Huntsville Archives - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

Mid-December Saunter on Monte Sano Oak Park Trail

April 6, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I co-led a North Alabama Land Trust Nature Hike on December 13, 2025, at Monte Sano Nature Preserve. I had never trekked the Oak Park Trail, which climbs ~300 feet up the north side of Monte Sano Mountain, returning via a counterclockwise circuit to the trailhead. Like so many of my first-time treks, I didn’t know what to expect. Join me as I share my reflections, observations, a few images, and one brief video.

The trail is within the city of Huntsville, just 25 minutes from my home. My career took Judy and me through thirteen interstate moves in this sequence: Cumberland, MD to Syracuse, NY; Franklin, VA; Savannah, GA; Prattville, AL; Syracuse, NY; State College, PA; Auburn, AL; Cary, NC; Fairbanks, AK; Urbana, OH; West Chesterfield, NH; Fairmont, WV; Madison, AL. We learned that we prefer wrinkled land, where a 25-minute drive can take me from 800 feet on the Tennessee Valley to the Cumberland Plateau’s Monte Sano, 1,600! I enjoy exploring the wrinkled terrain of northern Alabama and its rich forests. Wrinkled is different from mountainous. From our 1,000-foot elevation University of Alaska at Fairbanks, we could see Denali (aka Mount McKinley; 20,310 feet) on a clear day. The White Mountains rose 3,176 feet within 20 miles to our north. At the tender age of nearly 75 years, with two knee replacements, chest scars from triple bypass surgery, fully recovered from a minor stroke, and a few continuing aches and pains, wrinkled is sufficient to sate my woodland exploration appetite!

I recently saw a relevant meme:

The Land Trust’s signage welcomes, orients, and directs visitors.

I borrow from an online descriptor of the trail, here is the route we followed: Climb up the north side of Monte Sano! One of the favorite trails of our trail running groups is Oak Park, which you’ll follow until you get to the northern fork of the Buzzard’s Roost Trail, which features a small waterfall at the wetter times of the year. Take the loop of Buzzard’s Roost back down across the Dallas Branch Spring to the lower section of Oak Park, and climb back down to the parking lot for a short but vigorous hike.

Even this old forester, who knows most of our main canopy species by sight, appreciates tree identification plaques. It’s always nice to confirm my skills. Two old favorites, yellow poplar and northern red oak, shouted their greeting long before I read their name tags.

Sugar maple and American basswood likewise are easy to identify based on nearly 60 years of familiarity!

The trail presented no difficulty to our group. Mostly gentle grades, smooth surface, and well-marked.

A yellow buckeye stands beside a red oak (left). An identified black oak is at right.

Nearby are a pignut hickory (left) and paulownia (right).

The rock formation below resembled a dry waterfall, yet there was no evidence that surface water flows even during heavy rains. Does it under special conditions, less frequently than annually, carry water? Decadal floods? One hundred-year events?

A minor wooden bridge crosses a ravine, currently dry.

A trailside marker describes another footbridge, this one constructed using “no power tools, only saws, hammers, wedges, etc. over a period of 3.5 days in April 2017.”

Here is the referenced video of a hand-built black locust bridge:

Black locust wood is disease resistant, renowned for use as fence posts.

We chose the Buzzards Roost Trail to continue our counter clockwise citcuit, eventually returning us to Oak Park Trail at an intersection where we had earlier passed to the left.

Buzzards Roost provided a nice place to rest and enjoy the clear beauty, a place that gave me a feeling that we were far higher than 1,300 or so feet.

We looked downhill from the Roost. A crooked green ash tree, at the base of the ledge, drew closer with the telephoto lens.

Further magnified, a pool of water reflecting branches above it hints that even in a dry autumn, moisture is present. I can accept that were I to return in a period of mid-winter rains, the Roost would feature a small waterfall at the wetter times of the year!

We descended the limestone slabs working our way to Dallas Branch Spring below the Roost. We passed a large gnarly white oak fronted by a tortured looking eastern redcedar.

There’s little soil and only seasonally abundant water to sustain forest cover.

Dallas Spring greeted us with surface water among the rocks.

Meager flow hinted of the wet season to come.

Hidden beyond the trees, Buzzard’s Roost stands above the photo point (left). Water trickles downstream (right).

The winter sky, soft cirrus and pale blue, drifts past beyond the canopy. This time of year we don’t need to distract ourselves with those pesky rising cumulus and 30 percent chances of afternoon showers…capable of drenching us with frog-strangling rains, gale force microbursts, and tree-slamming lightning bolts!

Okay, to be honest, I enjoy summer’s pop-up thundershowers. They add variety and spice to our long hot summers. They give us most of the rainfall that sustains the lush forests where I hike, explore, study, celebrate, and find spiritual renewal across the seasons. Winter rains, contrary to summer’s hit and miss downpours, are predictable days in advance.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

At my age, wrinkled land is sufficient to sate my woodland exploration appetite! (Steve Jones)
Like so many of my first-time treks, I had no expectation beyond knowing that I would find more than I sought! (Steve Jones)
All men are created equal; only the best can still go hiking in their seventies! (Anonymous meme)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Squeezing a 90-Minute Woodland Saunter into Four Hours!

April 1, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I co-led a University of Alabama in Huntsville OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) Nature Hike on Saturday, March 28, 2026, with fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger. Chris led the way; I swept, bringing up the rear behind our 15 seasoned hikers (we’re predominantly retirees). We departed from the Kensington Trailhead on the North Alabama Land Trust’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve, climbed to Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail, visited Balance Rock, and returned to our vehicles. Come along, and I’ll show you what I crammed into a one-hour and 43-minute venture!

I want to articulate a lesson with this Great Blue Heron photo essay. Like John Muir, I prefer sauntering, slow and deliberate, attentive, purposeful movement within the forest. Contrast sauntering with hiking, which progresses rapidly through the wildness, focused on the destination more than the passage. I am the master of squeezing a 90-minute hike into four hours!

I chose to sweep this day so I could take time to look, see, and photograph the wonders I anticipated finding hidden in plain sight. Most of my group surged ahead. I stopped when something shouted to grab my attention — a flowering plant, a curious tree form, or an odd rock formation. I would snap a photograph or two, then surge to catch up to the group. I wanted to record many more videos than the single one I captured. Had I been alone, I would have seen far more than my impelled pace permitted. I give you with this rushed essay a small taste of what our speedy hikers missed, by and large. Sure, they enjoyed the hike, although I overwhelmingly prefer the pleasure, joy, and satisfaction of deeper examination.

Without unecessary narrative, here is what I packed into 103-minutes on the trail. I could have used three hours or more!

