I am pleased to add the 43rd of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.
On January 17, 2025, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I visited Beaverdam Creek Boardwalk, a National Natural Landmark at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge near Huntsville, Alabama. Accept this Post as a visual photo essay, rich with dormant season imagery and light on science-based interpretation. Take a relaxing saunter through the forest with us. Flow with our boardwalk pace; view our stroll as a forest bathing. I offer this brief-form post with 16 photos and five less-than-one-minute videos, keeping my narrative intentionally abbreviated.
The tupelo stand pulls us in…and up!
I recorded this 58-second video tour among crowded stems, slanted sunrays, and mesmerizing crowns.
The boardwalk ends at Beaverdam Creek flowing toward Limestone Bay and Lake Wheeler.
I never tire of the endless reflections afforded the patient viewer and the soulful thinker. The placid water surficial images reward me visually and fill me with spiritual and emotional fuel.
I recorded this 58-second video of sunshine filling the tupelo forest.
Some tree seeds (like maple) are wind-blown. Oak trees rely upon squirrels for seed dispersal. Birds scatter cherry seeds. Tupelo seeds lie thick on the forest floor, awaiting winter rains filling the swamp to lift them into floating mats, transporting them downstream.
I recorded this 58-second video of Beaverdam Creek at the boardwalk’s terminus.
Leonardo da Vinci recognized the true Nature of water 500 years ago:
Water is the driving force of all nature.
Tree Oddities and Curioisities
Persimmon trees occupy a wide range of site types, from well-drained uplands to the bottomland forests adjacent to the tupelo swamp. Their dark blocky bark, complemented by the regimented horizontal yellow-bellied sapsucker drill holes, fascinates me, pleasing my eyes and warming my heart. Visual delicacy made all the more sweet by fall persimmon fruit suitable for all manner of wildlife as well as human wanderers.
Shouting a subtle do-not-touch alert, this thick mane of poison ivy air roots suffices even absent the “shiny leaves of three” growing season warning.
The ancient tupelo trees populating the swamp are declining, decay advancing at pace (perhaps faster) than the annual rate of stem diameter increment. Life and death spar, advance, and retreat in our north Alabama forests. This magnificent tupelo forest will one day yield to the inevitable undefeated forces of Nature.
However, there will be no end…only a new beginning…a cycle without completion.
Fungal Friends
Decay and decomposition carry the burden of cleanup, recycling organic matter from carbon residue to the stuff of new life. Stinking orange oyster fungus is just one species of fungus performing the forest floor heavy lifting!
This 47-second video captures its magic.
I can’t resist more photos of stinking oyster mushrooms, its moniker worthy of repeated exposure.
These standard white/pearl oyster mushrooms are one of my culinary favorites. Collection of any sort within the protected National Natural Landmark is prohibited. Taking photos is permissible!
Here is my 23-second video of the edible oyster mushrooms.
The towering tupelo trees throughout our forests, the hollowing aging trunks, the seed mats, and the vibrant decomposing fungi remind us that life and death are at play
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. A single trek along a forested trail discloses only a brief moment in time, obscuring the decades prior and the future ahead, isolating us from the scope and scale of the grand forest cycle of life. Henry David Thoreau captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the Wonder of decay and renewal:
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/IMG_6001.jpg-01.17.24-Tupelo-Crowns-Beaverdam.webp15441158Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-03-18 15:08:132025-03-18 15:08:13Brief Form Post #43 -- January Afternoon Saunter along the Beaverdam Creek Boardwalk
On November 23, 2024, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I co-led an OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Alabama in Huntsville) hike at Hickory Cove Nature Preserve near Huntsville. Owned and managed by the Land Trust of North Alabama, the preserve encompasses 146 acres of second-growth hardwood forest, rocky ledges, wet weather springs and falls, and a historic spring house. I previously visited the preserve in late July 2024 (just before my total right knee replacement surgery) accompanied by my two Alabama grandsons (see my September 10, 2024, Great Blue Heron photo essay: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/09/10/trees-of-the-hickory-cove-nature-preserves-legacy-loop-trail/).
Because Chris and I designated this trek as a Hike, our pace did not accommodate the sauntering that John Muir insisted upon and that my photography, videoing, and observations required. As a result, I caught up with the group only occasionally when they paused and at the end! Once in a while, someone would lag with me. I valued their presence but am accustomed to and comfortable with solitary treks. The group hiked (I sauntered) the 1.75-mile Legacy Trail, a delightful forest exploration from 860 feet elevation to 1,010 and return. Come along with me as I offer observations, reflections, 19 photos, and four brief videos.
The deck overlooks an old stone spring house. Justust 100 feet dowstream a stone water trough engineered after decades to still collect and hold water to the brim. Autumn does not barge into north Alabama. Even within a week of December, the crowns are not yet bare. The spring houuse tells part of the land domestication tale. Somewhere nearby, the wooden residence and farm structures served by the spring house lay in ruins (ashes?). Perhaps closer inspection would reveal a long-abandoned and decaying still.
A sauntering pace permitted me to seek and spend a little time with tree form curiosities and oddities. This white oak spoke to me, “Slow down old forester. Pay attention. Ponder why I am so large, aged, and of coarse limb.” I heeded his request (was it a demand?). Evidence and hints within the forest suggested former attempted domestication, including roughland tillage and pasturing. The white oak is considerably older than the forest we traversed. It enjoyed many years open grown, its coarse branch stubs indicating that it did not mature within a tightly packed closed forest. Was it a shade tree at the old homestead or within a hillside pasture? On my next visit I will search for clues.
