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Early December Nature Explorations along The Natchez Trace Parkway

February 25, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On Wednesday, December 3, 2025, Judy and I made our first visit to the Natchez Trace Parkway, entering north of the Tennessee River in Alabama near Rock Spring (Mile Post 330) and exiting at the Meriwether Lewis Memorial (Post ~385) in Tennessee. The casual 55-mile journey served as a teaser for the entire 444-mile Parkway from Natchez, MS, to Nashville, TN. Come along with me to experience a taste of Nature and history.

Like most Department of the Interior National Park Service units, the Natchez Trace Parkway tells its story with excellent interpretive signage. I won’t burden the photo essay with narrative repeating details of history associated with Native American and early colonial modern developments.

The history is rich, colorful, positive, cruel, punishing, rewarding, and ugly. Choose the flavor you desire. It’s all there. Imagine boatmen and farmers who floated their products down the Mississippi river to market in Natchez, MS, then sold their flatboats as lumber and walked home 500 grueling miles along the Trace. That’s 35 days from punching the clock at the docks to arrive home to spouse and the kids! The sign reads, “By 1810, occasional travel had turned into a human flood; up to 10,000 passed along the well-trodden path each year.”

Judy and I traveled leisurely, safely, and without threat of harm. We made our circuit, departing home after breakfast and returning in time for supper.

We encountered none of the listed hazards: torrential rains; swollen streams; thieves; swamps; or insects (“muskeetos & gnats & water very bad”):

I passed through the most horrid swamps I had ever seen. These are covered with a prodigious growth of canes and high woods, which shut out the whole light of days for miles. (Alexander Lewis, 1811)

Our camp was surprised in the night, and two of our horses stolen, by Indians. (Francis Baily, 1797)

I can adjust a simple handkerchief about my head and face in a way to parry the mosquitoes, or their more formidable companions the horseflies. (Herman Blennerhassett, 1807),

Each stop offered interpretation and explanation. I want to return to explore such delights as these. Rock Spring Trail is a 20-minute saunter exploring woodland and several beaverdams.

Ten thousand annual traipsers, countless horses, oxen, and mules, iron-rimmed wagons, and other means of coveyance, during dry seasons and mud-plagued torrents, scarred the Trace, in places leaving an obvious sunken pathway. Prior to European settlement, Native Americans traversed these hills and crossed its streams for more than 10,000 years. Every chain (66 feet; 80 chains to a mile) along the length has stories to tell.

The sign presents a multi-generational, multi-millennial theme, comprising volumes of decadal tales of adventure, discovery, love, war, life, and death:

This early interstate road building venture produced a snake-infested, mosquito-beset, robber-haunted, Indian-traveled forest path. Lamented by the pious, cussed by the impious, it tried everyone’s strength and patience.

As the sign notes:

Here you see three cuts made to avoid mud into which oxcarts and wagons sank, making progress slow, dangerous, or even impossible.

Although enamored with and captivated by this dip into the etheral world of intersecting human venture, natural history, time, and seasons, I kept my eyes alert for Nature’s oddities, curiosities, and mysteries. A black cherry tree infected with the fearsome countenance of a fungal black knot canker (Apiosporina morbosa) demanded my attention and implored a photograph. I wondered whether some handsome Indian warrior in 1026 might have mused on a Prunus serotina similarly infected?

The McGlamery Stand, a combination inn and trading post, served travelers near this location from 1849, closing before 1865. Its name persisted through the next 150 years. Can any of us expect our 2026 moniker (our individual identity) to last beyond 2176?! I am blessed beyond imagination that the lovely young lady at right still carries my surname 54 years after she graciously adopted it in 1972!

Oh, to inhale the magic of a mild autumn afternoon along a serene stillwater stream!

The branch is still carving and shaping the valley, you may follow the struggle of trees and other vegetation to gain a hold in the shallow rocky soil in the bottom in a 15-minute stroll along this narrow trail.

I cling to the emotional power of any southland stream still carving and shaping its valley! Five hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci observed:

Water is the driving force of all Nature!

I recorded this 59-second video at Sweetwater Branch.

The Driving Force of All Nature! Who can debate or challenge the half-millennial wisdom of an incredible polymath? No telephone, computer, AI, camera, or combustion engine! No view of our pale blue Earth from Apollo in moon orbit! Yet, he knew, saw, and felt so much more then we in our digitally-distracted world. It’s high time we fattened sheep got into the great out there; time to get out of the darkness into the light!

Here is my 39-second video focusing on the crystal clear water. What could da Vinci have done with my iPhone?

Each stop along our brief trip suggested hours of contemplation and exploration. My career demanded much from me. I seldom had the leisure to devote to what I might have learned when young, physically capable, intellectually exquisite, and tireless. However, it is only now that I yearn to delve deeply enough to probe the depths beyond career expediency. As I listened and yearned for more time to sit quietly, I thought of Chickasaw poet and novelist, Linda Hogan:

There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.

Glenrock Branch at milepost 365, yet another stop, stirred my heart, soul, body, mind, and spirit. I wanted more than our superficial circuit allowed.

I recorded this 59-second video at Glenrock Branch.

I’m a champion of and advocate for special places and everyday Nature. How many did we see along our 55 mile journey, where we discovered an endless fountain?

Still at Glenrock Branch, a towering American beech stood creekside (left). Nearby, an Eastern redcedar provided dormant season shade.

Another beech showed mirthful character with its apparent (to observers with vivid imagination) multiple facial expressions. I see eyes, noses, and mouths. Contrast its expressive trunk (i.e. an extrovert) to its kin above left and beyond it at right, clearly, like me, a certifiable introvert.

