southern-sanctuary/
I repeat the opening paragraph of Part One:
I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary on May 17, 2025, with Marian Moore Lewis, author of Southern Sanctuary: A Naturalist’s Walk through the Seasons ((2015), Bill Heslip, Director of A Tale of Two Extraordinary Women (2022; a 14-minute video telling the tale of the Sanctuary), Chris Stuhlinger, a fellow retired forester, and me (I produced the video). We wanted to keep our friendship and love for the Sanctuary vibrant, and once more discover the delights we would find hidden in plain sight. Objective accomplished; we pledged to do it again in October!
Part One carried our venture from Hidden Spring through the marsh and down Hidden Spring Brook to the third beaver dam discharging the creek into Jobala Pond.
Jobala Pond
I’ve devoted significant narrative in some prior GSWS photo essays to the history of Jobala Pond. I won’t repeat here except to say that highway engineers created the pond by mining sand, clay, and gravel for road construction in the 1950s. All the vegetation and the complex associated ecosystem resulted from naturalization. John Muir missed nothing in Nature. Jobala Pond’s recovery from the mining ravages would not have surprisedthe inveterate Mr. Muir:
Earth has no sorrow that earth can not heal.
I never tire of the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration that this old borrow pit presents and evokes (left). Marian caught images of two cooters from across Jobala (right).
I am hopelessly addicted to tree form oddities and curiosities. As others enjoyed the pond, I drifted to the swampy slough across the gravel path. The old snag was watching us and, with what I thought was a wink of one of the two eyes (at right), beckoned me to take a closer look. I credit woodpeckers, fungi, insects, and other critters with the sculpting. Note that the snag still supports a clinging vine, the tree’s lifelong companion. A new actor will lead the next act in this Nature drama — gravity will once again prevail. The fallen log will decompose into the rich soil. Nothing in Nature is static!
Nearby, its feet anchored in the same slough, a tree (I failed to identify the species on-site) stands on stilted legs…a living natural bridge. One might question the cause of such an odd form. Imagine decades ago a decaying tree stump offering a favorable site for a fallen seed to germinate. The seedling nourished on moisture and nutrients available in the decomposing stump, even as it extended roots downward along the stump into the rich mineral soil where the prior tree grew. In time the stump decomposed in full, leaving the stilted-root tree embracing thin air…the ghost of a stump.
Leonardo da Vinci, a ghost-spirit of a different sort, inspires me to question, puzzle, and offer explanation for the Nature mysteries I encounter:
There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.
I’ve watched this burled water oak near the outlet of Jobala Pond for several years. Since June 6, 2020 (image at right), the burl has more than doubled its girth.
Whether I’m writing about a North Alabama Land Trust Preserve, one of our 22 Alabama State Parks, the Sanctuary, or some other special place, I urge the managing entity to establish permanent photo points to chronicle the change that is ongoing, inevitable, and significant. The paired photos above tell the story far better than the “inimitable Dr. Jones” standing at the tree claiming, “This burl is twice as big as it was five years ago.” Only one AL State Park has created photo points: Monte Sano with funds I helped raise. Education is a fundamental mission element for the Park system, the Land Trust, and the City of Huntsville. Are these entities falling short of meeting their education imperative? You be the judge.
Here is the 59-second video of Marian offering her thoughts on our tenth anniversary explorations at Jobala Pond.
I recorded this 59-second video just below Jobala.
Enjoy the tranquil beauty of the iron bridge and Hidden Spring Brook flowing beyond it, seeking its confluence with the Flint River.
I recorded this 58-second video below Jobala at the iron bridge crossing Hidden Spring Brook.
Chris Stuhlinger, Bill Heslip, Marian Moore Lewis, and Becky Heslip posed at the wetland mitigation area.
I recorded this 59-second video of the wetland mitigation. Note, I refer to Bill in the video narrative as the Sanctuary video’s Producer; instead, he directed the production. He kindly declared me the Producer.
Closing
In closing, the Sanctuary is a speciel place. My third book, Weaned Seal and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature, captures the ecological, spiritual, and emotional nature of such special places. I offer this text from my Introduction to the book:
Awakening to Nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi. Nature is in our backyard, 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 essay and a message I exhort 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 through wisdom, knowledge, and hard work.
Sharing a special place with special friends multiplies the reward:
There’s a land–oh, it beckons and beckons,
And we want to go back–and we will!
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Nature reaches far into my heart, soul, body, mind, and spirit. (Steve Jones)
Awakening to Nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi.(Steve Jones)
Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way. (John Muir)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_7452.jpg-05.17.25-Marian-Bill-and-SJ.webp15122016Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-08-13 10:30:162025-08-17 15:12:12Part Two -- Huntsville's Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary: Tenth Anniversary of Southern Sanctuary!
On Saturday, July 12, 2025, I assisted with the Alabama State Parks Outdoor Alabama Adventures Education Workshop at DeSoto State Park, attended by 25 teachers and educators. Funded by BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama, the program team will present the full-day program at five state parks from June 17 to August 9. I am privileged to participate here at DeSoto and on August 9, at Joe Wheeler. The program team and participating teacher-educators brought passion, knowledge, and commitment to the task and joy of learning. Join me on a virtual journey with the participants. I offer my limited narration, supplemented by quotes from noted conservationists and Nature educators.
Time spent in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our children’s health (and also, by the way, in our own). (Richard Louv)
The workshop flyer promised Teaching Beyond the Walls: Alabama Ecology in Action… You’ll gain hands-on experience and practical tools to bring outdoor learning into your classroom…and transport your classroom into the great outdoors.
I recorded a 42-second video during Jimmy Stiles’ introductory indoor session
Even the snake paid rapt attention to Jimmy, a real snake charmer!
Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it. (Louv)
DeSoto State Park Naturalist, Brittney Hughes, introduced us to the first of several sandstone glades we would visit.
What’s important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it and feel comfortable in it, before being asked to heal its wounds. (David Sobel)
Northeast Alabama District Naturalist, Eric Cline, led us through a mountain laurel thicket. I recorded this 57-second video in the laurel.
We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. (Albert Einstein)
Life and death are inseparable co-conspirators in our vibrant forests, where the carbon cycle encompasses the emergence of new life and the decomposition of old. The Coker’s amanita mushroom is one of the many forest components hiding in plain site on the forest floor.
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Einstein)
Whether a white mushroom or a glossy-green galax plant, Nature’s mysteries and gems reach out to those of us with passion for learning more, and spreading the word of informed and responsible Earth stewardship.