Woody vines, like this supplejack, are a component of the overstory canopy in most of our north Alabama second-growth forests. Birds drop gut-scarified seed among the brush of a new forest, and ride on the growing stems as the eventual tree winners ascended 60, 80, and 100 (or more) feet above. Most commonly I find wild grape (muscadine and scuppernong); supplejack and wisteria also find their way into the canopy by the same route. English ivy (not native) and Virginia creeper may also be present but seldomly reach beyond mid-canopy.
I like the smooth green bark of supplejack. An online source offers high praise for this native woody vine:
Supplejack is a plant that provides food for wildlife. Its fruits are high in calcium and are eaten by songbirds, wild turkey, northern bobwhite, raccoon, and gray squirrels. The plant supports local ecosystems without disrupting them.
I recorded this 52-second supplejack video:
Once in a while the sauntering old forester caught up with the hikers just in time for them, well rested, to resume their faster pace. Some stretches of the preserve’s forest were better stocked, supporting taller mixed upland hardwoods (at right) still holding fall foliage.
I recorded this 44-second video of the group resuming its quicker pace, leaving me once again to my business of gathering fodder for a photo essay.
Fallen, standing dead, and failing live Eastern red cedar throughout the preserve evidenced past land use. Cedar is a north Alabama pioneer species, one of the first woody plants to colonize abandoned fields and pastures, as well as cutover forestland. You’ve heard the familiar refrain — birds deposit the scarified seeds in emerging brush. The seed sprouts, the seedlings thrive in the sun-rich environment, cedar dominates the stand’s first three to four decades, and then cedar begins to fade as the surrounding longer-lived hardwoods persist.
I recorded this 41-second video of the scrubby forest and a handsome ash tree, as a woodpecker tapped nearby:
I like the uniformly deeply furrowed pattern of green and white ash bark. Everything about the two species is regimented: the exceptional bark, the straight bole, and the species’ regal bearing and vertical posture. Ash trees remind me of the polished cadet corps at a military academy. In stark contrast, the shagbark trees are akin to a gathering of beach bums, their hair unkempt and their clothes and posture of little self-concern. The ash generates a glance of admiration and respect. The shagbark pulls me close for deep contemplation, whimsical imagination, and curiosity about the relative evolutionary advantages of the two forms.
The questions and musings aren’t suited to the hiker; the burden of discovery and investigation falls to the saunterer.
The group paused on the other side of a wooden bridge crossing a wet weather spring. Once again well rested, the group accepted my arrival as a trigger to resume their hiking.
Nearby, I recorded this 54-second video of two relicts (white oak and shagbark hickory) from a previous stand:
As with the white oak near the traihead, both of these indviduals bear coarse branching, large size, and a high crown ratio.
I discovered another tree form curiosity. A mockernut hickory stands within the grasp of a ground-forked sugar maple.
Will they prevail as a threesome? How intense is their competition for crown space (i.e. sunshine), soil moisture and nutrients, and even space for trunk expansion?
Although I have read some fanciful scientific recitations expounding on the wonderful and commonplace reciprocity, comensualism, and cooperation of Nature’s lifeforms, I resist such utopian scenarios. The sugar maple and hickory embrace above is not one of love and endearment. It’s one of coping with the unusual circumstance of both seeds germinating within a few inches and the two plants (the sugar maple I believe is a single forked tree) securing enough of life’s requirements to survuve for six to eight decades. They are engaged in fierce competition for those finite life resources. However, all three stems appear healthy; they are producing seed; their immediate future appears bright. I see no competitive advantage to such close proximity. I don’t anticipate out-living their proximal relationship. I can pledge only to spend more time with them on my next visit. Perhaps they will enlighten me in their own way.
I seldom compose my reflections and observations from these woodland rambles without generating more questions than answers. Rather than closing these pages with words of deep wisdom, I leave you with an image of pleasant woodland surroundings fitting for a late November midday…an invitation to return seeking insight and understanding from the forest. Every tree, every stand, and every forest have stories to tell. I’m still learning the language.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Questions and musings aren’t suited to the hiker; the burden of discovery and investigation falls to the saunterer.
Every tree, every stand, and every forest have stories to tell. I’m still learning the language.
Ash trees remind me of the polished cadet corps at a military academy. In stark contrast, the shagbark trees are akin to a gathering of beach bums, their hair unkempt and their clothes and posture of little self-concern.
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 (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
On Monday, November 25, 2024, Alabama grandsons Jack (17) and Sam (11) hiked the Devil’s Racetrack Trail with me at the Wade Mountain Nature Preserve near Huntsville, Alabama. The 935-acre preserve includes the 1,453′ elevation Wade Mountain summit. The racetrack loop circles a lesser peak at 1,050′. We covered just under four miles…not bad for an old forester recovering from two total knee replacements in 2024 (left in January; and right in August).
I posted two photo essays from my 2022 visit to Wade Mountain:
Those two posts focused on the Nature of Wade Mountain. I chose a different theme for this one: the magic of sharing Nature with grandkids. I frequently turn to Albert Einstein, the 20th Century’s greatest intellect, for wisdom far beyond theoretical physics:
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.
Do not grow old, no matter how long you live.
Look deep into Nature and then you will understand everything better.