Ephemeral Spring Flowers

American cancer root, the flower from a parasitic plant that grows on oak roots. I shared the discovery with the one person lagging behind with me. Most people did not notice this fascinating organism common to our late March hardwood forests!

Violet woodsorrell is a common woodland spring ephemeral.

Fire pink is less common and and spectacularly beautiiful. See it this time of year or forget about it!

Purple phacelia is another seasonal mid-spring delight, often growing atop boulders and ledges, as were these. Why in those curious niches, where nutrients and moisture are subject to the whimsy of weather fluxes. Their beauty would have made good topics for conversation and speculation. I still do not have all the answers, nor even a complete set of questions..

Eistein knew that Nature held natural secrets of unfathomable depths:

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

I shall never tire of red buckeye’s triumphant declaration of spring life, exclaimed with simultaneous glossy palmate leaves and stacked upright clusters of tubular red flowers

Amur honeysuckle, native to eastern Asia, is a fast-growing shrub that forms dense thickets, outcompeting native plants and altering local ecosystems. Seeing it in flower presents another teachable moment. Pretty…and pretty disturbing!

Virginia creeper is opening its palmate leafy umbrellas.

Atop Rainbow Mountain xeric conditions furnish an ideal site for prickly pear cactus: shallow soils, exposed microsites, and little capacity for moisture retention. Another feature worthy of observation, reflection, and learning.

I have been unquenchably in love with trilliums since my spring 1970 systematic botany course in Maryland’s Appalachian Region. Sweet Betsy is among my local favorites. Like every flowering plant I found, the season is brief.

Shiny New Leaves

Poson ivy, although ornamented with shiny new leaves, is one I can admire without touching!

Fragrant sumac, resembling poison ivy, appeared in profusion along the trail. Recognizing the distinction is not unimportant!

Rusty blackhaw was just showcasing it rust-hued leaves.

Nature does indeed abhor a vacuum; life finds suitable habitat almost anywhere. Rock greenshield lichen paints the surface of bare exposed rock surfaces across our harsh wooded ridges.

Our group paused when we intersected Rainbow Loop Trail.

I recorded this 54-second video as I caught up with our group as they paused.

Stone Statuary

One of our party stood gazing at Balance Rock.

The late morning sun graced our observation perch with a reverent glow.

Rainbolt Trail passes through a labyrinth of imagined stone statuary. I saw this rock frog perched atop a limestone ledge.

Einstein saw extraordinary value in mind-rambling:

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

Remember, employ your imagination to envision the stone-hard gaze of this ancient warrior’s severe countenance staring from right to left.

I photographed this rock face along the trail in November 2024.

Trees Meet Stones

A persimmon tree stood silently along the trail, backdropped by yet another limestone ledge.

This oak somehow grew wedged in a rock crevice, forcing life’s sustenance from roots penetrating into mineral soil below.

Another oak, a chestnut oak, likewise precariously clings to life in a not-so-friendly survival niche.

Downslope from a Rainbow Loop ledge, I spotted a fearsome creature awaiting the freefall of any unwary, hapless, clumsy hiker who slipped from the rim. Its awry, gaping maw, face contorted from prolonged hunger, is poised. I wonder whether any of our party saw it? Good thing they were sure-footed!

A trailside white oak sniffed us as we wandered blithely past, oblivious to its sentinel presence.

And this agonized spectre of a redcedar also stood watch on the Rainbow Loop. Did anyone else witness its tortured form. Leonardo da Vinci observed, There is no result in Nature without cause. Oh, I longed to explore its cause with flellow hikers!

I wished the same for this old redcedar denizen, yet another work of art, grandeur, and mystery.

I’ve said repeatedly in my weekly photo essays, every tree has a story to tell. What is this redcedar snag’s tale?

Evev the redcedar burl has a story worthy of exploring. An old injury, providing an infection court for bacteria, fungus, virus? Does it harm the tree? Affect growth? What nature of bowl could a woodshop crafter produce?

Two ancient chestnut oaks stand at the southwest rimroack of Rainbow Mountain. Two centuries of harsh survival?

Sparkleberry is the only tree form (marginally so in my estimation) of the blueberry (Vaccinium) genus. Its tough, contorted, multiple stemmed character seems content on sites where real trees struggle.

What a rich panoply of Nature’s gifts, harvested (observed, photographed, and contemplated) across a 103-minute forest speed-reading excursion. Forty-eight photos in 103 minutes. That’s 2.25 mppp (minutes per publishable-photo)! I won’t do that again. I made my point. I can’t both responsibly co-host a hike and gather sufficient observations, reflections, photos, and videos for a Great Blue Heron photo essay.

Closing

I recalled and reflected upon the lyrics of a beautiful, haunting, sobering song written by Cody Johnson and recently re-released by Kid Rock:

If you got a chance take it
Take it while you got a chance
If you got a dream chase it
‘Cause a dream won’t chase you back
If you’re gonna love somebody
Hold ’em as long and as strong and as close as you can
‘Til you can’t

Here’s Kid Rock’s performance: https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=kid+rock%27s+til+you+can%27t&type=E210US752G91913#id=1&vid=65bad198429e2f998a60294e98819e09&action=view

After wandering forests for three-quarters of a century, I was struck with the notion that I intend to continue doing so…until I can’t. A day will come when I can’t. I look at my wife, kids, grandkids, friends, and colleagues through the same reality filter. A day will come… when I can’t.

I recall the dawn…my dawn…from a growing distance. I sense the evening gloam approaching. I ask myself, do I want to invest a single woods venture by racing with a group from one place, through the woods, to another, with virtually no time for inter-personal, social intercourse? And certainly too little time to harvest photo essay fodder. I relish each step at my own pace, embracing the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration? Are my Mission yields (To educate, inspire, and enable participants to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.) sufficient from an OLLI woods walk to merit my time?

I love introducing Nature to others, but my minimum requirement perhaps must be for more of an introduction than a handshake or nod. This past Saturday amounted to little more than a superficial greeting with Nature. I may explore whether there is enough interest within OLLI for an occasional 3-4-hour long meaningful woodland excursion…a probing immersion with a limit of 6-10 eager and dedicated learners.

I shall continue to wrestle with the dilemma, pondering the best use of my time, expertise, and passion. Louis Bromfield intimated that the best that any of us can do during our fleeting existence is to change some small corner of our earth for the better through wisdom, knowledge, and hard work. Until we can’t…

I shall remain a dedicated servant of encouraging informed and responsible Earth stewardship...Until I can’t…

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike! (John Muir)
Every tree has a story to tell to those of us intent on learning the language. (Steve Jones)
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship. Until I can’t!