I love catchy, provocative place names, especially those attached to local conditions and experiences:

A mile to the south, the Old Natchez Trace crossed a depression in the flat, dogwood-coverred ridge. After heavy rains it became almost impassable for wagons. Its name, Dogwood Mudhole, recalls the ordeals of travel. It shows, too, how place names arising from local conditions of long ago are carried down through the years.

Stephen Edward Ambrose (January 10, 1936 – October 13, 2002) was an American historian, academic, and author. He published Undaunted Courage (1996), telling the nearly unfathomable 48-month tale of daring and courage of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. They led the 33-member Corps approximately 8,000 miles, from St. Louis, Missouri to the Pacific Ocean and back.

Defying all odds, the Corps completed its mission, losing only a single member, not to accident or hostiles, but to pneumonia. Mr. Lewis succumbed at this site along the Trace, to internal demons, stronger than his fame, courage, or continental conquest.

The monument and its massive oak triggered an emptiness in my heart. A man who soared with eagles died alone, scared, and helpless in the wilds of west Tennessee. As I read Undaunted Courage, I pictured Lewis and Clark transitioning to the hereafter with angels singing and trumpets blaring. The sad and troubled soul passed without fanfare.

Like other stops, the Meriwhether Lewis memorial presented hiking opportunities. Alas, we allowed no time in our itinerary for pleasant side excursions.

I wondered whether this dogwood tree, batttered, dead, and tortured, once bore a heavenly spring shroud of white-blossom elegance. Did it live a daring and courageous life, only to die alone, scared, and helpless…without fanfare?

Instead, I’ll bring this essay to close by celebrating that the Trace lives on through a million tales from along its 250 years and 35,520 chains of beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Water is the driving force of all Nature! (da Vinci)
The Natchez Trace carves a multi-generational, multi-millennial theme, comprising tales of adventure, discovery, love, war, life, and death. (Steve Jones)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Einstein)

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

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

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

November 17, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 49th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A closeup of the colony of decay fungi mushrooms.

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

Controlled fire can be a valuable tool for forest management:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Thomas Edison implored that good intentions must be matched with a good approach. Russell Stevens focused his related admonition to prescribed burning:

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

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

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

November 5, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I drafted this Post a dozen weeks ago. Oh, the sweet memories it rekindled…of the hike itself and of the deep recollections of my wanderings there with Dad, as well as with Judy and our kids. And on November 14, I will take Jack, who has since turned 18, for a second visit to Auburn University. Life races ahead of memories. I’m trying my best to keep up, yet I know that one day I will trundle along as only a memory, which spurs me to plant seeds, prompted by one of my favorite quotes from Robert Louis Stevenson:

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

I once again visited the Pawpaw Tunnel, located within the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) National Historical Park, on July 28, 2025. Alabama grandsons, Jack (17) and Sam (11), accompanied me. I grew up 30 miles upstream along the Potomac River in Cumberland, Maryland. I wanted the boys to experience the Nature, history, and engineering marvel of the tunnel and canal. We walked through the 3,600-foot tunnel, traversed a mile beyond it, and then hiked the Tunnel Hill Trail over the mountain to return to the parking area. Part One carried us through the tunnel (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/09/25/part-one-175-year-old-co-canal-pawpaw-tunnel-where-nature-meets-engineering-and-history/); Part Two took us back over the Tunnel Hill Trail.

Tunnel Hill Trail

The Tunnel Hill Trail rose from the towpath on the same route used extensively during the construction era 175+ years ago. Signage indicated where work crews resided during the 14-year construction period. We viewed a hollow filled to the brim with rock debris blasted and excavated from the tunnel and its east-end approach. Sam and Jack assumed a victorious pose on a more current debris mound. Jack and I rested beside a white oak tree.

Dare I admit that the 362-foot ascent winded us? We rested on logs at the gravel parking at the top of Sorrel Ridge, where a Green Ridge State Forest dirt road met the no-access terminus of the NPS tunnel hill jeep trail. Green Ridge State Forest holds deep sentimental and professional meaning for me. Between my junior and senior undergraduate academic years, I worked under the Green Ridge Forest Supervisor, the inimitable John Mash, who demonstrated the essential need to know the land…both its natural and human history…to effectively manage it.

Jack and Sam agreed that the view more than compensated for our effort on a hot summer mid-day. CaCapon Mountain rises in the distance above Pawpaw, West Virginia.

I recorded this 53-second video at the summit.

The overlook revealed far more than the scenery…sparking fragments of memory across seasons, decades, life stages, and generations.

Forest Life along the Trail

A forest ecosystem is a complex community of plants, animals, fungi, and the physical environment. I give you a sampling of photo-worthy life forms we encountered along the trail. View this as a teaser to what could have filled volumes. This Amanita beckoned us to look closely…side view and its gilled underside.

And its handsome top.

Old-man-of-the-woods grew among the green of a cushion of moss.

White-pored chicken of the woods stood silently along the trail, mocking me for all the times while foraging locally in Alabama, I found nothing approaching the size and quality of this specimen. We took home only a photo of this gem.

I delight in spring wildflowers even as I rally to see late summer beauties like these pigeonwings

The tunnel and nearby West Virginia town monikers suggest that Asimini triloba might grow abundamently in the area. We saw lots of pawpaw, an understory and lower canopy tree. Sam lends a personal touch to its elongate shade-tolerant foliage.

We found a contorted white oak trailside as we ascended. I can only conjecture what injuries, and subsequent fungal infections, owing to humans and their equipment along the trail, permanently marred the tree and its future growth.