We arrived mid-morning (8:30) at the trailhead. Three months after total right knee replacement surgery I felt confident in my strength, stability, and endurance to cover the distance and navigate the trail. The boys knew I would not maintain the pace they might prefer to keep. I was surprised and pleased that I managed a full-saunter rate. Jack climbed into the basket of a three-stemmed white oak while Sam posed on the trail. I will recall moments like this until my final breaths. My hope is that they will remember the essence of our outdoor ventures deep into adulthood.
Wooden benches offered resting opportunites; fallen trees provided bridges into toppled crowns, and imagination portals to other worlds. Albert Einstein would have approved:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Boulders and rock ledges beckoned climbers. I was content to capture images of their ventures, knowing they would have offered helping hands if I asked to join them. With no small measure of melancholy I recall Sam enjoying hikes perched on my shoulders.
My trek with the boys brought to mind a quote of John Muir’s:
I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness.
I had not realized until now that he struck clearly on one of the pricipal themes of my retirement wiriting, teaching, speaking, and contemplating.
The rounded portal in the trailside limestone ledge invites all passersby to peek through for a photo-op (Jack at left; Sam to right)!
I posted myself on the trail and passed my camera to one of them on the far side. A clearer perspective, don’t you think? A lesson for life and living — perspective changes with where you find yourself in a landscape…or on an issue…or along life’s journey.
I viewed the boys through their sunrise portal, they in the bright light of youth. Retrospectively from my 15-month five surgeries period (June 2023 through August 2024), I saw their view of me as their Pap approaching a sunset. Perhaps a bit too macabre, I again quote John Muir:
Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.
I enlightened them, as we walked, about the cycle of life and death in the forest.
The Magic and Wonder of Trees
Grape vines reach into the main canopy of many of our north Alabama hardwood forests These two individuals ascended simultaneously with the twin-boled hickory.
I love finding and catologuing tree form oddities and curiosities. This persistent Eastern red cedar was decades ago slammed to the ground by a fallen branch from above. It recovered with a new stem reaching vertically (more or less) into the intermediate canopy. Like many of the remaining cedar trees, it is fading, outcompeted by the overtopping hardwoods.
Most other cedars have already succumbed, leaving their decay-resistant carcasses behind to haunt the scrub forest near the summit sandstone glade.
Most trees (all in my previous experience) consume the normal tree diet of nutrients, moisture, and sunlight. However, this old hickory seemed well prepared and tooled to consume unwary trekkers. The boys chose to stay clear of the gaping maw!
Perhaps I will keep a distance from this spooky forest at evening’s gloaming. A long ago gale tore the crown from this ridgetop tree. The decapitated denizen recovered with fresh branches, appearing now as zombie-like, reaching blindly to our left.
Even without a gaping maw, this hickory (left) and oak are openly devouring trail signs.
The forest (all forests) holds tightly to their secret doings. This one made no effort to hide its mischievous secrets, and I felt the better for it.
Emerging at the Racetrack Summit
The racetrack encircles an ecotype previously unfamiliar to me — a limestone glade, which I defined and described in one of the previous photo essays referenced earlier. The boys and I welcomed escaping into sunshine beyong the closed forest.
The baldness is of edaphic (soil and site factors) origin.
My 59-second video tells the barren’s tale far better than an old forester’s prose:
I find the stark beauty and literal harshness attractive.
Cedars persist in distressed form, holding true to the halloween mood.
It’s a rough life on these infertile, shallow, and xeric glade soils.
A major power line at the ridgetop provides a refreshing vista to the north, and furnishes enough openess to support a colony of prickly pear cactus.
I recorded this 32-second video at the transmission line.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. (Albert Einstein)
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. (Einstein)
I will recall moments like this until my final breaths. My hope is that they will remember the essence of our outdoor ventures deep into adulthood. (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
I know the date is January 31, 2025! Thirty-six days after Christmas. Why am I posting a Christmas-themed Great Blue Heron photo essay?
I published a full essay earlier this week focussed around a typical Nature-Inspired Life and Living theme.
This essay has a mood that I want to persist year-round.
Although this one presents 17 photos and three videos, it has little prose and is a quick read.
On November 16, 2024, Judy and I accompanied our daughter and her family on the Huntsville Botanical Gardens’ walking tour of the Annual Holiday Festival of the Lights. I did not anticipate that the evening would inspire one of my Great Blue Heron photo essays. Lo and behold, the Spirit of Christmas, the magic of lights, music, and Nature, and the emotion of being with family stimulated me to capture the overwhelming sense of Nature-Inspired Life and Living.
The photos and videos stand alone with little need for my prose. Just three months beyond the fifth of five surgeries since July of 2023, I felt deep seasonal gratitude for life, mobility, family, and healing. Evening darkness shielded my misty eyes from passersby!
I will not burden you with botanical narrative. These crepe myrtles glow with underlighting.
My 23-second video only feebly captures the moment.
My compliments to the spectacle along the walkways.
This 49-second video gives you an idea, even if not complete, of the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe.
My essay would not be complete without glimpses of our family.
Oakleaf hydrangea is my favorite native woodland shrub. Add a bit of red lighting and the foliage leaps from the dark understory.
A forester by training and experience, I wanted to levitate into the canopy.
I marveled at the creativity and effort necessary to brighten entire trees!
Such an enchanted forest!