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

I 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

Thanksgiving Eve Fungi Encounters at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

March 11, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Mushroom Potpourri

I ventured into the bottomland hardwood forest south of HGH Road, east of Jolly B. Road, on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, Limestone County, Alabama, on the morning of Thanksgiving Eve, 2025. A chilly post-frontal breeze blew from the north-northwest under cloudless, cerulean skies. I hoped recent rains would bless me with a variety of mushrooms to view and catalog. Join me via this Post on my two-hour bushwhack discovery jaunt.

I am an old forester, learning in retirement to identify some regional fungi by their mushrooms, with special attention to common edibles, such as oysters, chanterelles, lion’s mane, puffballs, chicken of the woods, jellies, and a few others. I relish the rich tapestry of a vibrant forest, where death and life are interwoven in an elegant, intricate, and unending dance of carbon accumulation, decay, and recycling. Fungi are among the decomposers; mushrooms, their reproductive organs, disseminate billions of spores to ensure the cycle remains unbroken.

I am not a mycologist. Please don’t hold me to properly identifying the fungi pictured below. I rely on memory, limited referencing my several source books, and too much reliance on my close companion iNaturalist. I give you my best shot.

False turkey tail covers the surface of this downed red oak trunk. The bark hasn’t yet sloughed, owing in large measure to the brackets and mycelia holding fast.

Pear-shaped puffballs populated the oak. These had not yet ripened.

Some puffbals were ripe, emitting clouds of spores when poked.

I recorded this 22-second video of the finger-poked smoking puffballs.

I spotted a biodiversity cornucopia on another downed oak: snow jelly fungus, crowded parchment, and a white-lip globe snail on a carpet of seductive entodon moss. Wow, I’m getting chills just remembering the magic hidden in plain sight…a nature-enthusiast’s siren song!

Each time I enter any woodland, I strive to see magic hidden in plain sight. The mushroom/snail/moss menagerie congregated within a six-inch diameter circle. Add to the life assemblage that the snail is very likely consuming algae and organic detritus. A remarkable six inch circle of life. I wonder what I may have missed on my woodland circuit. I spotted the six-inch circle domain only because my wide, circuitous wanderings brought me within a few feet of the log.

I’m reminded of the intensive, scientific forest inventories I’ve conducted across my forestry career:

Maryland Forest Service, Savage River State Forest (1970-71) — two summers (after freshman and sophomore forestry years) systematically sampling fifth-acre plots
Union Camp Corporation (1973-1985) — sampling company forestland to prepare timber sales
UCC (1973-85) — regeration surveys to assess planted pine survival after the first growing season
Doctoral field research (1986-87) — sampling uncut second growth Allegheny hardwood forests in northwestern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York

I mention my professional inventories to contrast my informal, haphazard, unscientific wanderings seeking whatever caught my eye on a late fall saunter at WNWR. I wonder what a gridded sampling filling a full day would have revealed? I leave such a venture to a forest mycology graduate student…or maybe an artist/photographer intent on assembling a portfolio of Nature’s limitless delights.

Back to the six inch circle of diverse life. Each component of the miniature ecosystem warrants an individual photograph. I don’t recall previously seeing snowy jelly fungus. As its name suggests, it feels like Jello!

Crowded parchment is ubiquitous throughout our hardwood forests. It is a saprobic, wood decaying bracket fungus occurring on stumps, logs, and sticks of hardwood trees, especially oak.

The white-lip globe snail grazed peacefully, oblivious to the old forester observing it.

The seductive entodon moss offers a dense carpet, ideal for gathering and holding moisture and nutrients, and offering the snail a surface to scour with its rasping mouth parts. I love the seductive moniker. Perhaps seductive to the globe snail!

Club-like tuning fork mushrooms and Carolina shield lichen colonize this downed stem. Surely, an other worldly scene!

Carolina shield lichen, a primary decomposer, seems to possess this dead and downed hardwood stem. Although I may assume it is understood by many, I will risk stating the obvious. A lichen is a composite organism composed of a fungus and an alga (singular of algae) growing communally. An online source strays from my simplistic explanation: a lichen is a hybrid colony of algae or cynobacteria living symbiotically among filaments of multiple fungus species, along with bacteria embedded in the cortex or skin, in a mutualistic relationship.

I do not aim with these weekly photo essays to demonstrate how much I know. Leonardo da Vinci captured my approach to communicating complexity:

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

I reported to several boards over my senior administrative career. When preparing for quarterly board meetings, I coached my staff to Keep it Simple. Present as though board members were sixth graders, not because they were either unable to understand complex issues, quantitatively limited, or unfamiliar with higher education. Instead, board members have lives, businesses, and many distractions, and then meet only four times a year, jumping into our boiling university cauldron. Forcing you (staff) to keep it simple assures that you will edit, condense, and summarize the essential, key elements more concisely, precisely, and powerfully. I keep my Great Blue Heron prose at the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 10.

Oak bracket mushrooms can be massive, growing at the base of living and dead oaks. Other common names include weeping conk, warted oak polypore, and weeping polypore. Note the thick amber, honey-like liquid secretions

My beauty-of-the-day designation goes to coral-pink merulius, a colorful decomposer of dead woody debris.

Ganaderma sessile, a type of laquered saprobic polypore bracket fungus, decomposes dead hardwood logs, stumps, and other debris. One oneline site refers to the species as a beautiful polypore, yet I am not persuaded to elevate it to beauty-of-the-day! I recall from my long-ago forest pathology course hearing the moniker bear’s tongue fungus. I see the resemblance.

I have doubts about this being deer-colored Trametes (Trametopsis cervina), yet iNaturalist seemed at least marginally confident. I like this individual’s powder puff appearance, which drew me to powderpuff bracket (Postia ptychogaster), which is found in both Europe and North America.

Autumn is the season for bulbous honeytop, a delightful edible. I have found large colonies of honeytop mushrooms elsewhere. I don’t remember seeing bulbous honeytop. The photo at right shows the conspicuous swollen stem base.

The late autumn forest carbon cycle was in full gear, a surging, steaming stewpot of life, death, and renewal.

Other Lifeforms

I snapped the below left photo of the bracket fungi and coral-pink merulius, only to find the white-banded fishing spider later when I examined the image, which explains why the enlarged spider image at right is not in focus. The spider was indeed hidden in plain sight.

Resurrection fern shows full life during the moist North Alabama dormant season. Partridgeberry likewise displays vibrant green winter foliage, combined with its bright red berries. Some people complain of our winter dreariness and incessant drabness. Contrarily, I delight in its stark simplicity, exquisite contrasts, and unlimited delights. Summer woods present a visual maelstrom that can overwhelm an old forester seeking isolated delights. Dormant season performances present on isolated stages.