Sam spotted this agreeable tiger moth larva.

Same for this black-and-gold flat millipede.

I will repeat the circuit (through the tunnel and over the Tunnel Hill Trail) another time, when I return, preferably during the dormant season. Like so many of my special places and the everyday Nature that defines them, the C&O Canal and Pawpaw Tunnel extend roots deep into my mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit. Where do those intense feelings and vivid memories go when we are called Home? Perhaps fragments will live on through my children, Matt and Katy, and in Jack and Sam, Katy’s boys. Robert Louis Stevenson nailed the sentiment:

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

A Post Script

Contemplating the inevitable, I once thought my ashes could be spread in Teton National Park, a majestic place where I once planned a sabbatical leave after securing promotion to Full Professor at Penn State. An ascending career path instead led me immediately to Auburn University, bypassing the sabbatic. Nearly 30 years have passed since then. From my current vantage point, the Tetons is a step too far. Upon considerable thought, why not have the five grandkids and children, Matt and Katy, leave a dusting at the Potomac River overlook…and another bit in the Cathedral Forest along the Wells Memorial and Sinks Trails on Monte Sano State Park.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

My Dad was called Home 29 years ago, yet he once again accompanied me (and two of his great grandchildren) in July 2025, as I covered ground we walked together many times in my youth. (Steve Jones)
I am hopelessly addicted to Nature. (Steve Jones)
My experiences from those formative years shaped me, sculpted my lifetime addiction to Nature…propelled me to a forestry degree, and a meaningful career committed to natural resources sustainability. (Steve Jones)

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

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

Hiking the Homesite Trail at Rocky Gap State Park

October 8, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On July 29, 2025, my older Alabama grandson, Jack (17), and I hiked the Evitts Homestead Trail on Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park. We ascended 1,100 feet from Lake Habeeb to Evitts’ 2,200-foot summit. I wanted to share the magic of the place with Jack and rekindle my aging memories. Still in high school, I had explored Rocky Gap Canyon and Evitts Mountain before authorities created the state park and built the dam. We discovered the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe of Nature hidden in plain sight along the trail.

Those youthful excursions are now two generations past. I was about 17; Jack’s age. He is my daughter’s son. Time marches on at 24 hours per day, just as it did 57 years ago, yet its relative pace accelerates. I heard my maternal grandmother say more than once, “The older I get, the faster time passes.” I thought she was old and confused; I now recognize her wisdom.

Ascending the Trail: Moss, Ferns, and Fungi

I recognize another truism: the older I get the more challenging trails become. I hiked this trail five years ago, prior to a series of surgeries: shoulder replacement; triple bypass; bilateral inguinal hernia repair; two total knee replacements; and kidney stone blasting. Add in a minor stroke. It’s no surprise that my recent hike proved tougher. I view summitting Evitts as a major recovery benchmark…and a family milestone. This time next year, Jack will have departed for college and a demanding and rewarding life journey. I pray that he carries the memory of his Evitts hike with Pap into a bright and promising future.

The trail is an old jeep path, rising at a steady rate. I noticed greater erosion and rutting since my 2020 ascent. Park crews are not controlling surface water flow. Instead, runoff is in control, seeking and finding a route with no concern for trail integrity. I saw no recent evidence of constructed water bars, broad-based dips, or other measures to usher overland flow from the trail. Without immediate attention, the trail will degrade beyond easy repair. Ongoing road maintenance cannot be ignored.

Okay, so much for critiquing park trails and their management. Across my decades of wandering eastern forests, moss is ubiquitous. Pincushion moss embraces tree bases and often covers rocks (right).

This patch of broom forkmoss welcomed the dappled sunshine penetrating the forest canopy. An online dictionary defines moss as a small flowerless green plant that lacks true roots, growing in damp habitats and reproducing by means of spores released from stalked capsules.

Ample rain during the early summer stimulated prodigous mushroom growth. Mushrooms are the reproductive (spore-producing) structures of common fungi in our eastern foressts. Fungi include tree disease organisms, decomposers, and mycorhizza. Two-colored bolete is a beautiful polypore mycorhizzal fungus, this one with a pink/red umbrella and a smooth cream/yellow undersurface. Although some boletes are choice edibles, I haven’t achieved a necessary level of confidence in distinguishing among the group members. This bolete is symbiotically engaged with oak species.

A distinctly polypore underside.

I like the moniker of yellow American blusher, another mycorhizzal fungus associated with oak. this one is gilled. Mushrooms of the Southeast offers an explanation of what prevents me from expanding my culinary foraging to species about which I am not 100 percent certain:

In North America Amanita rubescens has historically been considered edible and relatively distinctive; however, since it is related to some of the most toxic mushrooms, we cannot recommend eating it.

Life in our eastern upland hardwood forests is amazingly complex.

Yellowing rosy ruella, or brittlegills, is a gilled Russula mycorhizza fungus, common in hardwood forests. Considered edible but seldom occurs in numbers sufficient to collect.

iNaturalist identified these tiny golden mushrooms as clubs and corals, genus Clavulinopsis. Mushrooms of the Southeast steered me to golden fairy club, C. laeticolor, but the book image differed somewhat from my photographs. One reference declared this fungus a mycorhizza; another said that it’s a forest litter decomposer.

I am a mushroom novice. My fascination with their unique kingdom of life grows with each woodland Nature excursion, where I learn how little I know.

White-pored chicken-of-the-woods (or sulphur shelf) is a decay fungus at home on both living trees, primarily oak, or dead individuals of the same host group. The speices is a choice edible when young and tender, like this one growing at the trail edge.