As the story on my Great Blue Heron website makes clear, the magestic bird is my deceased Dad’s avatar…his totem. Great blue herons frequently visit our neighborhood pond. Our home sits on the north shore. Dad visits often in form of this magnificent gangly bird. These two heron images place an exclamation ending to this brief post.
The magic and wonder of this special Holiday-infused evening at the nexus of Nature and Christian Celebration will inspire me for all of my days. NC State University national basketball champion coach Jim Valvanao, on the speaking circuit after diagnosed with terminal incurable cancer, encouraged audiences to incorporate three necessary daily elements to assure a life well lived:
To me there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think — spend some time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think and cry, that’s a heck of a day.
The Festival of the Lights walk encouraged me to laugh with family, stimulated me to think about the blessings of recovering from multiple surgeries, and brought me to tears of relief for my good fortune, returning health, and precious family.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
The magic and wonder of this special Holiday-infused evening at the nexus of Nature and Christian Celebration will inspire me for all of my days.
To me there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think — spend some time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think and cry, that’s a heck of a day.(Coach Jim Valvano)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Another Note: 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 (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/2024/12/IMG_5467.jpg-11.16.24-Festival.webp12801262Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-01-31 08:42:472025-01-31 08:42:47At the Cross Section of Nature and Holiday Festivity
I am pleased to add the 40th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.
Active Decay and Poofing Puffballs
Alabama State Park Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger and I hiked the Wells Memorial Trail at Monte Sano State Park on December 4, 2024. We found multiple woodland delights: massive grapevines, active decay (and incredible mature puffball mushrooms), and a landscape of sinks, pits, mounds, hummocks, and hollows. The aggregate would have overwhelmed a single Great Blue Heron photo essay. Instead, I offer three distinct Brief-Form essays, this one focusing on active decay and fanciful poofing puffballs.
I photographed this image several year ago. It’s the best photo representation of the magnificent Wells Memorial Forest.
This massive hickory tree toppled across the Wells Trail during the late summer of 2019, five years before my December 4, 2024 venture. I snapped the photo at left on November 16, 2019, before crews cleared a trunk section to provide passage. The April 22, 2020, view is from the stump side of the downed tree taken at the cleared trail. The tree shows no sign of decay; its wood is solid; the bark is intact; the root ball still holds its soil mass.
By December 2024, the root ball had begun to subside as the roots internal to it are decaying; the process of transforming the root ball to a mound or hummock is underway. The bark is sloughing from the trunk. The cut end of the overturned stump is fraying from decay.
I recorded this 58-video depicting the obvious state of decay:
I’ve watched time mark the decay process season after season. I noticed few indications of decay during the first summer. I witnessed an extraordinary blossom of oyster mushrooms in the second…bushel basketsful if foraging were allowed on our state parks. The oysters were few and far between the third year. Since then non edible leathery Trametes and other decomposers have prevailed. Most of the bark no longer remains. The surface sapwood is punky. Ashes to ashes; dust to dust.
Over the past several years of drafting these photo essays I’ve strived to hone my skills at estimating the passage of time since a live tree fell based on degree of decay. I am surprised by the rapid pace of decomposition for this grand old hickory. Abundant rainfall, mild climate, and favorable understory moisture environment encourage rapid decay.
Poofing Puffballs
We discovered another hickory, this one on the ground for less than a year. Mature biege puffball mushrooms sprouted from bark fissures. I believe their mycelia are growing surficially on the bark, and not penetrating into the wood. Other deeper decay fungi will colonize to begin the greater task of wood consumption.
I am a lifelong sucker for poofing mature puffballs, as the 32-second video attests:
After our puffball volcano venture, I recalled that in 2009, I suffered a severe case of Hispoplasmosis, a fungal infection common to the Miami River Valley where we lived during that period. I believe our common puffballs are innocent!
Who could resist the urge to puff these magic mushroom dragons!
Fungi are indeed fun in our incredible north Alabama woodlands. We covered enough ground that I considered our trek a good test of my August knee replacement recovery. However, we enjoyed a pace that allowed full exploration and discovery.
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. A single trek along a forested trail discloses only a brief moment in time, obscuring the decades prior and the future ahead, isolating us from the scope and scale of the grand forest cycle of life. Henry David Thoreau captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the Wonder of decay and renewal:
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5647.jpg-12.4.24-Wells-Mem-Trail-Puffballs-on-Hickory.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-01-15 15:48:552025-01-15 15:48:55Brief-Form Post #40: Active Decay in Monte Sano State Park Wells Memorial Forest
On November 1, 2024, 72 days since my total right knee replacement surgery, I sauntered within Huntsville’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary with dear friends Marian Moore Lewis, Chris Stuhlinger, Bill and Becky Heslip, and Judy (my bride of 52 years)! I felt the lift of a new month, the freshness of an early fall day, and the joy of knowing that both knees (left replacement in January 2024) are far better than in late 2023. My recovery epitomizes the power of Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!
Where do I begin with my 26th Great Blue Heron photo essay dedicated to the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary? I skimmed the list of the first 25 topics and foci. I found no reason for concern about repeating prior themes, photos, observations, and reflections. Nothing in Nature is static. Every parcel of the 400-acre sanctuary is unique. Change is constant across the hours of a day, the days of a week, the weeks of a month, the months, the seasons, the years…the decades…the centuries. Were I to live the years of Methuselah, I might publish a thousand GSWS photo essays without repetition.