In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks. (Muir)
Nature understanding and enjoyment depend upon curious minds and deep imagination. Reflection (both optical and mental) amplifies the value of teaching and learning outdoors,
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. (Einstein)
This 40-second video takes us to the sandstone ledge we explored on our morning foray.
A life without contact with nature is not worth living. (Louv)
I marvel at Nature’s mysteries. I suppose that equations may exist quantifying the mechanisms at work creating such ledge shelters. Regardless, I am grateful for their cool and dry shade.
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike. (Muir)
We ascended from the dark ledge shelter to the baking glade overlooking the canyon.
Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities. (Louv)
I recorded this 48-second video at the canyon rim sandstone glade
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Einstein)
Sandstone glades are harsh, sun-baked, and shallow-soiled. Some mosses, lichens, and diminuitive plants thrive. Virginia pine is not one of those specialized plants, yet this one germinated in a sandstone crevice and valiantly clings to life, persisting against all odds.
When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty. (Muir)
Eager learners and Nature enthusiasts, bare rock, surrounding trees, and a fair-summer sky open minds, hearts, souls, and spirit to embrace the World and its infinite storm of beauty.
A river or stream is a cycle of energy from sun to plants to insects to fish. It is a continuum broken only by humans. (Aldo Leopold)
We dropped from the canyom rim to the stream.
Environment-based education produces student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math; improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and develops skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making. (Louv)
I recorded this 60-second video on the floor of the canyon.
Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift. (Einstein)
I contrast the sublime afternoon in the Little River Canyon to the pounding turbulence of the surging river at flood. Someone may ask, “What’s it like on the canyon floor?” Like everything and place in Nature, it depends!
I view Nature through lenses, my own, and the filters of others like Muir, Einstein, da Vinci, Louv, Leopold, and Sobel. When I formulate a profound insight and express its sagacity in prose, I discover that others have birthed the muse…and stated it far more eloquently and succinctly than I.
What induces you, oh man, to depart from your home in town, to leave parents and friends, and go to the countryside over mountains and valleys, if it is not for the beauty of the world of nature? (da Vinci)
July 24, 2025 Note: I’m reading Landon Y. Jones’ The Essential Lewis and Clark, a condensed collection of the Captains’ journal entries from their Journey of Discovery. Fifteen months into their quest (August 18, 1805), Meriwether Lewis wrote:
This day I completed my 31st year, and I conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little, indeed, to further the hapiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now sorely feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. But since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought, and resolve in future, to redouble my exertions and at least endeavor to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestowed on me; or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.
I recently completed my 74th year in this sublunary world. I often reflect, with no small degree of melancholy, that I have as yet done but little, very little, indeed. However, I take solace from Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894):
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
I am a sower of seeds. Perhaps one or two will take root.
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:
If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. (David Sobel)
Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Nature education is a process of discovery, illumination, inspiration, and encouragement. (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
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/IMG_3660.jpg-07.11.25-Outdoor-Ed-Workshop-Attendees-and-Instructors.webp15121766Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-08-06 08:55:572025-08-06 08:55:57Outdoor Alabama Adventures Teacher Workshop at DeSoto State Park
My two Alabama grandsons (Jack Disher, 17, and Sam Disher, 11) accompanied me on June 24, 2025, to the North Alabama Land Trust’s Green Mountain Nature Preserve. We explored the Alum Hollow Trail, where I was scheduled to lead a Land Trust Nature Hike on June 28, 2025. I wanted to scout the trail for features worthy of focus for the planned Land Trust nature venture. Most importantly, I treasure time in Nature with Jack and Sam. I want my passion for the natural world to live in them far beyond my fleeting time on this pale blue orb. Come along with me (and Jack and Sam) through observations, reflections, photos, and brief videos.
Four days later I led the Land Trust Hike with ten eager Nature enthusiasts.
The trail is relatively flat along the 1,400 to 1,500 foot plateau top of Green Mountain. Mixed second-growth upland hardwood is the dominant forest cover, yet shortleaf (below) and Virginia pines occupy the WSW-facing ridge rim where the trail took us. I’ll say more about the preserve’s pine, represented here with a trail marker sign.
Every time I saunter along a forest trail I find magic, wonder, beauty, awe, and inspiration hidden in plain sight. The Alum Hollow Trail was no exception.
Notable Non-Tree Species
Vaccinium aboreum is a species new to me since retiring to Madison, Alabama in 2018. It’s the largest member of the blueberry genus. My fascination may or may not derive from its mirthful common names: farkleberry, sparkleberry, and winter huckleberry. An NC State University online Cooperative Extension publication describes this large vaccinium:
Sparkleberry is a small, deciduous to evergreen shrub or tree that may grow 10 to 20 feet tall. It can be found in rocky woodlands, sandy woodlands, and on cliffs. The leaves are alternate with a smooth or finely toothed margin. The bark is shredded and patchy with reds, browns, and grays present. In early summer, small, white, bell-shaped flowers mature. In the fall, this plant has excellent color. The tall shrub produces a black fruit that matures in the fall and is a good food source for wildlife.
It’s a tough lower-story shrub, seeming to prefer harsh dry sites. I admire it for thriving where more demanding species fear to tread.
We found cedarglade St. John’s wort in flower. Also from an online NC State sourse:
St. John’s Wort is native to SE USA and in NC it is found in the western mountain areas. It is a small, dense shrub that grows 2-4 feet tall and wide with a rounded dense form. It inhabits glades and dry limestone ledges. The foliage may appear slightly bluish-green and is evergreen in its southern range. The showy yellow flowers are bright yellow with numerous stamens on new wood and appear in June-July.
Its foliage and yellow flower drew me in for a closer look.
Greater tickseed is a member of the aster family and is found across Alabama from the Gulf coast to the Tennessee line. I love its whorled leaves.
We feature hydrangea (oakleaf; endless summer; little lime) in our home landscaping. Near the falls the boys and I found wild hydrangea in full flower. Grandson Sam snapped these images.
Although I missed seeing naked-flowered tic-trefoil with the boys, the Land Trust group oohed over its delicate pink blossoms. Note its tri-leaf (i.e. trefoil) foliage. The species is a Legume, a member of the pea family.
I had never asked Jack or Sam to record a brief interpretive video. They have heard me record many, when their role was to be quiet for a moment. I decided to give Sam a try. Without hesitation he recorded this 39-second sassafras identification lesson. He performed as though he’d done it a dozen times! Jack and I walked far enough away not to distract him. He needed only one take. I am grandfather-proud of the result — he may be catching the Nature bug!
We’ll hone his and Jack’s video artistry time and time again!