I’ll end with another gelatin mushroom, American amber jelly, which I found on the gravel road near my car. The infected dead twig fell from the canopy overhead. The background is my tailgate. I have harvested and consumed these uniquely-textured shrooms occasionally.

Thanks for accompanying me virtually. It didn’t match a six-mile circuit of Jenny Lake in the Tetons, but it offered everyday Nature delights almost in my backyard (15-mile drive), absent the time and expense visiting a world class National Park.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Fungi deepen forest exploration mystery and intrigue. (Steve Jones)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. (Aldo Leopold)
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. (Leonardo da Vinci)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Curiosities, Oddities, and Mysteries In a Sanctuary’s Bottomland Hardwood Forest!

February 2, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On October 14, 2025, I had nearly two hours to roam before meeting with a colleague to prepare for a scheduled joint seminar the next week. I visited the tupelo swamp on the northeast side of Huntsville’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary. I had no objective beyond seeing what may lie hidden in plain sight during the dry autumn season. Never disappointed by my routine impromptu explorations, I discovered a portfolio of interesting features.

A Big Oak Topples into the River

Sometime this past summer, this 2.5-foot diameter water oak toppled violently into the adjacent Flint River, blocking at least half of the river’s width. The crown clings to the brown leaves that were in full flush when the tree fell.

I recorded this 58-second video of the toppled water oak.

I wonder whether the crown will hold in place when winter rains swell the river to bankfull and beyond. The force will be powerful. Only Nature knows her limits, yet cares nothing of the consequences. I’ll keep an eye on her antics and impacts.

I observe in nearly every Post, death is a big part of life in our forests.

Another Big Oak Decomposes and Decays

Across eight years of permanent residence in North Alabama, I am learning better how to estimate the pace of decomposition and decay based on observation. Marian Moore Lewis, author of Southern Sanctuary, and I encountered a recently uprooted red oak on November 18, 2020 in this same bottomland forest. Fine roots were still evident; the root ball soil remined intact; bole bark and crown appeared fresh.

The massive root ball is clearly weathering away in my October 14, 2025 photo. Only the largest woody roots remain, yet even they are rapidly decaying. Trunk bark is shredding and stripping. Five years leave a striking mark on a large oak. My eye is calibrating. I am confident that I can estimate time since windthrow within 2-3 years, through the first 20 years. By then, the soil incorporation is in control.

I will continue to Monitor…and Learn.

A Rich Species Mix

With litte necessary narrative, here are some of the tree varieties I encountered.

A nice crop of walnuts beneath a 24-inch diameter black walnut.

A sycamore and an attractive natural forest floor arrangement of peeled sycamore bark, a dropped leaf, and a seed ball.

Sycamore’s peeling bark is one of its distinctive features.

During my frequent Nature interpretive walks, more than half of participants recognize sycamore, provided I offer some hints and prompts.

Carpinus caroliniana is an understory to mid-canopy hardwood that has been a favorite of mine since my undergraduate student days. I learned its common name as musclewood. It resembles the sinewed fibers of a muscled arm. Other common monikers include American hornbeam, blue beech, and ironwood. I photographed two individuals.

I’m a lifetime fancier of tree form oddities and curiosities.

An Attractive Fungal Resident

A twin water oak nestled aged resinous polypore brakets in its fork.

I recorded a 58-second video at the infected twin water oak

Again, death is a big part of life in our forests. The twins are diseased. Mycelia are decomposing and decaying the twin. Death is underway. Although macabre, the truth is that the end begins at the start…for all life on earth.

Answer Me This

Just ten feet from the infected twin, I spotted this galvanized nail in another water oak. Yet another story that I cannot but weakly ponder. Did it mark a survey point? Is it related to transfer of the private property to the city to create the Sanctuary? A scavenger hunt or geocaching site? Pardon the pun, but I am unable to nail the reason!

I will continue finding riddles I cannot solve.

Water Tupelo Swamp

I grew up and attended forestry school far north of the natural range of water tupelo, which may explain my fascination with this forest type. I’ve published at least a dozen Posts about my adventures in this forest type, including several in the Sanctuary. I will offer only an album of photographs without detailed narrative. These buttressed tupelo draw me. The dry season standing water and soil saturation hint at the deeper water ahead in the winter.

You don’t need much beyond my 60-second swamp tour video overview.

Strange tree forms and a haunting aspect dominate.

This is far removed from the upland hardwood forests I wandered in my youth.

I recorded a 48-second video of a massive water tupelo. I estimated its ground-level diameter as 12-14 feet!

I relish the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration!

What is the hairy, grizzled, bearded old man of the tupelo forest!?!?

See my related Post (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/10/27/brief-form-post-47-strange-bearded-tupelo-trees-air-root-mysteries-and-curiosities/) for the answer!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Tupelo forests are far removed from the upland hardwood forests I wandered in my youth. (Steve Jones)
Death is a big part of life in our North Alabama forests. (Steve Jones)
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

They’re back — Sandhill Cranes Return to Alabama’s Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

January 27, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I visited the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center on December 19, 2025, my first venture since the winter cranes returned a month prior. I parked in the Center’s lot within 30 minutes of leaving my driveway. Think of it…a world-class wildlife and Nature destination just 20 miles to the WSW. My heart-and-soul bond with these magnificent birds rekindles when I hear the clamorous bugles, rattles, and croaks of 10-15,000 sandhill cranes celebrating their winter feeding and trumpeting their social frenzy in our southern climes.

Cycle fractals define so much in Nature: hydrologic, carbon, nitrogen, food, and life cycles. The same for the rhythms of seasonal, nutrient, migratory, and reproductive pulses, as well as our human birth, youth, maturation, reproduction, child-rearing, aging, sowing seeds, leaving memories, and saying goodbye continuum. Sandhill cranes commonly live 20-40 years. I first witnessed the winter Wheeler cranes 30 years ago (1995). Most of the cranes I saw on December 19, 2025, hatched since then, and yet the teeming flocks seemed unchanged. Such is the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of cycle, rhythm, and pulse fractals.

Reacquainting with the Cranes

Straight down the slope from the Center display and museum building, thousands of cranes crowded the marsh, pecking and scratching for food, cavorting, courting, leaping, communicating, fussing, and likely just plain extolling the glories of their blessed existence on God’s Green Earth. Every day that I visit from Thanksgiving to mid-February reveals carbon copy enthusiasm. I am sure, however, that their life is not so routine and simple. There are predators: coyotes, foxes, gators, snapping turtles, human hunters, and eagles. And hazards: automobiles, biting winds, arctic chills, and flooding winter rains. Surely the marauding cranes eventually deplete a mid-December marshland spot rich with seeds, roots, worms, and other invertebrate treats. For the moment, I observed a morning without need or threat. All was well…with the flocks and with me.