Let’s start at the westside entrance on Taylor Road. The observation shelter 100 feet from the parking lot looks over Hidden Spring, where mountain water lifts from the ground, fills Hidden Spring Creek, flows into Jobala Pond, and then empties into the Flint River bordering the sanctuary.
Here’s my 60-second video from above Hidden Spring:
The rain-moistened, lichen-coated water oak trunk stands near the shelter. Even an overnight autumn rain transforms a single tree trunk, highlighting its lichen tint, which will once again dry during the day. The light will shift from dull morning stratus to peaks of bright sunshine. I could have stationed myself at the prior evening’s gloaming near this lone oak. I recorded 0.77″ of rain overnight. The stem at dusk was dry and remained unaffected by the rain until stemflow whetted it before dawn. Occasional photographs would have chronicled the process. Daylight came in form of easing rain, lots of canopy dripping, and wispy fog under thick stratus. Nothing in Nature is static; every moment has a story to tell. The world is like that, whether a natural tale or a human narrative.
The deck faces north into the wetland forest canopy 40 feet above the spring surface. Dripping, limited birdsong, lingering overcast and disruptive road noise gave little identity to the time of day (1:00 PM). Had I been beamed into the moment, all signals would have directed me mid-morning.
As we entered the Sanctuary, the persistent stratus lifted, the day brightened, and we accepted the reality that the day had moved beyond noon. Observations and reflections, both literal and philosophical, stimulate musings. Seventy-five years ago, Jobala Pond was a raw borrow pit where road engineers had mined gravel, sand, and clay for nearby road constructiion. Archival photos show a barren shoreline, a scar upon the land. Nature’s healing powers are nearly without limit. During my lifetime, Mount Saint Helens “destroyed” hundreds of square miles of blasted forest; today the acreage is green with vibrant young forest. Savage 2016 wildefires blackened 70,285 acres in Yellowsone National Park. When I toured the park just five years later, burned forests stood as blackened skeletons underlain by green carpets of new growth. John Muir aptly observed:
Earth has no sorrow that earth cannot heal.
Nature knows disturbance, for disturbance is the way of life and the architect of adaptation and evolution. And so it is with Jobala Pond, now a naturalized stream/pond ecosystem.
Here is the brief video I recorded along Hidden Spring Creek as it entered Jobala Pond.
Beavers are primary influencers of stream flow, function, and structure. Their 18-inch-high dam diagonally crosses the stream at left. A bark-stripped beaver-chew stem segment floats streamside at right.
A red swamp crayfish strenguously demanded some kind of passage toll, posing defensively as we approached. The crawdad, like the beaver, has no idea his habitat was once a destroyed landscape, transformed from an ugly worthless borrow pit to a vibrantly functioning natural ecosystem.
In the prime of my outdoor adventure life (say the 1980s), I would have scoffed at the notion of six (four in the photo and two others of us) ancient grandparents wandering and wondering in emerging wildness, once ignominously carved from pre-Columbian wilderness. Our shared vision is the guarantee of re-emergent wilderness in decades hence. My hope is that these photo essays will serve one small step toward ensuring that eventuality. Ninety years ago Louis Bromfield said of his efforts to restore his beloved Ohio Malabar Farm:
The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished… The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work.
As we reached the point where the creek broadens to Jobala Pond, the thick stratus began to break.
The serpentine water oak branch extending over the pond reflects perfectly on the still water.
The old iron gate adds a touch of nostalgia, harkening back to decades of agricultural production combatting seasonally saturated soils, periodic Flint River flooding, and marauding deer, raccoons, and other crop-consuming critters.
Roundleaf greenbrier produced a bumper crop of deep blue berries.
Similar in habit and appearance to greenbrier, Carolina snailseed (also known as Carolina moonseed and corbead) is a deciduous, woody vine that climbs with thin twining stems or scrambles along the ground, and primarily occurs in rocky open woods, wood margins, glades, fence rows, roadsides and stream/pond margin. Attractive features are its foliage and its autumn red berries!
Before departing the sanctuary, we drove to the east entrance.
To The Sanctuary’s East Side as Sunset Nears
The riparian forest comprises diverse species, straight boles, and stems reaching 100 feet. The Flint River floods much of the forest at least several times annually. Once farmed 70-80 years ago, the mixed forest regenerated naturally.
A stemflow-wetted beach trunk presented a parting lichen-painted visual gift.
Wildness is returning to the several hundred acre sanctuary. Preserved in perpetuity, wildness will transition in decades to an old growth forest condition. I won’t see that long-term result, yet I can take satisfaction knowing the process is underway.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work. (Louis Bromfield)
Nothing in Nature is static; every moment has a story to tell. The world is like that, whether a natural tale or a human narrative.
Nature knows disturbance, for disturbance is the way of life and the architect of adaptation and evolution.
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
And a Third: I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s 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
On October 25, 2024, fellow retired forester Brian Bradley introduced me to the lower mile of the two-year-old Green Mountain Trail, beginning at the Astalot Trailhead. Cognizant of my August 20, 2024 right knee replacement surgery, Brian planned sauntering approximately a mile to what I’ve come to call the Halloween Forest. We had no reason to hurry, taking time to examine and enjoy every element of wonder, awe, inspiration, and beauty we encountered. This photo essay focuses on the lower trail’s mixed mesophytic forest.
The Land Trust of North Alabama’s 818-acre Green Mountain Nature Preserve is in South Huntsville. The Green Mountain Trail stretches 3.2 miles from Riverview Drive to Green Mountain Road. I am not yet ready for that distance. Perhaps by January 1!