Were I wandering closer to home other than on a state park, where the rule is to take only what you bring, I would have made several meals from this perfect specimen! I wondered how many more flourished within 100 feet of our six-mile circuit.

Umbilicaria mammulata, smooth rock tripe, is among the largest lichens in the world. The species forms large sheets (rarely, up to 2′ across), like aged curling leather sheets, on cliffs and boulders. This patch is on a sandstone boulder. The sheets are attached at only a single point (hence the genus Umbilicaria). They are reddish- or grayish-brown on top, and velvety black below.

From an online source regarding edibility:

An hour of boiling is said to convert this leather-like lichen into an edible source of protein, palatable by itself or when added to soup or stews. Soak for 2-3 hours first to remove acids that, while not dangerous, may send you running to the bathroom in a hurry. Even after all this soaking and boiling, you’d better be good and hungry—many say it still tastes like shoe leather.

I will not be adding this species to my foraging list!

I recall moist forests in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Hampshire, all former woodlands haunts where I’ve rambled, covered with common bracken fern. I noticed only this single specimen.

Our journey covered the distance with as much haste as I could muster. I would do it again on a mid-60s-degree October day, devoting hours to extensive study and exploration. Drafting this narrative reminds me to saunter future wanderings with greater attention to full discovery, seeking more than a surficial inventory of what lay hidden in plain sight.

Ascending the Trail: Turtles, Millipedes, Invasive Plants, and Sign-Eating Tree!

An eastern box turtle hurried across the trail. Yes, he moved quickly, not at an exagerated turtle’s pace.

I captured his rapid gate in this 21-second video.

An American giant millipede compelled us to take a closer look.

A dense growth of mile-a-mintute-vine infesting at least an acre of forest, stopped me cold.

A Penn State Cooperative Extension online resource tells the tale of this aggressive invasive:

Mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata) is a trailing vine with barbed stems and triangular leaves. In contrast to other invasive vines, mile-a-minute is an herbaceous annual, meaning it dies each fall and new plants grow from germinating seeds in the spring. Originally from India and East Asia, this species was first reported in York County, Pennsylvania, in the 1930s in contaminated nursery soil. Mile-a-minute is listed as a “Class B” noxious weed by the State of Pennsylvania, a designation that restricts sale and acknowledges a widespread infestation that cannot feasibly be eradicated. The dense foliage of this invasive weed blankets and slowly suffocates native vegetation, making it extremely destructive and persistent despite being an annual plant.

I wondered whether park managers are aware of this infestation. When we returned to the Lake Habeeb dam I told a maintenance worker of our discovery. He seemed concerned. Enough to take action?

I always remain alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, including sign-consuming black cherry trees!

I love the Central Appalachian forests of my childhood and early professional days. Rocky Gap State Park drew memories, warm and fuzzy, from more than five decades ago. At age 74, I can say with confidence and satisfaction that those were the good old days…and that blessedly these, too, are the good old days. Life was…and is…good!

Thoughts and Reflections

I revisited my October 10/15/20 post from the prior Evitts Mountain ascent: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/10/15/a-tough-hike-and-deep-reward-at-rocky-gap-state-park-in-western-maryland/

I offered three lessons from my late September, 2020, solitary trek:

The extraordinary Nature of place is indelibly written in my head, heart, mind, body, and soul. I am a creature and product of place… place defined by Nature.
Countless days in Nature define my life across these 69 years — I look, see, and feel Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe… and find immeasurable lift.
My connection to Nature is unmistakably SACRED!

Today, five years later, I would modify only minimally: My connection (across these 74 years) to Nature (and Family) is unmistakably SACRED!

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

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

Part One 175-Year-Old C&O Canal Pawpaw Tunnel: Where Nature Meets Engineering and History

September 25, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I once again visited the Pawpaw Tunnel on the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) National Historical Park on July 28, 2025. Alabama grandsons, Jack (17) and Sam (11), accompanied me. I grew up 30 miles upstream along the Potomac River in Cumberland, Maryland. I wanted the boys to experience the Nature, history, and engineering marvel of the tunnel and canal. We walked east through the 3,600-foot tunnel, traversed a mile beyond it, and then hiked the Tunnel Hill Trail over the mountain to return to the parking area. Part One (this Post) carries us through the tunnel; Part Two takes us back over the Tunnel Hill Trail.

The Tunnel

Jack and Sam stand above the west end of the tunnel, completed in 1850 (175 years ago!). The structure has stood the test of time. The east end is a pinprick of distant light. Midway through, the darkness is near total.

Here is my 59-second video at the west (upstream) entrance.

I’ve been to the tunnel scores of times across my seven decades. Camping with my parents and siblings beside the tunnel-tender’s canal-era house adjacent to the river. Fishing on the bank, often at night for catfish. I recall once Dad and me holding frantically to tent poles during a fierce storm that threatened to tear away our shelter. Cooking chili on a Coleman stove. Breakfasts of sauage, eggs, and hashbrowns. The list of indelible memories reaches endlessly. My experiences from those formative years shaped me, sculpted my lifetime addiction to Nature…propelled me to a forestry degree, a meaningful career committed to natural resources sustainability, and a retirement dedicated to:

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

Because I neglected to photograph the tunnel’s interior in July, I borrowed a photo I took in November 2019.