The cranes tell their tale far better than I. This 58-second video expresses their joy and jubilation with the great crane cycle of life!

I retreated the marsh-side, woods-edge observation point to walk the wooded trail to the observation building. Across my many decades of reveling in Nature, I have a storehouse of precious memories. Favorite places, experiences, and even some accomplishments. Listening to the cranes, I mused, what are among my noteworthy auditory memories?

I forced myself to make a list. Number one jumped forward, rising above all others. The unrestrained belly laughter of our infant kids and grandkids…so incredibly magnificent, and oh so ephemeral. Like a woodland spring wildflower, the time of infant and toddler contagious and limitless convulsive chortling is brief. We cycle past it. The memories remain, and resurface when we hear another’s child, bringing mist to our eyes as we remember that our son is 49 (1/25/77) and two of our grandkids are graduating high school in May. As I draft this text on the first day of 2026, I am reminded: To every thing there is a season.

Ecclesiastes (3: 1-8 KJV):

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Less sentimental, a second sound without contest is the great music of over-wintering sandhill cranes. A spring morning songbird chorus is among the top ten. When we lived further north, nothing surpassed the first geese migrating south in the fall…or north in the spring. Aldo Leopold said of Sand County Wisconsin geese:

One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring… A March morning is only as drab as he who walks in it without a glance skyward, ear cocked for geese.

A pack of coyotes deep in the night ranks high. I have never first-hand heard a wolf pack, yet I am sure it would be a contender. Not all grand sounds are of animal origin. Among them are rain on a tin roof. A gurgling stream. A soft summer breeze through leafy tree crowns. Distant thunder promising rain during a summer dry period.

Other sounds I love include squeaky snow underfoot at sub-zero temperatures. Muted blizzard gales through Alaska spruce. Oregon coastal waves blasting the rocky shore. The list is long. During my 20s and 30s, I ran distance recreationally and competitively, logging miles mostly pre-dawn to avoid stealing time from our young family. Many fellow runners trained listening to music. I loved Nature’s orchestral accompaniment.

I recorded this 59-second video along the trail to the observation building.

The observation building nearby brings the cranes indoors, where viewers are invisible to the birds. Microphones pipe in their raucous calls. A perfect day to offer bird images inverted in the water…and to encourage deeper mental reflections on having such a marvel within reach of where I am fortunate enough to live. I recall decades ago visiting Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Olympia, Washington. The Nisqually River Delta empties into the Puget Sound. Judy and I loved walking the miles of boardwalk, watching the tremendous tidal surge that rents the delta twice daily. I would love to return to spend a day, but it’s on the other side of the country. It’s not 30 minutes from my garage door to the Nisqually entrance. I will likely not visit again, yet I may check the internet for a video refresher. [Okay, I just watched a seven-minute mini-documentary — a nice break!]

I spotted one whooping crane near the opposite woods edge, an observation that one of the birders with a long lens verified. The cranes in this frame are in constant motion, a parallel to our individual human existence. We are in constant motion, but is it purposed movement?

The cranes are purpose driven. There is never a dull moment on the marshland.

I recorded this 59-second video of the clangorous cranes.

Leopold penned Marshland Elegy in A Sand County Almanac:

Our appreciation of the crane grows with the slow unraveling of earthly history. His tribe, we now know, stems out of the remote Eocene. The other members of the fauna in which he originated are long since entombed within the hills. When we hear his calls we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.

Leopold’s elegy arose from his concern that the days of viable crane marshes were at risk, perhaps already having crossed a threshold beyond recovery:

The sadness discernible in some marshes arises, perhaps, from their once having harbored cranes. Now they stand humbled, adrift in history.

Such, thank God, is not a sadness at our Wheeler NWR!

Cypress Pond Bonus!

Cranes headline Wheeler’s winter show, but the cypress pond near the Center always beckons this old forester. Slanting shadows, clean lines, tall stems, and needle-carpeted forest floor stir my sylvan soul.

I recorded this 60-second video along the boardwalk.

Cypress draws my eye skyward, where the columnar crowns respect each other’s space. The individual trees don’t touch. The branches are not interlaced. The technical term for the tendency to abide by no touching is crown shyness.

I recorded this 59-second crown shyness video.

These grand birds, with their prehistoric caricature, star in the WNWR winter show, but I consider the cypress pond as a year-long feature act, even though relegated to the sidelines during the annual crane Super-bird Bowl!

Reflecting on the cranes, I think of the sadness not of their demise, but of their seasonal departure by the end of February for their summer breeding grounds. I’ll miss them, but upon reflection I reject the notion of sadness. Instead, I embrace the notion that the cranes, in effect, are departing to a seasonally better place. This morning (January 4, 2026), we sang I’ll Fly Away at church:

Some glad morning when this life is o’er
I’ll fly away
To a home on God’s celestial shore
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away)

Just a few more weary days and then
I’ll fly away
To a land where joy shall never end
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away)

The cranes celebrate their annual return North To a land where joy shall never end…at least until next autumn, when chilling winds signal a migratory departure to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. (Ecclesiastes)
He [the sandhill crane] is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men. (Aldo Leopold, Marshland Elegy)
The cranes celebrate their annual return North to a land where joy shall never end…at least until next autumn, when chilling winds signal a migratory departure to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Early Autumn Delights on Madison, AL’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve!

January 8, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On October 12, 2025, I led a scheduled Land Trust of North Alabama hike on the Rainbolt Trail, Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve in Madison, Alabama. I led 16 participants, ascending ~250 feet to the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail, then to the Balance Rock near the preserve’s summit, and returning to our trailhead. I knew as the leader and interpreter, I would have no time for photos, videos, and detailed personal exploration. Instead, I scouted the route three days in advance, sauntering to snap photographs and record brief videos to include in this Post.

I found multiple delights worthy of pointing out to the hikers. Fragrant sumac, often mistaken for poison ivy or poison oak, grows trailside on the Rainbolt Trail lower slope.

Carolina buckthorn, an understory shrub, is also common along the lower hillside.

Amur honeysuckle, an East-Asian invasive, is likewise common, unfortunately.

Chinquapin oak is among the many oak species populating our uplands.

Always alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, I photographed this rock-kissing chestnut oak with resurrection fern aside one of the many limestone ledges.

Rainbow Mountain is one giant limestone ledge!

I recorded a brief video of a terraced ledge and a shagbark hickory standing sentinel against it.

