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Wetland Mitigation Update from Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary

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I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary on November 14, 2023, with Dr. Marian Moore Lewis, author of Southern Sanctuary. We sauntered through the western side of the Sanctuary, observing and reflecting upon all manner of seasonal life we encountered from Hidden Spring to Jobala Pond to the wetland mitigation project underway in the mid-property meadows and fields. I focus this photo essay on our superficial examination of the mitigation.

This black gum seedling, planted during the 2022-23 dormant season, is now emerging from its tree shelter. It has survived its initial growing season and escaped the ravages of foraging rabbits and mice. From this day forward it must contend with grazing deer until it grows out of their vertical reach. Most of the shelters we examined contained living seedlings, of various species (black gum, willow, redbud, and diverse oaks).

 

Red oak occupies this tube. It will likely reach into aerial freedom next spring.

 

I photographed this initial planting area in February 2023, when the shallow constructed wetlands stood at full water capacity. Because in mid-November 2023, we had gone since mid-August with little to no rain, we saw bone dry soils across the mitigation area.

 

The meadow vegetation had reached seasonal dormancy. Because our northern Alabama fall months are frequently dry, native plants can handle periodic droughts. Fortunately, the tree seedlings in this first (2022-23) planting tranche enjoyed an adequately moist spring and early summer, hence their likely survival through this fall drought.

 

 

The second planting, east of the first, appeared to be underway when we visited. The area evidenced extreme drought, with soils bone-dry and cement-hard. The tree shelters below right held seedlings already desiccated and likely dead. Planting should have been delayed until after fall rains brought drought relief.

 

This willow seedling (below left) lay on the ground at a drilled planting hole, deader than a proverbial door nail. The willow seeding at right stands beside a wooden stake. It is too shallowly planted, its root collar and some of its root mass two inches above soil surface level. However, it doesn’t matter. The tree is dead.

 

I recorded this two-minute video on the site. I refer incorrectly to the seedling beside a planting tube as a willow. Instead, it is actually a redbud.

 

Like other doomed seedlings in this area, the oaks lying within this scraped future wetland depression are deceased. I hope the project managers have made alternate plans, to include holding seedlings in nursery beds awaiting fall rains and adequate soil moisture in the Sanctuary fields. I learned long ago during my forest products industry days that unless seedlings are carefully tended and properly planted in soils that contain adequate moisture to sustain transplant vigor, the planting will not succeed. This fall drought planting window failed all criteria.

 

I am not pointing fingers or assigning blame. I simply visited this year’s mitigation chapter at the trailing end of an extended drought. A week later I measured 2.63″ of rain, and another 3.4″ since then through December 17, 2023. Soil moisture levels are approaching seasonal norms, but far too late to overcome the experienced negative forces. Importantly, it’s not too late to plant seedlings held and tended in nursery beds.

I offer several observations and applicable lessons. Any forestry operation is subject to the vagaries of Nature. Managers should be prepared to deal with extremes and variances from normal. Though a plan may have called for planting this second tranche in the October/November time frame, managers should have delayed, awaiting overdue autumn rains.

I predict that unless alternate plans were made to replant with freshly lifted seedlings now that rains have begun, this second tranche planting will be a total failure. Leonardo da Vinci, a sage and practiced observer of Nature, said 500 years ago, Nature never breaks her own laws. Those who planted these seedlings apparently expected Nature to break a natural law that I learned five decades ago as a young practicing forester: Nature demands that plugged seedlings require adequate moisture both pre- and post-planting, well-packed friable soil, and suitable growing conditions (e.g., avoid excessively high late season temperatures at planting time.

I will continue to monitor the wetland mitigation project, including these 2023 plantings. Again, the seasonal rains have resumed. The Flint River will likely flood these fields at least once over the dormant season. Casual observers may not know that the fields suffered through an extreme drought from mid-August through mid-November. They may wonder why the tree shelters house no or very few living trees.