Selected Curiosities
My third book, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits (co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), highlighted our passion for place and everyday Nature. The term everyday Nature is adequate but falls far short of sufficient. My eyes wander, seeking the unusual, the bizarre, oddities, and curiosities. I say that, yet I must confess that unusual, bizarre, odd, and curious are within the realm of everyday Nature. Nothing in Nature is strange; some things may be unexpected…but strange in Nature is commonplace!
A vividly green vine spiraling a pole-sized hickory tree may strike the uninformed as strange, but its not at all uncommon for a supplejack vine to have hitched a ride to the full sunlight of an upper story hickory.
A large chestnut oak pointed ahead to the left as we progressed. Jack stood atop the tree’s crook. Some would opine confidently that Native Americans modified the then much smaller stem long ago to create an Indian Marker Tree. Sorry to disappoint, but some natural force (branch or fallen tree) clobbered the young erect tree, bending and breaking it about five feet above ground. The bend remains, supporting a new vertical stem that reaches into the main canopy. Nature’s primary life-imperative is to secure a pathway to immortality, whether me through Jack and Sam, or a crushed chestnut oak by way of an adventious bud sprouting a new shoot that reaches skward. The bridge to immortality extends through generations.
John Muir, too, spoke of immortality.
After a whole day in the woods, we are already immortal.
Nothing in Nature is static. A few weeks prior, this chestnut oak’s crown spread over one-fifth of an acre. One of its progeny may already be feeling the sunshine streaming in from the vacated canopy above. Adjacent trees will extend branches laterally to fill the void. The forest will persist even as individual trees succumb.
But in every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)
I recorded this 59-second video of the fallen chestnut oak and a larger one standing regally nearby.
To many trail trekkers, a windthrown oak is merely an obstacle. To the trail maintenance crew…a task. To me, a prompt for mental wandering and contemplation. I wondered whether Native Americans traversed Green Mountain across their 13-15 millennia of occupation. How many times over those 140 centuries did a windblown chestnut oak bar their transit?
Southern Pine Beetle Outbreak
Summer 2024 was a banner year for southern pine beetle infestations across central and northern Alabama, killing thousands of acres of pine forests. Although upland hardwoods dominate the preserve, the Alum Hollow Trail passes through several hundred linear feet of mostly Virginia pine and, to a lesser extent, shortleaf pine. Beetle-killed pine trees posed a threat to trail users.
Land Trust crews felled dead trees. Jumbles of dead pine debris line the trail. Importantly, the forest persists. Species composition has changed. The piles of pinewood will decompose. Adjacent trees will reach into the crown opening; new stems will grow from the forest floor.
Sam found intrigue in a dead pine carcass recently fallen below the trail.
Curiosities and oddities are commonplace. Strange encounters are the norm to those sauntering and paying attention.
Fungi along the Alum Hollow Trail
Beetles belong to the animal kingdom; oak trees represent the plant kingdom; fungi are members of their own kingdom. Mushrooms are the spore producing reprodctive organs of fungi, which variously decay living organic matter, consume dead biomass, or grow symbiotically with living plants. I won’t go beyond that generalization. Go to the Blog page of my website (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/) and search for mushrooms, which will direct you to multiple photo essays focusing on my mushroom encounters. I give you below a few photos of fungi we found along the Alum Hollow Trail.
Coker’s amanita (Sam’s photos) is a common pure white gilled mushroom.
iNaturalist does a good job identifying mushrooms when given top, side, and underside photo views.
Red chanterelle (Sam’s photos) attracted us with their vivid laterns along the trail. A coarsely gilled edible mushroom genus, chanterelles are mycorrhiza fungi with mycelia growing within tree roots, benefitting both the tree and the fungus.
Flaming gold bolete, a member of a polypore (hollow tubes rather than gills) group common in northern Alabama.
Some bolete species are mycorrhizal; other species are parasitic. Some are delectibly edible, while others are not table-worthy; distinguishing among species can be difficult. The boletes are not among the mushrooms I forage!
Alum Shelter and Waterfall
On both days, we turned at the waterfall and shelter.
I asked Jack to record a brief video at the falls. Like Sam, he performed well, recording this 25-second video.
I’ve seen the falls with greater flow, and I’ve visited with far less.
Uncertain of my ability to clamber down to the falls after my two 2024 total knee replacements, I recorded this 59-second video from the trail above the falls.
The Alum Cave is a misnomer. It’s a ledge overhang.
Protected from sunlight and rain, the shelter provides a pleasant spot for resting and reflecting.
I recorded this 60-second video at the shelter.
A child of the central Appalachians, I feel at home in the preserve’s rugged terrain. Pausing at the shelter prompted me to step back six decades. Nature has a way of transporting me, physically, mentally, and spiritually!
A Final Critter
Although the final image in my photo essays, this eastern fence lizard greeted the Land Trust entourage early on our venture. I offer it in closing only because I did not concieve it as a good place to start.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
He who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle. (Albert Einstein)
The cycle of life is without end…as long as our sun shines, rain falls, and Earth remains otherwise inhabitable. (Steve Jones)
Nothing in Nature is static, whether a mountain range or a northern Alabama upland forest.(Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives…sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_7856.jpg-06.24.25-Green-Mtn-Alum-Hollow-Trail-Alum-Shelter.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-07-30 09:58:242025-07-30 09:58:24A Return to the Alum Hollow Trail at North Alabama Land Trust's Green Mountain Nature Preserve
Invited by Renee Raney, Alabama State Parks Director of Interpretation and Education, I assisted in conducting a daylong (June 13, 2025) Legacy Environmental Education workshop for 25 educators at Monte Sano State Park. As a founding Alabama State Parks Foundation Board member, I tirelessly support park Nature education endeavors. I snapped photos, recorded brief videos, and chronicled observations and reflections during the workshop, all of which I highlight via this photo essay.
Rather than hold forth in text on my absolute conviction that Nature-based education is essential to our children and the society they will lead (and endure), I give you four summary observations:
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Nature doesn’t steal time, it amplifies it. (Richard Louv)
I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
Every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by Nature. (Steve Jones)
I’m sure these basic tenets guide, motivate, and inspire the instructors and participants in the Legacy workshop.
Nature served up a perfect start to the day — an ideal outdoor learning environment! Bright sunshine punctuated with puffy cumulus.
Until I retired to my end-of-worklife Nature pursuits, I had no idea that the 20th century’s premier mind, Albert Einstein, advocated keener awareness of the magic and wonder of Nature:
Look deep into Nature and you will understand everything better.
He would have approved Legacy and the State Parks partnering to enable and encourage 25 dedicated teachers and educators to look more deeply into Natue!
Briitney Hughes, DeSoto State Park Naturalist, revealed the secrets of wild tea infusions, a practical guide to tapping the vital natural essence from native plants, and sharing lessons and techniques with their students.