A still photograph of the shagbark hickory with its intricate plated, shaggy bark.

There is no limit to elements of Nature hidden in plain sight. My goal in leading any Nature Walk is to encourge participants to look, see, understand, and appreciate. The task of interpreting is complicated by a narrow trail, varying pace, and a wide range of participant interest. I try to reach as many as I can and transfer as much as I am able.

Alligator rock, admitedly an imaginative stretch, fascinated everyone.

I had recorded a brief alligator rock video on my scouting visit.

A three-stemmed chinquapin oak served as another point of interest…and learning. You’ll see in the video below that this fern-draped stem is one of three.

I recorded a brief video at above cluster.

A contorted dead Eastern redcedar, flanked by chinquapin oak and green ash seedlings, sported a pleasant cape of resurrection fern.

Viewed from different angles, the cedar with fern presents a lovely natural sculpture.

I never tire of the menagerie of beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration that Nature provides, like this supplejack vine spiraling on a hickory sapling. I hoped that some level of my amazement, surprise, and delight transfered to my fellow hikers. Enthusiasm for Nature can be (should be) a contagion.

Oh, what a treasure is this whitemouth dayflower!

My journey of discovery and joy is not limited to the botanical. The physical environment stirs my soul. I am a closet geologist, fascinated by this layered limestone head wall (view to the South left and North right) at the suumit of the preserve. How many millions of years ago did the source marine creatures die and their sediment collect on a shallow tropical sea floor?

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer my observations:

Nothing in Nature is static; every visit reveals a distinct face.
Leading a Nature walk, I try to reach as many as I can and transfer as much as I am able.
Enthusiasm for Nature can be (should be) a contagion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Gray Cemetery: Nature Across Two Centuries of Life, Living, and Dying!

December 30, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Suburban housing and light commercial establishments surround Gray Cemetery in Madison, Alabama. Urged by friend Gilbert White to visit the 200-year-old cemetery, I (and my 17-year-old grandson, Jack) met him there on September 6, 2025, as a thunderstorm bore down on us. We returned for a leisurely, sunny Sunday afternoon with Gilbert the next day. Abandoned 100 years ago, the cemetery (courtesy of volunteers working feverishly over the past four years) is reappearing from the jungle of natural vegetation regrowth. My central observation is that Nature is adept at disappearing (i.e., hiding, obscuring, and concealing) the dedicated work of man.

The new look will attract saunterers — mature forest, an open understory, and the deep and meaningful history tales told by the ~500 permanent residents whose remains are interred here.

This incredible cemetery is a gem recovered from a jungle of natural vegetation and vibrant second-growth forest that strangled the cemetery for a full century. The new scene is park-like, the trees towering above the newly revealed historical site.

Diverse Tree Species

A diverse tree overstory complements the rich human history. I admit to total fascination with the forest that emerged from the grassy knoll that served as an early Madison, Alabama burial oasis. I won’t burden you with the messy dendrology of the species I discovered, admired, and celebrated.

White oak.

A white oak stump resulted when workers removed the tree decapitated by an F-1 tornado passing nearby earlier in the summer. I accepted the carnage as a gift, permitting me to do a ring count. The tree aged at 103 years, confirming that the tree regenerated at the time of cemetery abandonment and neglect.

The annual rings of oak are easy to count.

I assume that this 44-inch diameter white oak is older, and probably shaded a segment of the cemetery for decades prior to service and maintenance ceased.

See this spectacular white oak on my 27-second video:

Sweetgum (left) is one of our common Alabama forest denizens. The species aggressively colonizes abandoned crop, pasture, grasslands, and cemeteries. Sugar maple (right).

Likewise, water oak is ubiquitous in our area.

As are species of hickory.

Black cherry, not a valuable timber species in northern Alabama, does regenerate valiantly and works its way into the intermediate canopy.

Eastern redcedar is a prolific pioneer species. This one is notably large and vibrant. What a magnificent crown, with laddered branching that reaches high above.

I recorded a 57-second video of the handsome Eastern redcedar tree.

I mentioned the low intensity tornado that side-swiped the old cemetery. It toppled a large loblolly pine.

The fallen pine, like most of the trees standing within the cemetery, probably dates back to abandonment.

Cemetery Remnants

I had not previously seen such brick tombs.

Here is the oldest interment at Gray Cemetery. I am sure that Mrs. Gray’s story is rich with life and living, and that many loved and loving descendents mourned her passing.

Local celebrated local historian John Rankin shared some time with us. He knows many of the stories that enrich our cemetery explorations and reflections.

I recorded this 60-second video showing the four types of tombs.

This is a box tomb.

An Irish stone tomb.

And another example of a standard vertical tombstone.

Cemetery Critters

Among the departed humans, I found evidence of a current living resident — the shed skin of a grey ratsnake.

And a hackberry emperor butterfly.

Throughout our vibrant ecosystems, including the human realm, life and death are intertwined.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Nature is adept at disappearing (i.e., hiding, obscuring, and concealing) the dedicated works of man. (Steve Jones)
Throughout our vibrant ecosystems, including the human realm, life and death are intertwined. (Steve Jones)
This incredible cemetery is a gem recovered from a jungle of natural vegetation and vibrant second-growth forest that strangled the cemetery for a full century. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

December 23, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I once again wandered the bottomland hardwood forest on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, south of HGH Road near the Madison-Limestone County line on the morning of August 30, 2025. I wanted to reconnoiter the forest with my recently acquired 1937 aerial photo of the stand. I present my preliminary observations, reflections, photographs, and brief videos as I attempt to make sense of forest history and lay the groundwork for reevaluation during the dormant season.

My Hesitant Working Hypothesis

I was convinced that the bottomland hardwood forest that I explore 3-4 times per year, had regenerated naturally from abandoned farmland since the Corps of Engineers completed construction of Wheeler Dam in the mid-1930s. However, I often found trees far older and individuals decayed beyond what I would expect in a forest freshly regenerated just eight and one half decades ago. Chris Stuhlinger, another retired forester, and I are digging into the question of stand origin. The area I frequent lies south of the red line (HGH Road) and west of the vertical line (Madison County to the east; Limestone to the left) on this 1937 aerial photo. I’ve placed a short vertical ink mark where I routinely enter the forest, which is clearly extant 88 years ago, discounting my supposition of a forest sprouting in the mid-30s from abandoned agricultural land.

I determined the age of a large wind-blown white oak just a few hundred feet south of the forest beyond the edge of the photograph: August 2025 Post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/08/27/huge-white-oak-blowdown-and-cleanup-at-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge/. I determined its age at 129 years, making it 30-40 years old when acquired by the Corps/TVA. Chris and I will closely examine the stand during the 2025-26 dormant season in the absence of mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, foliated poison ivy, and oppressive heat and humidity.