The east (downstream) end of the tunnel is forever etched in my memory. Immigrant laborers with picks and shovels, black powder, wheelbarrows, drag-sleds, and horse/mule carts began construction in 1836; the first boats passed through 14 years later. Crews worked from both ends and from two 360-foot vertical shafts. I’d like to visit in 2036, the centennial anniversary of pickaxes first striking the shale. Eleven years hence takes me to age 85. What are the chances of me retaining life, health, vigor, endurance, and mental acuity for another 4,015 sunrises? There is no guarantee even that I or any one of us will witness tomorrow’s dawning. I take comfort that I will seek the goal one step after another, visiting special places and enjoying everyday Nature as I’m able.

This photo from the National Park Service Pawpaw Tunnel brochure during operations more than 100 years ago shows little difference from today’s image. The tunnel is timeless, except that the decades have moved beyond it. I can’t imagine much change between now and 2036.

Interestingly, the brochure notes:

In the span of a lifetime, canals faded from beacons of a dawning age to quaint reminders of a bygone era. From 1828 to 1850 thousands of immigrants found work–and hope for a new life–building a canal. Families worked and lived on the long, narrow boats, and children often tended the mules.

Nature doesn’t care about the blossoming and disappearance of technologies, the tough life of hopeful humans tending the boats, or the miserable fights among immigrant laborers. Moss grows on the dripping sidewalls at the tunnel exit, shrubs sprout on the shale scree, and spring rains temporarily flow in the long-abandoned channel. Decomposers relentlessly attack the wooden decking. My ken is to follow the process over the fleeting years of my lifetime, when little of the tunnel’s countenance has changed from the quaint reminder I relish.

I recorded this 53-second video at the east portal.

I ponder whether Jack and Sam will catch the fever enough to visit when I and my Pawpaw Tunnel Blog are little more than their own quaint reminder. I wonder who else will care. From the east end exit, the boardwalk stretches through the cut into the distance. How far into the decades will my passion persist?

Those thoughts accompanied me as the boys and I sauntered beyond the tunnel and its deep cut through the shale. Perhaps a better verb suggests that my ruminations haunted me. Lift lock 66, numbered consecutively upstream from the Georgetown terminus, captured our interest and spurred our imagination. Like the tunnel, the lock resonated with faint echoes of the thousands of long-gone souls who worked, lived, played, and prayed along the canal. This was the future…fading to a quaint reminder. Nature lives on, finding and claiming its place. My role in leading our trek, planting seeds for tomorrow in the boys, and probing was to encapsulate our experiences in this weekly photo essay.

I recorded a 58-second lift-lock video, chronicling Nature finding and claiming its place.

Nothing in Nature is static, including the works of man. Were the 184.5 miles of the canal not preserved as a National Historical Park, Nature would hve revegetated the towpath, canal, infrastructure, and associated memories to obscurity. I recall celebrating in 1971, when the tireless efforts of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas prompted Congress and the President to secure protection and preservation for the important recreational and environmental landmark. There was talk of converting the landmark to a Blue Ridge Parkway kind of roadway. Douglas penned a seminally persuasive letter to the Washington Post:

I feel that if your editor did [walk the towpath with Douglas], he would return a new man and use the power of your great editorial page to help keep this sanctuary untouched. … He would see strange islands and promontories through the fantasy of fog; he would discover the glory there is in the first flower of spring, the glory there is even in a blade of grass; the whistling wings of ducks would make silence have new values for him. Certain it is that he could never acquire that understanding going 60, or even 25, miles an hour.

I was 20 years old, a junior in forestry school, and already addicted to the magic of the C&O Canal. My memories run deep and indelibly for this sacred (to me) recreational and environmental landmark!

I will repeat the circuit another time, when I return, preferably during the dormant season. Like so many of my special places and the everyday Nature that defines them, the C&O Canal and Pawpaw tunnel extend tendrils deep into my mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit. Where do those intense feelings and vivid memories go when we are called Home? Perhaps fragments will live on through my children, Matt and Katy, and in Jack and Sam, Katy’s boys. Robert Louis Stevenson nailed the sentiment:

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Nature is a mosaic of place, time, and use; every landscape reflects the past and portends the future. (Steve Jones)
Nature lives on, finding and claiming its place. (Steve Jones)
My experiences from those formative years shaped me, sculpted my lifetime addiction to Nature…propelled me to a forestry degree, and a meaningful career committed to natural resources sustainability. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

A Return to the Alum Hollow Trail at North Alabama Land Trust’s Green Mountain Nature Preserve

July 30, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

34 photos and 6 videos

My two Alabama grandsons (Jack Disher, 17, and Sam Disher, 11) accompanied me on June 24, 2025, to the North Alabama Land Trust’s Green Mountain Nature Preserve. We explored the Alum Hollow Trail, where I was scheduled to lead a Land Trust Nature Hike on June 28, 2025. I wanted to scout the trail for features worthy of focus for the planned Land Trust nature venture. Most importantly, I treasure time in Nature with Jack and Sam. I want my passion for the natural world to live in them far beyond my fleeting time on this pale blue orb. Come along with me (and Jack and Sam) through observations, reflections, photos, and brief videos.

Four days later I led the Land Trust Hike with ten eager Nature enthusiasts.

The trail is relatively flat along the 1,400 to 1,500 foot plateau top of Green Mountain. Mixed second-growth upland hardwood is the dominant forest cover, yet shortleaf (below) and Virginia pines occupy the WSW-facing ridge rim where the trail took us. I’ll say more about the preserve’s pine, represented here with a trail marker sign.

Every time I saunter along a forest trail I find magic, wonder, beauty, awe, and inspiration hidden in plain sight. The Alum Hollow Trail was no exception.