My knowledge of infusions and tinctures could fill a thimble…a small one at that! I quietly observed, saving myself for the South Plateau Trail walk.
I recorded this 57-second video as we departed the lodge and entered the forest:
I won’t attempt reciting every feature and phenomenon we encountered. We emphasized that most Alabama forests are at least second growth. Monte Sano’s forests are 70-90+ years old. Black locust, an early successional species, is dead or dying across the segment we hiked. Nearly all remaining live locust trees are infected by cracked cap polypore fungus, a decay that weakened this individual — note the black bracket mushroom 18 inches above the ground at right. Black locust was a major stand component over the first 50 years of second growth. This specimen is a fading reminder of black locust’s early colonizing and pioneering role in forest renewal.
I’m shamelessly addicted to woodland springs and wooden footbridge crossings. I offer several explanations:
Upland brooks and streams have a pleasant, heavily shaded summer microclimate
Soils are more moist, deeper, and nutrient rich
Trees are taller and fatter
Who is not charmed by the sound of gurgling water!
Birds and other wildlife are more abundant
The brook dropped over the plateau rim below the trail bridge. Who knows what exploration into the hollow would reveal. Perhaps another day.
My 60-second video hints at what may lie hidden in plain sight.
I admit to one unavoidable shortcoming when I am accompanying a group like this. I want to interact with the participants, fielding questions and offering my limited knowledge and interpretation, yet I feel compelled to capture our experiences and discoveries with photographs and brief videos so that I can share more widely via these photo essays. As a result, I pop in and out of the entourage, too often falling behind.
A powerful storm crossed Monte Sano State Park a week prior. One of our educators noticed three oak trees recently lightning-blasted. I sidetracked for a closer look to record a 60-second video of the affected oaks.
I am in awe of the power and fury of Nature. She demands full respect, even as she deserves absolute admiration. I have seen other lightning-struck trees in my north Alabama woodland excursions. Some survived the blast and retained the scars decades hence. Others suffered a fatal blow. Were I to wager the fate of these three oaks, I lean toward fatality.
The trees are not large and the bolt shattered a third of their circumference. I will see how they fare on a future visit.
We paused at the old Lilly Pond, a landscape feature near a former residence 100 years ago.
I recorded a 59-second video as the educators paused at the amphitheater bench seating.
Imagine this deep woodland setting as open space near the old home site…the old pond, now filling with forest detritus and advancing shrubs, then a spring-fed lilly pond surround by grassy uplands. Nothing in Nature is static.
Oak Mountain State Park Naturalist Lauren Muncher Massey conducted a session on Tree Cookie Wood Burning. I recorded this 50-second video of participants sanding Eastern red cedar tree cookies.
I remember my forestry junior-year Wood Identification course at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. We each received a box of 60+ blocks of species we were tasked with learning: their characteristics, uses, structure, hardness, and identification. With pocket knife, hand lens, keen nose, and careful study we grew adept at identifying our woods. That was 1971, a distant 54 years ago. Somehow along life’s journey across 13 interstate moves, understandably distracted by family, career, and life, we abandoned those 60+ wood identification blocks. I’d love to have them now. Perhaps I could relearn some of what has seeped through the weak grasp of aging memory. I vow never to forget Eastern red cedar with its distinctive color, texture, and fragrance.
That long-ago course was not easy. Some of my fellow forestry majors stumbled; others fell. The Lord blessed me with keen interest, an eye for detail, and a zest for learning. Watching the participants bring life to their tree cookies ignited dormant memories from my lifelong fascination with forest products. I won’t explore that rabbit hole today. I may someday devote a future photo essay to that pursuit.
Here is my 56-second video of final tree cookie preparation, fading into a revelation of the wonderful location for a workshop on Arts and Wellness in Nature.
Renee Raney joined us late in the afternoon with her Teacher Creature!
As we moved indoors for our closing Amber Coger (Northwest District Naturalist) led session on Nature Journaling, the fair weather cumulus assumed a more menacing look.
An unabashed lifetime weather enthusiast, I recorded this 60-second video of the vigorous thundershower that pounded our lodge rooftop.
Nature could have changed our day had she delivered the downpour two hours earlier.
I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY!
In broad summary, I declare the Legacy Arts and Wellness Workshop a day well spent!
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:
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Nature doesn’t steal time, it amplifies it. (Richard Louv)
I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
Every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by 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
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/IMG_7597.jpg-06.06.25-Legacy-EE-Workshop-Lilly-Pond.webp16061348Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-07-23 14:16:412025-07-23 14:16:41Legacy Environmental Education Workshop at Monte Sano State Park
I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary on May 17, 2025, with Marian Moore Lewis, author of Southern Sanctuary: A Naturalist’s Walk through the Seasons (2015), Bill Heslip, director of A Tale of Two Extraordinary Women (2022; a 14-minute video telling the tale of the Sanctuary), and Chris Stuhlinger, a fellow retired forester. We wanted to keep our friendship and love for the Sanctuary vibrant, and once more discover the delights we would find hidden in plain sight. Objective accomplished; we pledged to do it again in October!
Marian’s book occupies a special place on my office bookshelf; I may be its biggest champion, wherever I speak or teach in our region.
I don’t see the need for a lot of narrative text for this post, the 30th of my weekly photo essays dedicated to the Sanctuary. I visited first on June 6, 2020 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/06/23/visiting-a-southern-sanctuary-my-orientation-visit/). I reflected on the first GSWS post that the Sanctuary is a special place…and I plan to return again and again:
Robert Service, a British poet who wrote about the Far North during his turn-of-the-prior-century wanderings in the Gold Rush Yukon, beautifully corralled the magic of place in his 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 forest where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.
I recorded this 50-second video offering my reflections on Southern Sanctuary.
I published a photo essay about our YouTube video in October 2022: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/10/11/goldsmith-schiffman-wildlife-sanctuary-a-tale-of-two-extraordinary-women/. Here’s the video if you care to take time to watch it now:
The three of us, Director (Bill), Talent (Marian), and Producer (Steve) posed on May 17 by the information marquee.
As we crossed the grassy area heading into the Sanctuary, we encountered a cooter, covered with aquatic micro-plants, laying eggs. She did not object to the five of us gawking and snapping photos.
We appreciated seeing a climbing prairie rose, a stunning native growing along the Hidden Spring edge of the road.
This species grows throughout most of the eastern US.
Hidden Spring Marsh
Hidden Spring broadens into an extensive marsh as it approaches Jobala Pond. Vibrant arrow-leaf alum and cattail prevail, each among my favorite freshwater aquatic species.