My Rationale for Accepting an Abandoned Farmland Origin

In the meantime, I reveal and reflect upon my recent saunter. Dominant yellow poplar and red oak trees could easily have been seedlings in the 1930s. These bottomland soils are extraordinarily fertile.

I recorded this 41-second video of a large black oak within a mixed stand that could have regenerated nearly nine decades ago.

The same is true of the forest housing this mid-story persimmon and a main canopy black oak.

Here is my 35-second video of the persimmon and black oak.

I recorded this 38-second video of mixed main canopy and understory species.

Evidence Casting Doubt on My Abandoned Farmland Hypothesis

The very large dominant trees, including standing dead and nearby grotesqueley swollen and decayed individuals (the final tree in the short video) suggest an older stand. The massive green ash and shagbark hickory, both about two and one half feet in diameter, also hint at an age beyond 88 years.

The same advanced age can be deduced by this 44.5-inch diameter chinquapin oak and the Carpinus carolinia (muscle wood tree) growing at its base.

I also encountered this hollowed three-foot diameter oak barely clinging to life. Eighty-eight years is too abbreviated a period to reach this size and advanced decay.

I recorded this 47-second video highlighting the hollowed oak.

Likewise for this hopelessy decayed and swollen four-foot diameter oak.

Here is my 47-second video of the individual.

This ancient oak stands along the old lane 150 feet from where I parked. Three and one-half feet in diameter, a windstorm took half of its canopy in the summer of 2020. Hidden from this view, the tree is hollow and open at the base, extending at least 30 feet to where the wind ripped half the crown away,

This violently uprooted three-foot diameter cherrybark oak toppled earlier this past summer.

I recorded this 57-second video of the fallen giant.

Here’s another view of the oak.

Nature has work to do, returning the tons of recently deceased wood to the soil. The carbon cycle is a BIG deal! Powder post beetles, wood-boring insects that deposit eggs just under the bark of dead or dying trees, are first in line to feast on the mighty oak’s cellulose and lignin. Drafting this narrative triggered an urge to ask many questions that at the moment I will not take time to answer. Questions such as, “How do the adult beetles know the oak is dead? Do live and dead wood smell different? Does living cambium emit sounds a beetle can hear? Does appearance change subtly with death? More obviously, does a horizontal trunk light up with a neon invitation to Come and Get it!?” Trust me, the beetles know! Within the two months since the tree fell, beetles have deposited eggs, the larvae have hatched, and begun voraciously consuming wood fiber. The beetles have already progressed from egg, to larva, to pupa, to adult. The emergent adult exit holes pepper with the fallen trunk with powdery frass.

Death and life are inter-twined in the forest. The forest air is seasonally thick with fungal spores that have already entered every beetle exit hole. Infecting hyphae have found purchase within the oak. Mushrooms will appear on the oak trunk by the end of next summer. Five years hence, the bark will have sloughed and decay will have penetrated deeply into the wood. Nature abhors a vacuum!

Temporary Closure and a Revised Hypothesis

The 1937 aerial photo is clear. The area I felt had been in agriculture when engineers completed Wheeler Dam was, in fact, forested in 1937. I have a new hypothesis to test with Chris when we conduct our dormant season on-site forestry forensic sleuthing after New Year’s. The largest trees in the stand are overwhelmingly diseased and battered, suggesting that they may have been unmerchatable individuals when crews commercially harvested the forest that was present when the Corps/TVA aqcuired the land adjacent to the land destined for Lake Wheeler inundation. The resultant forest 88 years later is two-aged:

The naturally regenerated 88 year old hardwood stand
Scattered mostly unmerchantable individuals left by loggers

I look forward to learning as we go. As with most elements of Nature, the more I learn, the less I know. Every revelation uncovers new mystery. Such is the joy of curiosity.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. (da Vinci)
Every revelation uncovers new mystery. Such is the joy of curiosity. (Steve Jones)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Einstein)
As with most elements of Nature, the more I learn, the less I know. (Steve Jones)

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.

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

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

A reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2025) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

The Nature of Legendwood Development

December 8, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Judy and I closed on the house we built in Madison, Alabama’s Legendwood development, on December 24, 2015. I am posting this photo essay for two reasons. First, a tenth anniversary merits commemoration. Second, I feel compelled to remind my neighbors and friends how fortunate we are to reside in an enclave defined by Nature in a city and county growing explosively. Judy and I view our community as an oasis surrounded by busy roads, proliferating apartment buildings, and diminishing farmland and forests. Straying from my wildland-focused weekly Great Blue Heron Posts, I share these observations, reflections, photos, and two brief videos on Legendwood, a community of 124 homes, three ponds (the largest spanning 3.7 acres), a 5.2-acre woodlot along Balch Road, and a full, lighted sidewalk circuit totaling 3.48 miles.

The Rockhaven Drive entrance from Capshaw Road (left) and Legendwood Drive entrance from Balch Road (right) are attractive portals to a desirable, high-quality residential community. The map defines our neighborhood.

Likewise, the aerial photo shows Balch as the eastern border and Capshaw to the north. Woodgrove Drive and its homes constitute the western extent. A long row of new apartments borders our southern boundary, crammed against backyards and fences.

I’ll begin this virtual walking tour from the Balch Road entrance. Our 5.2-acre woodlot lies along Balch south of the entrance. Oak, hickory, maple, poplar, and other deciduous species dominate. Barren in winter, the forest offers deep summer shade. I’ve heard musings about selling the wooded haven. Such a sale would generate income, even as it condemns us to another commercial or residential enterprise pressing against our eastern flank. I object strongly to selling it simply to generate a little HOA income. The woods offer a rich, biological ecosystem, a buffer to external negative development pressures. I will gladly conduct information and interpretive saunters for residents within the parcel at request (I have a 1973 Forestry BS and a doctoral degree in applied ecology).

The south side of Legendwood beyond the Balch entrance welcomes residents and visitors with a touch of Nature (grassy lawn, beds, shrubs, trees, and hardscape), maintained contractually or by Board member and resident volunteers. Admittedly, the well-landscaped Legendwood roadside when a driver exits or is about to enter the Balch traffic flow, often escapes our notice and appreciation.

Judy and I walk an average of two miles daily through our community, ensuring our appreiation and enjoyment of the Nature of Legendwood. The northside amenities along Legendwood satisfy our quest for a home environment that nourishes body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit. Its no wonder our homes sell quickly and values outpace inflation.