The Astalot Trailhead, where Brian and I met, departs from a parking area at the Astalot Trailhead. The 0.06 mile Connector joined the NE-to-SW Green Mountain Trail. We ascended four prominent switchbacks to the Halloween Forest located approximately where the trail bends southward near the western property line. This Lower Slope photo essay covers the terrain and forest ending at the contour-denoted drainage feature that trends from SE-to-NW about midway from the upper switchback to the western property line.
Patches of flowering white snakeroot peppered the lower slope, a surprising artifact of the late summer season.
A Native Smoketree Teaser
A few smoketrees greeted us well before we approached the Halloween Forest, teasing me with what Brian indicated we would see in profusion once we reached into higher terrain. American smoketree (Cotinus obovatus) is a relatively rare species, native to the southern United States, growing in the rocky mountain soils from Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern Alabama westward to Oklahoma (NC State Cooperative Extension online bulletin).
Smoketree is neither common nor does it have commercial value, and its range does not overlap where I attended forestry school and took dendrology and tree identification. Hence, at the tender age of 73, this was, to my recollection, my first and only exposure to the native species. Other species of Cotinus, native to southern Europe and Asia, are commonly used for landscaping.
The native species stems are contorted, convoluted, gnarled, and fit my characterization as tree form oddities and curiosities.
The leaves were already senescing, their green fading and yellow deepening. I am eager to return when fresh leaves emerge and spring flowers earn the smoketree moniker.
The stems appear ancient, well-weathered, and tortured.
View this brief introdction via the small smoketree patch we encountered near the trailhead as a trailor of sorts, stirring your appetite for the full Halloween photo essay that will follow.
The Mixed Mesophytic Forest
White oak is a major component of the main canopy.
White oak, a long-lived species, will dominate the forest for many decades. Black locust, an early successional species, secured the cutover land 80-90 years ago, and is now departing, succumbing to old age and black cap polypore decay, its bracket mushrooms ubiquitous.
This tall dominant individual bears brackets 30+ feet up the bole.
Lying on the ground, this stem shows both the hollow created by a squirrel or woodpecker courtesy of the decay-softened wood. It will serve no more as a bird or squirrel den, yet for a few more years a snake, mouse, or chipmunk may lay claim.
We pondered the tooth marks on this trail sign. Did a squirrel seek to sharpen its teeth? Was there some special nutritional or mineral attractant in the finish? Once again, the answers to Nature’s puzzles and mysteries are not always apparent. Over 73 years of hiking, I have never seen similar sign defacement. Were I still in a New England forest, I would attribute blame to a porcupine, a forest critter reputed to eat anything!
Resistant to ground contact decay, black locust makes great fence posts. Oak and other upland species rot more quickly. This toppled black locust root mass and its still-barked trunk may lie intact for decades. I pictured (and secretly coveted) the root-arms without the trunk as a landscape sculpture, much like a shoreside driftwood.
This unusual pair caught my eye. A mockernut hickory, straight and true, stands to the left of what appears to be an ancient white oak…its stem bent and its bark aged and unusually flaked (I thought at first yellow buckeye).
The oak bears a barrel-sized burl 25 feet above the ground, another suggestion that this tree is a residual from a prior stand. I will examine more closely when I revisit.
Brian shared my curiosity as we passed along the trail.
I recorded this 59-second video of a large mockernut hickory. We wondered whether this, too, is a residual from another generation.
My knee would not allow me to assist Brian measuring diameter. Writing the narrative five weeks after our hike, I am confidant I am now able to scramble on the hillside!
This is one handsome tree. Brian masterfully measured its diameter…a horizontal D-tape placed at 4.5-feet above the stump on the high side! We estimated 36 inches; the measurement gave us just shy of 35! Not bad for a couple of old foresters!
I grew up in the heart of the pawpaw tree range, the central Appalachians, my home just 30 miles from Pawpaw, WV. Less common here in northern Alabama, the tree excites my homing instinct. We stopped to examine a pawpaw patch
Here is my 57-second video of the pawpaw patch we encountered:
Its long leaves deep in understory shade are distinctive.
A traditional Appalachian native fruit staple, the song inspired a popular children’s verse from a song that I remember from my youth:
Where, oh where is pretty little Susie?
Where, oh where is pretty little Susie?
Where, oh where is pretty little Susie?
Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.
Pickin’ up paw-paws, puttin’ ’em in her pockets, Pickin’ up paw-paws, puttin’ ’em in her pockets, Pickin’ up paw-paws, puttin’ ’em in her pockets, Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.
Come on, children, let’s go find her, Come on, children, let’s go find her, Come on, children, let’s go find her, Way down yonder in the paw-paw patch.
I have yet to find a pawpaw tree bearing fruit here in Alabama. During the three college-year-summers when I worked for the Maryland Forest Service in western Maryland I sampled pawpaw fruit, enjoying what I described as a texture and taste similar to bananas.
We discovered a native buckthorn, nicely striated, more distinctively than any I had previously observed. I’ll look for more when I return.
The mid-summer sun barely penetrates our dense forest canopies. By late October its rays brighten the forest floor and illuminates snags like the one below right. I welcome the changing season and its portent of an extened period of dormancy. What glory would there be in spring without the relative gloom of Nature’s December through February rest?