View my 51-second video of the marsh with no narrative; I chose instead to allow an indigo bunting and a tufted titmouse to hold forth!
Marian captured this image of a midland water snake that slithered atop the marsh water before pausing. Marian relies upon a real camera (a high quality Canon with all the bells and whistles). I feel deep envy with my iPhone. Is it time for me to take the dive?!
We saw three snakes on our three-hour saunter. I share John Muir’s sentiment about encountering all sorts of animals in Nature (Even, and perhaps especially, snakes!):
Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.
The marsh thrust another gift in our face — Canada goose parents and nine goslings among the arum. Marian pulled the camera from her side and auto-snapped the convoy before I could extract my iPhone from my shirt pocket. Discovering Nature treasures hiding in plain sight is one thing; capturing their image is another.
Insects are impossible for me to photograph. The blue dragon defied me; I tried to focus on the insect and all my iPhone saw was the much larger view beyond. Neither the dragonfly nor the six-spotted tiger beetle felt a need to hold still enough for me to get close. Marian performed ably and simply…her images are great!
Here is my 57-second video of the marsh with narrative:
A bit further along, I recorded this 58-second video where Hidden Springs Brook approaches Jobala Pond. Margaret Ann Goldsmith donated the original 300 acres of the Sanctuary to the city of Huntsville. I stumbled on the video narrative introducing Marian as Margaret Moore Lewis. Isn’t my first such error; won’t be my last!
Three small beaver dams funneled and terraced Hidden Spring Brook to Jobala Pond. Each one dropped the brook about a foot.
I recorded this 60-second video of a third beaver dam right before Jobala Pond.
Who can resist the music of falling water, made all the sweeter by knowing beaver designed the instrument?
I leave you here with a simple To Be Continued!
And my standard closing boilerplate:
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_7427.jpg-05.17.25-Giant-Burl-on-Water-Oak-at-GSWS.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-07-18 12:06:402025-07-18 12:06:40Part One -- Huntsville's Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary: Tenth Anniversary of Southern Sanctuary!
Note: I am flagging this photo essay as one of a sub-series that introduces the emerging Singing River Trail (SRT):
A 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.
Historic Mooresville, Alabama, is the first town incorporated by the Alabama Territorial Legislature on November 16, 1818. Mooresville is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of Alabama’s most important and intact pioneer villages. Historic homes and buildings, gracious gardens, and tree-shaded streets make a visit to Mooresville seem like a step back in time. SRT’s headquarters site is located a mile west of Mooresville, a couple of hundred yards west of Limestone Creek, and a similar distance north of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, a 35,000-acre reserve of major natural significance along SRT.
I photographed this banner at the entrance lane to SRT’s offices.
The Singing River Trail bears what could be my personal retirement banner. What old forester hasn’t asked, “How do you tell a child to save the planet if he/she can’t tell the difference between an oak tree and a pine tree?”
Mooresville tells the 200-year-old story of a pioneer community anchored in the region’s history of river-based transportation, commerce, and culture, agriculture, and nature. Add to that 13,000 years of Native American life and living along this historic river, and the tale is rich and compelling. I urge those of you who live nearby to visit across the seasons, and to those at distance, visit when you can.
The day I visited the staff at SRT (March 17, 2025), Limestone Creek was overflowing its banks, putting on a great show from my perch on the highway bridge.
I recorded this brief video to share the magic of a cycle operating since long before adventuring aboriginals crossed the land bridge from Asia during the last ice age.
Limestone Bay (fed by Piney Creek, Limestone Creek, and Beaverdam Creek) lies center left below in the lower right quadrant of the I-65 and I-565 intersection. Piney Creek crosses I-565 east of I-65. Limestone Creek enters the Bay just west of Mooresville. Beaverdam Creek crosses the Interstate entering the long appendage of the Bay that reaches to the northeast.
I would love to transport back in time by increments of 50 years to the period of European settlement, and then by 100 years through the next 5oo years, and finally by 500 years to the arrival and settlement by Native Americans. Oh, to see the changes in the land!
For the geographic curious, here’s a close-up of Limestone Bay.
A friend took me aloft in his Cessna aircraft on August 20, 2023 to introduce me to the Refuge from 2,000 feet. The brief video shows us approaching the I-65 bridge from the east, with Decatur beyond. I pick up Limestone Bay only when we turn north, as the Bay passes under the right strut. It’s a fleeting glimpse in a broader video that captures the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe of our 55-square-mile backyard Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.
Wheeler Dam, its lake, and Limestone Bay lay in the far distant future when Mooresville interred its first deceased resident in the early 1820s.
Citizens of great faith, early Mooresville residents relied upon their knowledge, skills, each other, and God to ensure their journey through life and into the future. Faith demands looking ahead…and always up. The Mooresville church steeple points heavenward, reminding all from where all blessings flow.
The quaint original buildings will attract and reward SRT passersby, encouraging relaxation, contemplation, and reflection.
An ancient oak tree, likely dating to the town’s founding, paradoxically shades Piney Street.
Mooresville epitomizes a keystone of SRT, “We are tourism.”
An operating farmstead draws visitors back 200 years to the days when settlers were far more self-sustaining than we are today.
A southern magnolia shades the sheep still warmed by thick winter coats.
Closing
From my first professional apointment in May 1973, through my final role in January 2018, I subscribed to the mission of my employer. I drafted my personal retirement mission in 2018:
Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Mooresville sits at the nexus of natural environment, human nature, history, economy, society, and the future. Developing this photo essays sits squarely within my retirement mission.
Mooresville, AL is just 15 miles southwest of my home in Madison, AL. The fledgling Singing River Trail (SRT) is headquartered there. From its website (https://singingrivertrail.com/), SRT is more than a trail or greenway:
The Singing River Trail will be a 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.
As a lifelong devotee of hiking/sauntering, running, biking, and Nature exploration, I am creating another Great Blue Heron weekly photo essay series focused on The Nature of the Singing River Trail. I will incorporate individual essays into my routine Posts that total approximately 450 to-date (archived and accessible at: https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/). I offer this essay as an orientation to the new series.
SRT is indeed tourism…and for me, a vehicle for meeting my personal retirement 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.
Mark Tercek, former CEO of The Nature Conservancy, characterizes Nature as infrastructure essential for ecosystem services (fresh air, purified water, wildlife habitat, recreation, aesthetics, etc.). I believe that SRT is a necessary infrastructure complement to the Tennessee Valley region.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
I wonder whether anyone present in 1818 Mooresville had an inkling of what 2025 held in store?
Nothing informs the future better than a careful look to the past.
SRT is a necessary infrastructure complement to the Tennessee Valley region.