Imagine the classlessness and boredom of entering a neighborhood absent median strips (like the one within a 100 feet of the entrance) and landscaped cul-de-sacs (at the end of Springhaven). I compliment our Board for establishing and retaining high standards for community aesthetics and individual home appearance.

The intersection of Legendwood and Hawks Crest epitomizes the aesthetic richness of our community, a step above nearby developments with dull, unimaginitive narrower lanes, cars parked curbside, and no standards for home landscaping and maintenance.

The cul-de-sac at the northern end of Hawks Crest features three nicely crowned ornamental trees, a small natural respite to a short street with seven homes, including the two along Legendwood.

At the southern end, few residents have reason to travel to Barons Court, yet Judy and I make a point to visit regularly on foot. A broad grassy expanse (a quarter-acre) beckons drivers at the south end of Hawks Crest where it meet Barons. Note: I suggest planting some trees early this coming spring.

Cul-de-sacs at both eastern and western ends of Barons have three (east) and two (west) shade trees. How pleasant!

The largest pond sits along Legendwood. Both photos look to the south from community property, mowed and maintained by our HOA. Residents have shoreline access to the entire perimeter.

Even as a picture expresses a thousand words, a video speaks for a hundred photos. I recorded this 56-second video.

Judy and I live in the second house west of the above video camera point. We maintain (mowing, fertilizing, pest treaments) a strip of common property 30 feet from our line (the wall in photo at left) to the pond and 100 feet long, a total of 3,000 square feet. We established and care for two perennial beds within the strip for all to enjoy.

I recorded this 58-second video at pondside.

Rockhaven Drive’s maple-lined median carries us north to Capshaw.

At Capshaw, a lovely sinuous walkway extends west along Capshaw 660 feet. This entire area and its 1,122 foot counterpart to the east, also adjacent to Capshaw, are maintained by our HOA.

The eastern extension offers a large, tree and shrub-topped berm to shelter homes on the north side of Legendwood from the Capshaw traffic noise. The photo at right looks south across the berm to homes along Legendwood.

Our community owns a small lot on the south end of the Woodgrove cul-de-sac. Like all the other Legendwood community parcels, this lot requires HOA financial outlays.

Judy and I built in Legendwood because of its very Nature. We knew this would be our final relocation to an above ground residence. When we visited in spring 2015, a great blue heron stood at what was to be our shoreline…the heron is a meaningful family totem, a sort of avatar for my long-deceased Dad. We are grateful for whatever force beckoned us to Legendwood. I’ve observed as many as 24 bird species on a quiet morning from our patio. We have seen in our backyard squirrels, chipmunks, wildland rats, rabbits, skunks, raccoons, armadillos, and voles, among others. Throw in slider turtles and a huge snapper or two, bull frogs, garter and brown water snakes, and even an osprey. Ten years ago, we saw an occasional coyote and deer. We converted a vacant eroded lot to our own natural refuge.

I hike often in area State Parks, Land Trust Nature Preserves, the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, and diverse other nearby (as well as distant — domestic and international) natural areas. I publish a free weekly Great Blue Heron photo essay on what I term Nature-Inspired Life and Living!

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

Walking and enjoying Nature in our neighborhood is necessary, even if not sufficient. I encourage all of our fellow residents to explore segments of our 3.48 miles of heavenly, paved, nearly flat, lighted sidewalks and trails, and experience the Nature of Legendwood!

And if you want to understand more about our 5.2-acre woodland, send me an email (steve.jones.0524@gmail.com). We’ll set a date and time to explore, preferably before spring transitions to heat, humidity, ticks, redbugs, mosquitoes, and the like.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

The Nature of Legendwood is a compelling theme to distinguish our community from others. (Steve Jones)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. (Aldo Leopold)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief-Form Post #50: Field to Forest in a WNWR Bottomland — Armed with a 1937 Aerial Photograph

November 20, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 50th 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’ve rambled through the bottomland forests of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (WNWR) south of HGH Road routinely since my 2018 retirement to northern Alabama. Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger recently secured 1937 aerial photographs of the area. The images confirm some of my suppositions of forest history and contradict others. I focus this brief-form post on the forest west of Jolly B Road and south of HGH Road, where the 88-year-old image validates my supposition that this area of mature forest was open farmland when engineers completed Wheeler Dam. I captured photographs and videos for this Brief-Form Post on August 30, 2025.

The red line on this 1937 aerial image depicts the location of today’s gravel HGH Road, separating private land to the north from WNWR south of the road. The aerial photo, even though of poor resolution, clearly shows open land where I captured the photographs and two brief videos, a few hundred feet east of the copse of trees north of the road. Today, everything south of HGH is a mature forest.

This is the mid-morning view to the east where I parked along HGH Road. To all appearances, a shady forest road.

I recorded this 59-second video at the same location with the former open land to the south (right).

I turned my camera to the south, where a mature forest stands in the once open field.

Pointing my camera to the west, I again captured a shady forest lane.

I recorded this 54-second video looking west with the former open land to the south (left).

The two images below look into the towering mature forest where fields once grew agricultural crops.

Nothing in Nature is static. A century ago, these rich bottomlands, tended by farmers and mules, produced crops of corn, beans, and cotton. Priot to those years of sweat, anxiety, good years, and bad, other generations cleared the luxurious old growth forests to enable agriculture.

Nature always stands at the ready. The process is simple and long-practiced. Stop plowing, discing, and sowing. Nature fills the void with wind- and critter-born seeds. Bare land transitions to herbs, shrubs, seedlings, and eventually to vibrant stands of maturing trees.

This coming dormant season Chris and I will return to this old field mature forest for a deeper examination, without the company of mosquitoes, chiggers, ticks, and leafy poison ivy!

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 great philosophers and physicists are attributed with exploring the notion of nature’s insistence on eliminating nothingness or emptiness. I say so be it; let them ponder the esoteric and say what they wish.

I adopt a simpler view, having learned through observation and experience that Nature hungrily fills every element and feature of any ecosystem I have observed. Vaporize 96,000 acres of forest on the footslopes of Mt. St. Helens in May of 1980; see the verdant slopes 45 years later. Scorch nearly 800,000 acres of Yellowstone National Park in 1988; see the wounds healing 37 years hence. My simpler view:

Nature abhors a vacuum.

I suppose I could attribute the wisdom to Henry David Thoreau:

Nature abhors a vacuum, and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.

He added a twist of poetry to the axiom, suggesting that Nature fills us who venture into her realm. I embrace both variations. Nature rapidly filled the WNWR void when agricultural operations ceased. Contemplating the succession from field to forest fills me as well…body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit swell with the essence of Nature.

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

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