Experiencing the positive evidence of Nature’s indisputable Power of Healing amplified by dedicated phyisical therapy lifts my body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
The answers to Nature’s puzzles and mysteries are not always apparent.
What glory would there be in spring without the relative gloom of Nature’s December through February rest?
Experiencing the positive evidence of Nature’s indisputable Power of Healing amplified by dedicated physical therapy lifts my body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit.
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Another Note: 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 (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/2024/10/IMG_5018.jpg-10.25.25-Green-Mtn-Trail-Hick-and-WO.jpg20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2024-12-27 09:43:312024-12-27 09:43:31Mixed Forest along the Lower Slope of Green Mountain Trail
I am pleased to add the 38th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.
Grapevine Bonanza!
Alabama State Park Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger and I hiked the Wells Memorial Trail at Monte Sano State Park on December 4, 2024. We found multiple woodland delights: massive grapevines, incredible mature puffball mushrooms, and a landscape of sinks, pits, mounds, hummocks, and hollows. The aggregate would have overwhelmed a single Great Blue Heron photo essay. Instead, I offer three distinct Brief-Form essays, this one focusing on the grapevine marvels.
The maturing second-growth hardwood forest on the upper slopes along the Sinks Trail shares its upper canopy with numerous large native grapevines. The grapevines do not climb the trees; instead, they grow vertically with the trees, clinging and hitching a ride as the tree extends vertically. Imagine grape seeds deposited by birds in the brushy bramble of a recently harvested forest among seedlings of black locust, Eastern red cedar, hickories, oaks, and others. The grapevines wrap their tendrils among the leafy leaders of the trees reaching year-by-year heavenward, ensuring their position high in the forest canopy 90 years hence.
I recorded this 53-second video at the first tangle we encountered on the middle-upper slope a quarter mile below the Bikers Pavillion.
This vine produced a peculiar curlicue, a mirthful expression 40 feet above the ground. The Sinks Trail is well used by hikers, joggers, and bikers, most too consumed by through-passing to notice, much less pay attention to, the wonders around and above them. As Thoreau observed, and I paraphrase, I have no time to be in a hurry. Life is too short to miss the marvels in front of my nose!
One of my roles as a senior educator, old forester, and mentor to less seasoned Nature interpreters is to open their eyes to the Nature magic that lies hidden in plain sight. I am confident that Amber sees the delights, is intent upon understanding the wonder, and is dedicated to interpreting the mysteries to stir imagination and appreciation among state park visitors, young and old.
This 58-second video presents another cluster of massive vines within a few hundred feet of the first.
Unlike the oak that supports it, this six-inch diameter grapevine serves only as conduit for transporting the stuff of life (water and nutrients) up from the roots and carbohydates down to the roots.
I’ve puzzled for years over the tree/vine relationship. Clearly the vine benefits by positioning its foliar crown in the upper reaches where, for the life of the tree, the vine accesses full sunlight. Is there a commensurate advantage to the tree? I shall continue to explore the question.
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. Henry David Thoreau captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the grapevine tangles:
I have no time to be in a hurry.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5637.jpg-12.4.24-Wells-Mem-Trail-Amber-at-Grape.webp16241356Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2024-12-13 07:16:152024-12-13 07:25:22Brief-Form Post #38: Tangles, Loops, and Vines in the Hardwood Canopy on Monte Sano
On October 13, 2024, my new right knee (August 20, 2024) and I ambled along the moderate Rainbolt Trail on Madison, Alabama’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve, where I observed the early signs of the coming winter.
Judy and I made 13 interstate moves across our five+ decades of married and professional life. We love autumn, especially where it comes with a flourish with vivid colors, persistent intrusions of cold winds, and harsh signals of what lies ahead. Autumn here in northern Alabama does not make bold statements. It languishes as the heat of summer slowly yields to cooler nights. Already winter has imposed itself where we lived in Fairbanks, Alaska from 2004 to 2008. The two photos below are still shots from the University of Alaska Fairbanks webcam 10/16/24 at 4:00 AM and 10/20 at 8:30 AM. A Winter Storm Warning for 6-9 additional inches is in place for tonight (10/20) through 10/22. During our Alaska tenure, a White Halloween was as certain as a Hallmark White Christmas! As of October 23, Fairbanks had recorded 15″ of snow in October.
The hickory understory leaves along Rainbolt Trail seemed in no rush to show their autumn colors. They were simply wearing out…senescing with brown leaf spots and green fading to yellow.
Understory green ash likewise showed signs of yielding to the inevitable end of the growing season. There will be no bold announcements this year, no curtain call with trumpets and spectacular hues. Last year (2023) was exceptional for our deep south location. I think this year’s lackluster seasonal transition here in north-central Alabama is weather related. I measured less than an inch of rain this August; a total of three inches in September in two episodes; so far (as of 10/20) in October not a drop with an extended forecast for extremely dry.
Some late season wildflowers still bloomed in the trailhead cul-de-sac road shoulder. These are not announcing fall…instead, they state summer’s insistence upon continuing her hold. Partridge pea is finding enough soil moisture to produce its yellow flowers and delicate pinnately compound leaves.
Camphorweed displays as though the first freeze is not lurking in the predawn hours behind a near-term cold frontal passage.
Pokeberry is taking no chances of being ill-prepared for the winter weather that will eventually arrive. Her berries have ripened. Seeds are ready for harvest and dissemination by birds.
Goldenrod continues to attract pollinators.