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_6846-1.jpg-03.22.25-Mooresville.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-07-10 15:07:042025-07-10 15:07:04Mooresville, AL: A Special Nature Place along the Singing River Trail!
Fellow retired foresters Chris Stuhlinger, Brian Bradley, and I co-led a University of Alabama in Huntsville, OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) Nature Hike on April 13, 2025. Our group of 25 covered a little over two miles on what I’ve dubbed the Halloween Forest Trail on the North Alabama Land Trust’s Green Mountain Nature Preserve near Huntsville. We focused on the unusually large smoketree grove, the richly mixed hardwood forest, and the newly-constructed woodland trail and its design. We convened at the Astalot Trailhead.
Brian introduced me to the Holloween Forest on October 25, 2024, prompting me to draft a photo essay: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/12/16/halloween-forest-of-rare-smoketrees-cotinus-obovatus-on-green-mountain-nature-preserve/
I recorded this 42-second video when we left the trailhead. One of our participants provided a full-throat marching tune.
Brian led the way offering commentary on trail construction and forest ecology.
The early growing season hike introduced me to smoketree foliage, the leaves seeming to emerge from this trunk that appears old and rough…not at all vibrant, yet another mysterious element of my Halloween tree.
My 58-second smoketree video does not belie the gloomy nature of the smoketrees nor the Halloween mood I perceived in October.
I would not have been surprised to see saprophytic mushrooms (feeding on dead wood) sprouting from this branch. Instead, these leaves are very much alive, as is the tree.
Like so many sylvan haunts (pun intended), the Halloween forest is a place of contrasts. The trail passed a four-by-four foot, five feet tall limestone pillar. Its tabletop supported a rich terrarium surface, populated with woodland stonecrop, resurrection fern, moss, Virginia creeper, and leafcup.
My 57-second limestone pillar video tells the tale.
Woodland stonecrop presents a stunning floral display perched on a barren rock. Life finds a way. One plant’s desert is another’s oasis!
Resurrection fern commonly grows on leaning and horizontal tree branches. I was not surprised to see it thriving on the limestone tabletop (below left). Virginia creeper has found purchase on the pillar among a rock-top resurrection fern colony (right).
I’ve seen leafcup exceed four-feet on the forest floor. It may be approaching its rock-top terminal height (below).
Consistent with the Halloween theme, this grotesque three-foot diameter burl graced a large chinkapin oak 30-feet above the forest floor. Burls result from a micro-organsim (fungus, virus, or bacterium)-triggered unconsolidated wood growth on or within the trunk. A human analogy might be a benign tumor…a non-fatal disfigurement.
Again, keeping with the spooky-trail theme, here is a patch of Halloween-lovely flowers — American cancer-root. Yes, they are indeed flowers blossoming from a plant. A parasitic flowering plant that flourishes on oak roots. No chlorophyll on this woodland perennial! No wedding bouquet or boutonniere floral destination for these beauties!
I recorded this 40-second video of American cancer-root, a common sight in the early spring oak woods of northern Alabama.
I delight in musing on the dark side of life and ventures in the woods: tree form oddities and curiosities; macabre woodland fantasies; and stories of the strange and wondrous. Washington Irving is among the masters in spinning such tales of the dark woods, foul and repugnant, harboring ghastly aberrations and savage beasts (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 1820):
Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air.
I have walked the Halloween Forest, fortunately, only during daylight hours. I wonder how I might fare wandering the trail alone on a gusty late October night?!
All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness; and though he had seen many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely pre-ambulations, yet daylight put an end to all these evils. (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
Some Appropo Closing Reflections
Yesterday (April 29, 2025 as I write this) I covered (walked; hiked; wandered; roamed; sauntered) along a demanding trail at a nearby nature preserve. I did it at my chosen pace, stopping often to snap photos and record brief narrated videos. When Chris and I co-lead an OLLI venture, I rapidly fall behind, being unwilling to forgo gathering images and videos. Moving with the OLLI pack, Chris and Brian handled interpretation. I found myself lagging satisfactorily, pausing with Randy Boyette at a pleasant limestone ledge, together reflecting on John Muir’s thoughts on this practice termed hiking.
Muir is oft quoted regarding the subject:
I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike!’ Do you know the origin of that word saunter? It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the middle ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going they would reply, ‘A la sainte terre’, ‘To the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.
Henry David Thoreau offered a similar sentiment:
I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least – and it is commonly more than that – sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements.
The genius of walking lies not in mechanically putting one foot in front of the other en route to a destination but in mastering the art of sauntering.
I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks — who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering.
Every walk is a sort of crusade.
With a dramatic flair, Thoreau laid out the spiritual conditions required of the true walker:
If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again — if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man — then you are ready for a walk. No wealth can buy the requisite leisure, freedom, and independence which are the capital in this profession… It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker.
Yes, I admit to possessing a spiritual flair for my woodland and wildland saunters. Perhaps when I venture alone, I am traveling with three companions: John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and Jack Emerson Jones, my dear father who planted the seeds of dramatic flair and spiritual dimension.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker. (Henry David Thoreau)
Perhaps when I venture alone, I am traveling with three companions: John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, and Jack Emerson Jones, my dear father who planted the seeds of dramatic flair and spiritual dimension. (Steve Jones)
I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike!’(John Muir)
Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power. (Washington Irving)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
Photo at right above from my October 2024 visit — me standing under a macabre smoketree.
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_7135.jpg-04.13.25-OLLI-Halloween-Trail-Am-Cancer-root.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-07-02 09:33:242025-07-02 09:33:24Green Mountain Nature Preserve: Spring UAH OLLI Hike through the Halloween Forest
I intended this to be one of my brief-form posts, but I recorded too many short videos to meet my less-than-five-minutes-to-read criterion!
A colleague interested in our northern Alabama human and natural history recently observed that the forests on Madison, Alabama’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve have not changed over the 55 years he has visited this North Alabama Land Trust property. I walked the Rainbolt Trail and circuited the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail on April 29, 2025, snapping photos, recording brief videos, and assembling observations and reflections that tell the story of constant change within the forests of this residential-surrounded Nature Preserve. I invite him (and you) to accompany me on this photo essay trek. He and I later will find a time to saunter the trails.
A volunteer crew from Madison Greenways and Trails (I am an MG&T Board member) built the Rainbolt Trail. The group helps maintain all trails and polices the preserve for trash, graffiti, and other nuisances. Like so much of what the Land Trust does, volunteers do the heavy lifting at Rainbow Mountain.