Notable Non-Tree Species

Vaccinium aboreum is a species new to me since retiring to Madison, Alabama in 2018. It’s the largest member of the blueberry genus. My fascination may or may not derive from its mirthful common names: farkleberry, sparkleberry, and winter huckleberry. An NC State University online Cooperative Extension publication describes this large vaccinium:

Sparkleberry is a small, deciduous to evergreen shrub or tree that may grow 10 to 20 feet tall. It can be found in rocky woodlands, sandy woodlands, and on cliffs. The leaves are alternate with a smooth or finely toothed margin. The bark is shredded and patchy with reds, browns, and grays present. In early summer, small, white, bell-shaped flowers mature. In the fall, this plant has excellent color. The tall shrub produces a black fruit that matures in the fall and is a good food source for wildlife.

It’s a tough lower-story shrub, seeming to prefer harsh dry sites. I admire it for thriving where more demanding species fear to tread.

We found cedarglade St. John’s wort in flower. Also from an online NC State sourse:

St. John’s Wort is native to SE USA and in NC it is found in the western mountain areas. It is a small, dense shrub that grows 2-4 feet tall and wide with a rounded dense form. It inhabits glades and dry limestone ledges. The foliage may appear slightly bluish-green and is evergreen in its southern range. The showy yellow flowers are bright yellow with numerous stamens on new wood and appear in June-July.

Its foliage and yellow flower drew me in for a closer look.

Greater tickseed is a member of the aster family and is found across Alabama from the Gulf coast to the Tennessee line. I love its whorled leaves.

We feature hydrangea (oakleaf; endless summer; little lime) in our home landscaping. Near the falls the boys and I found wild hydrangea in full flower. Grandson Sam snapped these images.

Although I missed seeing naked-flowered tic-trefoil with the boys, the Land Trust group oohed over its delicate pink blossoms. Note its tri-leaf (i.e. trefoil) foliage. The species is a Legume, a member of the pea family.

I had never asked Jack or Sam to record a brief interpretive video. They have heard me record many, when their role was to be quiet for a moment. I decided to give Sam a try. Without hesitation he recorded this 39-second sassafras identification lesson. He performed as though he’d done it a dozen times! Jack and I walked far enough away not to distract him. He needed only one take. I am grandfather-proud of the result — he may be catching the Nature bug!

We’ll hone his and Jack’s video artistry time and time again!

Selected Curiosities

My third book, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits (co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), highlighted our passion for place and everyday Nature. The term everyday Nature is adequate but falls far short of sufficient. My eyes wander, seeking the unusual, the bizarre, oddities, and curiosities. I say that, yet I must confess that unusual, bizarre, odd, and curious are within the realm of everyday Nature. Nothing in Nature is strange; some things may be unexpected…but strange in Nature is commonplace!

A vividly green vine spiraling a pole-sized hickory tree may strike the uninformed as strange, but its not at all uncommon for a supplejack vine to have hitched a ride to the full sunlight of an upper story hickory.

A large chestnut oak pointed ahead to the left as we progressed. Jack stood atop the tree’s crook. Some would opine confidently that Native Americans modified the then much smaller stem long ago to create an Indian Marker Tree. Sorry to disappoint, but some natural force (branch or fallen tree) clobbered the young erect tree, bending and breaking it about five feet above ground. The bend remains, supporting a new vertical stem that reaches into the main canopy. Nature’s primary life-imperative is to secure a pathway to immortality, whether me through Jack and Sam, or a crushed chestnut oak by way of an adventious bud sprouting a new shoot that reaches skward. The bridge to immortality extends through generations.

John Muir, too, spoke of immortality.

After a whole day in the woods, we are already immortal.

Nothing in Nature is static. A few weeks prior, this chestnut oak’s crown spread over one-fifth of an acre. One of its progeny may already be feeling the sunshine streaming in from the vacated canopy above. Adjacent trees will extend branches laterally to fill the void. The forest will persist even as individual trees succumb.

But in every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)

I recorded this 59-second video of the fallen chestnut oak and a larger one standing regally nearby.

To many trail trekkers, a windthrown oak is merely an obstacle. To the trail maintenance crew…a task. To me, a prompt for mental wandering and contemplation. I wondered whether Native Americans traversed Green Mountain across their 13-15 millennia of occupation. How many times over those 140 centuries did a windblown chestnut oak bar their transit?

Southern Pine Beetle Outbreak

Summer 2024 was a banner year for southern pine beetle infestations across central and northern Alabama, killing thousands of acres of pine forests. Although upland hardwoods dominate the preserve, the Alum Hollow Trail passes through several hundred linear feet of mostly Virginia pine and, to a lesser extent, shortleaf pine. Beetle-killed pine trees posed a threat to trail users.

Land Trust crews felled dead trees. Jumbles of dead pine debris line the trail. Importantly, the forest persists. Species composition has changed. The piles of pinewood will decompose. Adjacent trees will reach into the crown opening; new stems will grow from the forest floor.

Sam found intrigue in a dead pine carcass recently fallen below the trail.

Curiosities and oddities are commonplace. Strange encounters are the norm to those sauntering and paying attention.

Fungi along the Alum Hollow Trail

Beetles belong to the animal kingdom; oak trees represent the plant kingdom; fungi are members of their own kingdom. Mushrooms are the spore producing reprodctive organs of fungi, which variously decay living organic matter, consume dead biomass, or grow symbiotically with living plants. I won’t go beyond that generalization. Go to the Blog page of my website (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/) and search for mushrooms, which will direct you to multiple photo essays focusing on my mushroom encounters. I give you below a few photos of fungi we found along the Alum Hollow Trail.

Coker’s amanita (Sam’s photos) is a common pure white gilled mushroom.

iNaturalist does a good job identifying mushrooms when given top, side, and underside photo views.