I should not be so judgemental. Even without fall rains and bursts of colors, I eagerly await our extended November through mid-April season, which I refuse to term as winter. Winter is what we experienced in Alaska, New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. This same period of time in northern Alabama I consider not as winter, but as a fall that gradually transitions to spring, with a few winter-like days thrown in for good measure.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Winter in northern Alabama is a fall that gradually transitions to spring, with a few winter-like days thrown in for good measure.
No twelve-month period repeats itself exactly as the year prior, the reason we express climate in terms of long-term averages.
Every woodland saunter tells you only the truths and secrets of that single outing, and reveals little about what we can expect a year hence.
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Another Note: 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 (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/2024/10/IMG_4960.jpg-10.13.24-Rainbolt-Trail-Senescing-Hickory-Leaves-scaled.webp25601920Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2024-12-10 09:29:342024-12-11 05:45:19Hints of Autumn in Mid-October along the Rainbolt Trail at Madison AL's Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve
On October 6, 2024, a little longer than six weeks since my total right knee replacement surgery, I ventured to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge to gently explore Buckeye Impoundment, Blackwell Swamp, and Rockhouse Bottom by automobile and dirt road strolling. Not yet ready for woodland trail wandering, I welcomed the fresh air, seasonal transition signs, and diverse meadow, swamp, and Tennessee River.
Because the three ecological units are too much to stuff into a single photo essay, Buckeye Impoundment will serve as Part One of my October 6 exploration.
Buckeye Impoundment
On an August 2023 aerial tour, the impoundment appears as a mosaic of agricultural fields, meadows, and marsh vegetation. On the recent on-the-ground visit I parked within the forest where the east/west HGH dirt road emerges from the east. I walked south to about the edge of the photograph.
I photographed the winter-flooded impoundment on January 6, 2020, when the flooded wetlands attracts waterfowl vacationing from frozen northlands.
The impoundment is a complex and diverse ecosystem that ebbs, flows, and fluxes with the Corps of Engineers-controlled flooding. Marshland water remained in spite of an extended late summer dry period. Although beyond my roadside reach, the meadow vegetation is lush. The forest edge shows no sign of coloring.
I recorded this 60-second video before exiting into the impoundment:
I left the car and the forest shade behind. Bright sun greeted me; the woodland mosquitoes remained behind.
Native vegetation along the road shows the signature of seasonal senscence and dryness. Small birds, grasshoppers, and dragon flies foraged among the drying grasses and herbs.
Some areas seemed oddly wet after such an extended period of limited rainfall.
I soon discovered that the entire impoundment has water control devices that are already impeding natural drainage.
Late in the season, an evening primrose is still flowering at the edge of this marshy area.
I recorded this 60-second video of marsh, primrose, and background crows calling:
Red-centered hibiscus refused to release summer.
I recorded this 56-second 360-degree turn around the impoundment, magnifying one of the two spectacular hibiscus flowers:
I found the diverse herbs fascinating, but with knees still too unstable to allow botanizing beyond the road edge, I settled for photos, videos, and a few generalizations. Aldo Leopold, in my view the nation’s premier conservation philosopher, hinted at my surgery-hobbled wanderings. I covet digging deeply into the plants, communities, and ecosystems I explore. I lean toward perusing the things of Nature…peruse, which contrary to common view of the term, means to study deeply.
Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.
The photos I captured do not express beauty so much as a diverse and rich ecosystem I am only superficially appreciating from afar.
A lonely fire ant hill stood at the road edge. I pondered the summer exposure of its location in baking sun. Imagine a powerful July thunderstorm rushing across the impoundment with rain pelting, lightning flashing, and winds howling. Or picture the absolute and isolated loneliness during the dormant months when the Corps raises the impoundment water level to leave a thin north/south strip of gravel road surface between twin lakes of waterfowl habitat.
I wonder do the raccoons that just several weeks before deposited persimmon-laden stools frequent the road surface in winter?
Does the coyote that also fed heartily on Diospyros virginiana fruit venture into the winter impoundment? Perhaps a better question is what creature eats the seeds that pass trough raccoon and coyote?
The dead red swamp crawfish on the gravel hints at another element of the impundment foodchain. I observed but was unable to photograph both a great blue heron and great white egrets, delighted consumers of raw crayfish morsels.
Suffice it to say that Buckeye Impoundment is worthy of ecological study far deeper than I was capable of performing in early October. I’d like to return with knees rehabilitated in the company of a wetand ecologists, herbaceous botanists, and other related specialists. My terrestrial ecology and forestry expertise does not serve me well in the impoundment setting, even when my knees are well!
Regardless, I found delight in consuming the observable ecological and aesthetic morsels on my knee-hobbled outing. Healing progress is palpable…day by day…week by week. I am a unabashed enthusiast for Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing, and a physical therapy zealot. A former athlete, I believe that every effort warrants training equivalent to prepping for the next race, game, match, etc. Healing is reward sufficient to the effort.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. (Aldo Leopold)
A novice at wetlands ecology, I’ve learned enough to inform me that I know nothing!
A former athlete, I believe that every effort warrants training equivalent to prepping for the next race, game, match, etc. Healing is reward sufficient to the effort.
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
Another Note: 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 (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 from my August 2023 aerial observation.
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/IMG_4876.jpg-10.6.24-Buckeye-Impoundment.jpg20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2024-12-05 09:43:442024-12-05 09:43:44Buckeye Impoundment in Early October on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (Part One)