Mark Tercek, former CEO of The Nature Conservancy, characterizes Nature as infrastructure essential for ecosystem services (fresh air, purified water, wildlife habitat, recreation, aesthetics, etc.). I believe that Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve is a necessary infrastructure complement to the City of Madison, Alabama. I express appreciation to the Land Trust of North Alabama and MG&T!
Nothing in Nature is Static
I parked at the Kensington Road trailhead of the Rainbolt Trail, which rises approximately 220 feet over its half-mile length on a WSW aspect (facing WSW). In our region of intense summer heat, slopes (particular convex-shaped) facing west to south (the souwest quadrant) are the least productive, i.e. of poorer site quality. Trees are shorter and living biomass per acre less. The forest along the Rainbolt Trail meets the poor site quality expectations. One does not see towering trees or dense stocking, nor do they sense a vibrant robust stand. Dead and downed woody debris carpets the forest floor. The two downed trees below are in a state of decomposition suggesting they’ve been on the ground no longer than 8-12 years. They occupied the living forest in 1970 (55 years ago), albeit as smaller and younger individuals. The forest is changing; nothing in Nature is static.
Still on the lower slope, I recorded this 58-second video — note that my narrative states the date as April 30 — take my word, the date on all videos in this post was April 29!
Life on these harsh low quality sites is of finite duration. The upturned stump below left likely toppled within the past dozen or so years. The standing dead oak below right died within the past three years. The decomposing bark clings to at least a third of the circumference, evidencing the tree’s near-term demise. I did not need to wander from the trail to find ample evidence of the ever-changing stand.
These trees fell within the past year. The action is continuous…maintaining an environmental and biological biomass constant. The living forest adds biomass through individual tree height and diameter growth and ingrowth of new recruits, which over the decades maintains equilibrium with living biomass loss through death, decay, and toppling.
Fungi are living biomass dedicated to decay and decomposition, the chief architects of recycling carbon resources and reserves. Fifty-five years ago, fungi and other decomposers were hard at work on dead and down woody biomass that was present. A living forest then and a living forest today, static and unchanged to a layman walking the trails, but unendingly shifting and modifying to students of the art and technology of forestry, ecology, and environmental science. These luminescent panellus, a gilled polypore fungus, may be direct descendents of fungi decomposing oak when my friend walked the site 55 years ago!
I ascended through midslope, still on the WSW facing slope, recording this 59-second video, revealing that every tree has a story to tell.
Another cedar tells me that disturbance has visited this domain routinely. Cedar demands full sunlight to regenerate. Firewood harvesting and periodic fire resulted from the past 200 years of European settlement. Native Americans nomadically occupying and farming the nearby bottomlands may have periodically burned the Rainbow Mountain highland to encourage berry production and enhance small game habitat.
I recorded this 57-second tale of continuing disturbance on the upper slope.
This large cedar near the juncture with the topside Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail yielded to the ravages of a summer 2024 tempest. A wrenching gust shattered the trunk about 25 feet from the base. The top leans hopelessly (gravity will eventually prevail) against a sturdy tree downwind. The cedar’s rich green foliage has faded to brown. The forest carbon cycle knows no end. The cedar tree was in vigorous midlife when my friend wandered the mountain in 1970.
A nearby eastern red cedar escaped the wild wind. I recorded this 57-second video at the juncture of Rainbolt and Loop Trails.
Beyond the low quality Rainbolt slope forest, I encountered more diverse plant life along the Rainbow Loop Trail. You’ll note in my narrative for this 53-second video that I hesitated after mentioning poison ivy; I could not recall the name of an adjacent plant that resembles poison ivy. I knew that the neighbor is fragrant sumac, but the name was lost in a senior moment fog!
A Couple of Special Spring Ephemeral Treats
Woodland pinkroot is a spectacular spring ephemeral. Its red and yellow blooms are special visual treats.
Purple phacelia is also among my spring favorites.
The lower eastside forest is a far different world and ecosystem from what I encountered on the poor site quality Rainbolt Trail. The woodland spring where I recorded this 58-second video rewards those making the circuit.
Along my personal and professional life journey, I somewhere picked up the term landscape amnesia (I believe from my reading years ago of Jared Diamond’s Collapse. It’s a condition that overtakes those who live long term in an area of great familiarity. Seeing the same location day after day, week after week, year after year can blind us to gradual, persistent change. An online source (Yeah, you caught me — its from Wikipedia!) described the condition:
Creeping normality (also called gradualism, or landscape amnesia) is a process by which a major change can be accepted as normal and acceptable if it happens gradually through small, often unnoticeable, increments of change. The change could otherwise be regarded as remarkable and objectionable if it took hold suddenly or in a short time span.
American scientist Jared Diamond used creeping normality in his 2005 book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Prior to releasing his book, Diamond explored this theory while attempting to explain why, in the course of long-term environmental degradation, Easter Island natives would, seemingly irrationally, chop down the last tree:
“I suspect, though, that the disaster happened not with a bang but with a whimper. After all, there are those hundreds of abandoned statues to consider. The forest the islanders depended on for rollers and rope didn’t simply disappear one day—it vanished slowly, over decades.”
I forgive my friend for suffering a common afflection: creeping normality or landscape amnesia!
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
He who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle. (Albert Einstein)
The cycle of life is without end…as long as our sun shines, rain falls, and Earth remains otherwise inhabitable. (Steve Jones)
Nothing in Nature is static, whether a mountain range or a northern Alabama upland forest.(Steve Jones)
The Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve is a necessary infrastructure complementing the City of Madison, Alabama. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied by untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and understand their Earth home more clearly.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives…sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_7319.jpg-04.29.25-No-Static-at-Rainbow-MNP.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-06-25 10:31:462025-06-25 10:43:49Rainbow Mountain Loop--Refuting the 55-Year Claim of a Static Forest!
Alabama grandsons Jack (17 years) and Sam (11) accompanied me on April 19, 2025, as we traversed the Sinks and Wells Memorial Trails at Alabama’s Monte Sano State Park near Huntsville. Seven months beyond my second total knee replacement surgery and 21 months since my triple bypass, there’s little I will not attempt on local trails. I’m relentlessly abiding by the tenets of Nature-Inspired Life and Living and Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing. Come with us as we discover delights and treasures hiding in plain sight.
On the Trails: Sinks and Wells Memorial
Growing up in the central Appalachians of western Maryland, I feel at home on the Monte Sano trails. The varied terrain and hardwood forests range from the rich and productive concave lower north to east-facing slopes to the rocky low-quality west and south-facing convex slopes. The Sinks and Wells trails transect generally good to excellent sites. On a previous visit, I measured a yellow poplar on the Sinks trail 142 feet tall.