Red chanterelle (Sam’s photos) attracted us with their vivid laterns along the trail. A coarsely gilled edible mushroom genus, chanterelles are mycorrhiza fungi with mycelia growing within tree roots, benefitting both the tree and the fungus.

Flaming gold bolete, a member of a polypore (hollow tubes rather than gills) group common in northern Alabama.

Some bolete species are mycorrhizal; other species are parasitic. Some are delectibly edible, while others are not table-worthy; distinguishing among species can be difficult. The boletes are not among the mushrooms I forage!

Alum Shelter and Waterfall

On both days, we turned at the waterfall and shelter.

I asked Jack to record a brief video at the falls. Like Sam, he performed well, recording this 25-second video.

I’ve seen the falls with greater flow, and I’ve visited with far less.

Uncertain of my ability to clamber down to the falls after my two 2024 total knee replacements, I recorded this 59-second video from the trail above the falls.

The Alum Cave is a misnomer. It’s a ledge overhang.

Protected from sunlight and rain, the shelter provides a pleasant spot for resting and reflecting.

I recorded this 60-second video at the shelter.

A child of the central Appalachians, I feel at home in the preserve’s rugged terrain. Pausing at the shelter prompted me to step back six decades. Nature has a way of transporting me, physically, mentally, and spiritually!

A Final Critter

Although the final image in my photo essays, this eastern fence lizard greeted the Land Trust entourage early on our venture. I offer it in closing only because I did not concieve it as a good place to start.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

He who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle. (Albert Einstein)
The cycle of life is without end…as long as our sun shines, rain falls, and Earth remains otherwise inhabitable. (Steve Jones)
Nothing in Nature is static, whether a mountain range or a northern Alabama upland forest. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Rainbow Mountain Loop–Refuting the 55-Year Claim of a Static Forest!

June 25, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I intended this to be one of my brief-form posts, but I recorded too many short videos to meet my less-than-five-minutes-to-read criterion!

A colleague interested in our northern Alabama human and natural history recently observed that the forests on Madison, Alabama’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve have not changed over the 55 years he has visited this North Alabama Land Trust property. I walked the Rainbolt Trail and circuited the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail on April 29, 2025, snapping photos, recording brief videos, and assembling observations and reflections that tell the story of constant change within the forests of this residential-surrounded Nature Preserve. I invite him (and you) to accompany me on this photo essay trek. He and I later will find a time to saunter the trails.

A volunteer crew from Madison Greenways and Trails (I am an MG&T Board member) built the Rainbolt Trail. The group helps maintain all trails and polices the preserve for trash, graffiti, and other nuisances. Like so much of what the Land Trust does, volunteers do the heavy lifting at Rainbow Mountain.

Mark Tercek, former CEO of The Nature Conservancy, characterizes Nature as infrastructure essential for ecosystem services (fresh air, purified water, wildlife habitat, recreation, aesthetics, etc.). I believe that Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve is a necessary infrastructure complement to the City of Madison, Alabama. I express appreciation to the Land Trust of North Alabama and MG&T!

Nothing in Nature is Static

I parked at the Kensington Road trailhead of the Rainbolt Trail, which rises approximately 220 feet over its half-mile length on a WSW aspect (facing WSW). In our region of intense summer heat, slopes (particular convex-shaped) facing west to south (the souwest quadrant) are the least productive, i.e. of poorer site quality. Trees are shorter and living biomass per acre less. The forest along the Rainbolt Trail meets the poor site quality expectations. One does not see towering trees or dense stocking, nor do they sense a vibrant robust stand. Dead and downed woody debris carpets the forest floor. The two downed trees below are in a state of decomposition suggesting they’ve been on the ground no longer than 8-12 years. They occupied the living forest in 1970 (55 years ago), albeit as smaller and younger individuals. The forest is changing; nothing in Nature is static.

Still on the lower slope, I recorded this 58-second video — note that my narrative states the date as April 30 — take my word, the date on all videos in this post was April 29!

Life on these harsh low quality sites is of finite duration. The upturned stump below left likely toppled within the past dozen or so years. The standing dead oak below right died within the past three years. The decomposing bark clings to at least a third of the circumference, evidencing the tree’s near-term demise. I did not need to wander from the trail to find ample evidence of the ever-changing stand.

These trees fell within the past year. The action is continuous…maintaining an environmental and biological biomass constant. The living forest adds biomass through individual tree height and diameter growth and ingrowth of new recruits, which over the decades maintains equilibrium with living biomass loss through death, decay, and toppling.

Fungi are living biomass dedicated to decay and decomposition, the chief architects of recycling carbon resources and reserves. Fifty-five years ago, fungi and other decomposers were hard at work on dead and down woody biomass that was present. A living forest then and a living forest today, static and unchanged to a layman walking the trails, but unendingly shifting and modifying to students of the art and technology of forestry, ecology, and environmental science. These luminescent panellus, a gilled polypore fungus, may be direct descendents of fungi decomposing oak when my friend walked the site 55 years ago!

I ascended through midslope, still on the WSW facing slope, recording this 59-second video, revealing that every tree has a story to tell.

Another cedar tells me that disturbance has visited this domain routinely. Cedar demands full sunlight to regenerate. Firewood harvesting and periodic fire resulted from the past 200 years of European settlement. Native Americans nomadically occupying and farming the nearby bottomlands may have periodically burned the Rainbow Mountain highland to encourage berry production and enhance small game habitat.

I recorded this 57-second tale of continuing disturbance on the upper slope.