I recorded this 57-second video on the Sinks Trail.
You’ll note that I stated in my narrative, “I would not trade this for anything in the world.”
Albert Einstein made clear that one of the greater joys in approaching our sunset years is knowing that we can live on through subsequent generations:
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.
I am looking at the sunset from a far and distant dawn. My Dad would have been 100 this year. He passed 29 years ago, yet he walks with me every step of my woodland saunters. He remains alive through me, even as Jack and Sam will carry my spirit through their lives and beyond.
A Sampling of Spring Ephemerals
We saw many spring wildflowers, including a few notable examples. I offer these in form of a brief portfolio. I see no need to include a narrative.
Dwarf larkspur:
Rue anemone and wild geranium:
White baneberry:
Those three species date back to my systematic botany lab days more than a half-century ago.
I recorded this 60-second video of a forest floor carpeted with mayapple umbrellas:
And the same holds for mayapple and systematic botany.
Mayapple holds a little secret — only the plants with two leaves are sexually mature. If one leaf, don’t expect to see a flower. If two leaves, the flower will appear in the dual-leaf axil.
Drooping trillium grows north into the Great Lakes region. So much of what I treasure seeing here in northern Alabama extends up through and beyond where I studied all manner of forestry.
I suppose I will always be a spring ephemeral wildflower enthusiast — it’s in me for life.
And a Fern
I recall Pennsylvania forests with a full ground cover of New York and hay-scented fern. I miss those special places. Here in north Alabama, I’m pleased to encounter individual plants, like this silver glade fern.
Wells Memorial Trail: One of My Favorite Places
I co-taught a UAH OLLI course this past spring: North Alabama Naturalists and Their Special Places. I selected The Wells Memorial Trail as my Special Place. Search my Great Blue Heron website for Wells Memorial Trail to access previous photo essays on the trail and its magic.
I recorded this 59-second video at three-benches, the gateway to the Wells Trail.
A special place indeed!
Odd Tree Forms
I’ve never encountered a tree form curiosity or oddity that failed to pique my interest. I quote Leonardo da Vinci often in my Great Blue Heron posts. He urges me from half a millennium ago to examine oddities and curiosities intent on explaining the cause of these exquisite abnormalities:
There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.
In fact, I just came to the realization that tree form curiosities and oddities are so common that terming them abnormalities may be a misnomer!
Most of our northern Alabama forests are second-growth, the result of natural regeneration following timber harvesting or suspension of agricultural tillage or pasturing 80-to-100+ years ago. Timber harvesting would have left scarred, injured, and otherwise non-commercial residuals. This massive oak was likely such an invidual. T0day its hollow severely decayed and disfigured bulk is yielding to inevitable forces, its strength to vulnerabilty ratio passing an irresistible threshold.
I recorded a 59-second video of the massive oak.
Its large carcass is scattered across a half-acre. Its once magestic hulk lies broken and disassembling. Decomposers will take over the task of returning its mass to the soil.
Basswood is adept at resprouting from cut stumps. Loggers harvested a large basswood tree here along the upper Sinks Trail many decades prior. These four or five large tall basswoods grew from sprouts around the severed stump — hence, a mature stump cluster!
Here is my 57-second video of the basswood stump cluster, with a couple of grandsons thrown in for good measure…literally for good measure as a scale for judging trunk size.
I stop to admire the cluster each time I venture through these towering trees.
We approached this tree skeleton caricature carefully. It struck a compelling pose, leaning over us, elbows and forearms on the opposite side of the trail supporting its weight. Dare we stand under it, tempting the creature to awaken and snag us from the path? Our hardwood forests may not be the dark and foreboding, foul and repugnant wilderness tracts New England’s European settlers characterized four centuries ago, yet they are still habitated by sylvan ogres and wood spirits. What good would a woodland venture with grands be without seeking and finding such delights?!
I am sure that some trekkers would leap to conclude that this is an Indian Marker Tree. No, a falling branch or tree impacted this hickory when it was pole-sized. The concussion bent the more supple younger stem and broke the top, where the rounded stub protrudes. In response, the hickory activated adventitious buds to send new shoots vertically to resecure ascent into the upper canopy and its direct sunlight. The arched original stem supports three elevated trunks reaching heavenward. The tree does indeed point to something. You are free to fashion the mythical object or destination. I am old enough to remember the old weeknight (1965-67) comedy program, F-Troop. I recall the directions given to one of the characters, “Turn left at the rock that resembles a bear; and then turn right at the bear resembling a rock.” This tree’s directional utility may be of equivalent merit!
And yet another marker tree. Same song, different verse. Physical injury and evolved response to live and fluorish another day; seek the light above; produce seed; pass genes forward; all absent the hand of man.
Nothing in Nature is static; nothing in the natural world is new. I can’t imagine anything that hasn’t happened before…a thousand (nay, ten thousand by ten thousand) times before.
Special Mountain Biking Feature
I’m a committed Nature enthusiast…and naturalist purist. I have no desire to catapult through the forest, kamikazi-style on my two-wheeled steed. I limit myself to paved or smoothly-graded gravel greenways. However, I recognize that mountain biking is a popular woodland pursuit. Our route took us past The Sinks Ride Area. I include it only as a sidebar. Some State Park users praise the expanding bike features. Others consider it anathema to the core mission. I leave judgement to others.
Closing at a Perfect Place for Rest and Contemplation
I like the Three Benches trail intersection where the Wells Memorial Trail heads off the Sinks Trail. The three benches sit in deep shade in the cove hardwood site. A massive yellow popular tree nourishes the soul, reminding me what good living, ample resources, and time can provide. When my dear friend and professional colleague (from my Penn State University days) died four years ago in October, I recorded a tribute video to him at this sacred place.
Here is the 59-second video I recorded with the grandsons taking a breather.
My third book, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits, carries an apt subtitle: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature. When I reflect on my well over 400 Great Blue Heron posts, I realize that my focus is on Place and Everyday Nature.
Alabama State Parks Foundation
I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.
I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76
The Foundation exists for the sole purpose of providing incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.
We are blessed in Alabama to have our Park System. Watch for future Great Blue Heron Posts as I continue to explore and enjoy these treasures that belong to us. I urge you to discover the Alabama State Parks near you. Follow the advice of John Muir:
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.
In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.
I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
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)
There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment. (Leonardo da Vinci)
I would not trade this (exploring in the woods with my grandsons) for anything in the world. (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
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_7186-1.jpg-04.19.25-MSSP-Sinks-Loop-Tree-Creature.webp15781318Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-06-18 14:52:042025-06-18 14:52:04Intergenerational Spring Saunter at Alabama's Monte Sano State Park!