This large cedar near the juncture with the topside Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail yielded to the ravages of a summer 2024 tempest. A wrenching gust shattered the trunk about 25 feet from the base. The top leans hopelessly (gravity will eventually prevail) against a sturdy tree downwind. The cedar’s rich green foliage has faded to brown. The forest carbon cycle knows no end. The cedar tree was in vigorous midlife when my friend wandered the mountain in 1970.

A nearby eastern red cedar escaped the wild wind. I recorded this 57-second video at the juncture of Rainbolt and Loop Trails.

Beyond the low quality Rainbolt slope forest, I encountered more diverse plant life along the Rainbow Loop Trail. You’ll note in my narrative for this 53-second video that I hesitated after mentioning poison ivy; I could not recall the name of an adjacent plant that resembles poison ivy. I knew that the neighbor is fragrant sumac, but the name was lost in a senior moment fog!

A Couple of Special Spring Ephemeral Treats

Woodland pinkroot is a spectacular spring ephemeral. Its red and yellow blooms are special visual treats.

Purple phacelia is also among my spring favorites.

The lower eastside forest is a far different world and ecosystem from what I encountered on the poor site quality Rainbolt Trail. The woodland spring where I recorded this 58-second video rewards those making the circuit.

Along my personal and professional life journey, I somewhere picked up the term landscape amnesia (I believe from my reading years ago of Jared Diamond’s Collapse. It’s a condition that overtakes those who live long term in an area of great familiarity. Seeing the same location day after day, week after week, year after year can blind us to gradual, persistent change. An online source (Yeah, you caught me — its from Wikipedia!) described the condition:

Creeping normality (also called gradualism, or landscape amnesia) is a process by which a major change can be accepted as normal and acceptable if it happens gradually through small, often unnoticeable, increments of change. The change could otherwise be regarded as remarkable and objectionable if it took hold suddenly or in a short time span.

American scientist Jared Diamond used creeping normality in his 2005 book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Prior to releasing his book, Diamond explored this theory while attempting to explain why, in the course of long-term environmental degradation, Easter Island natives would, seemingly irrationally, chop down the last tree:

“I suspect, though, that the disaster happened not with a bang but with a whimper. After all, there are those hundreds of abandoned statues to consider. The forest the islanders depended on for rollers and rope didn’t simply disappear one day—it vanished slowly, over decades.”

I forgive my friend for suffering a common afflection: creeping normality or landscape amnesia!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

He who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle. (Albert Einstein)
The cycle of life is without end…as long as our sun shines, rain falls, and Earth remains otherwise inhabitable. (Steve Jones)
Nothing in Nature is static, whether a mountain range or a northern Alabama upland forest. (Steve Jones)
The Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve is a necessary infrastructure complementing the City of Madison, Alabama. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief-Form Post #44: January Fungi Discoveries along the CCC Trail at Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park

April 22, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Brief-Form Past #44

I am pleased to add the 44th 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.

January Fungi Discoveries

I spent January 23 and 24, 2025, at Joe Wheeler State Park primarily to learn more about the 1930s Wheeler Dam Village (housing construction workers and their families) and the 1930s to early 1950s Recreation Area remains along the CCC Trail on the hillside above Wheeler Dam overlooking Wilson Lake, which lies just downstream of Wheeler Dam. This photo essay reports on mushrooms I photographed as we performed our intended archeological pursuits.

I am not a mycologist. I am simply a fungi hobbyist and edible wild mushroom enthusiast. Lumpy bracket mushrooms densely occupy this fallen hickory. Their nearly luminescent whiteness evidences freshness; algae have not yet darkened their surfaces. They are not edible due to their hard, woody nature. Located within the old Recreation Area, English ivy proliferates as a ground cover. The ivy-mushroom combination (right) presents an aesthetic package.

This is another Trametes species (aesculi), which like lumpy bracket is a saprophyte (consumes dead wood). It is an agent of decomposition, not a parasite that infects and decays living trees.

Pseudoinonotus (dryadeus?) is a bracket fungus with inedible fibrous flesh. The genus commonly grows at the base of oak trees infected by its wood-consuming hyphae. My forest pathology professor would have characterized this genus as a disease when I took the course in 1972…more than a half-century ago. I admit to needing a forest pathology update! Just yesterday (I’m drafting this on April 9, 2025) I wandered through a bottomland hardwood forest on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Conks, brackets, burls, hollows, catfaces, rusts, scars, and and other disfigurements are ubiquitous. As with so much in Nature, the more I learn, the less I know!

What I do know is that a mushroom known as funeral bell is likely not edible!

And I do know that spore-ripe puffballs are fun for those of us who never age beyond finding mystery, joy, and amusement in the natural world. Einstein recognized the magic of wonder:

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in
awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle.

Poofing puffballs never grows tiresome…and I refuse to age beyond enjoying such a simple pleasure.

Sure, I understand the biological function of ripening puffballs and the reproductive necessity of spore dissemination. Perhaps most importantly, I also know the basic tenet of foraging and consuming puffballs: The inside of edible puffball mushrooms should be solid and pure white, like a marshmallow, or fresh mozzarella balls (eartheplanet.org). Lord, give me a wet field loaded with giant puffballs at the perfect stage of purity. I will do the rest with sharp knife, a light flour coating, seasoning salt, wide skillet, and sizzling butter. Oh, the wonders of Nature!

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. 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. Albert Einstein captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the Wonder of decay and renewal:

He who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffled-out candle.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brief Form Post #43 — January Afternoon Saunter along the Beaverdam Creek Boardwalk

March 18, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Brief-Form Post #43

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.