I have been unable to secure detailed information about the wetland mitigation project. I hope that City personnel have such planning and implementation records. I would like to see survival records for the first tranche planting, as well as 2023 planting records. The project is expensive. Are managers tracking success? Failure? Progress?

Please know that I have no direct or implied oversight of this project. I am merely a very interested observer. I view the Sanctuary as one of my special places. I applaud Margaret Anne Goldsmith for the original gift of approximately 300 acres that enabled establishing the Sanctuary. I admire Marian Moore Lewis’s expertise and passion for publishing Southern Sanctuary. We three share a keen interest in this incredible Nature legacy project.

I leave you with the 15-minute video telling the Sanctuary legacy story that Bill Heslip directed and I produced three years ago.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Nature never breaks her own laws. (Leonardo da Vinci)
  • Any forestry operation is subject to the vagaries of Nature. Managers should be prepared to deal with extremes and variances from normal.
  • Past average monthly rainfall gives no comfort to a seedling planted during this year’s extreme drought. 

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. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And Third: 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 Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

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

 

 

 

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three 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 now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

 

Autumn (November 14, 2023) Sky Splendor at the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary!

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I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary on November 14, 2023, with Dr. Marian Moore Lewis, author of Southern Sanctuary. We sauntered through the western side of the Sanctuary, observing and reflecting upon all manner of seasonal life we encountered from Hidden Spring to Jobala Pond to the wetland mitigation project underway in the mid-property meadows and fields. I focus this photo essay on the sky and cloud splendor above the Sanctuary.

I recall from way back in my toddler years being fascinated by clouds and weather. I shared cloud passion with my Dad. We watched thunderstorms brewing and marveled at their approach, ferocity, and passage. We appreciated nothing more than a good winter snowstorm, especially wind-driven and piling deeply. Short of a memorable storm, all manner of clouds attracted our attention.

My cloud absorption remains palpable nearly 30 years after Dad passed. No matter where my travels and woods-wanderings take me, I never go into the “out there” without looking skyward. In fact, often a mere “look” doesn’t suffice. I need to gaze heavenward, studying cloud type, structure, and movement. Like all aspects and facets of Nature, the more I understand, the greater my depth of intrigue, admiration, and desire to know and understand even more.

Albert Einstein implored us to study our natural world: Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

The Sanctuary’s Hidden Spring wetland may not have presented so well without the textured sky above. I particularly admire a sky that competes for my eye with the complexities of Nature below.

 

 

Few people across history have seen all that is hidden in plain sight as clearly as did Leonardo da Vinci. He observed 500 years ago, There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. I am convinced that the sky is invisible to most people, excepting spectacular sunsets, sunrises, impending storms, and rainbows. And to those who do see, appreciating the subtleties and depths of meteorological science and nuance is absent. I am a closet meteorologist…a student of weather and atmospheric science. The Hidden Spring wetlands, both standing water and emergent forest, would pale under a smooth grey cloud deck.

 

Jobala Pond likewise both gives to and takes from the complementary firmament above. November 14 presented perfect weather for strolling and exploring. At the tender age of 72 years, I am scheduled in mid-January for left knee replacement surgery, the right knee subsequently when the left knee is sufficiently healed. The cushioning cartilage is long gone on both, I struggle with sharp uphills and down, and just standing is tough. I offer all that as rationale for contemplating carrying a shoulder bag with folding chair.

To sit in solitude, to think in solitude with only the music of the stream and the cedar to break the flow of silence, there lies the value of wilderness. (John Muir)

This would have been a perfect day for occasionally sitting, watching, and absorbing Nature in action (with me experiencing a bit of inaction!).

 

Winter in our deciduous forests opens a vista not available during our long summers, when canopies obscure sky views. I love gazing skyward through the dendritic weavings that soon enough will burst with spring’s greening.

 

A dormant meadow carpet below and a colorful and complex blanket above, each vying for my primary attention. I see no clear winner, yet I declare the full package as first prize worthy.

 

 

 

 

 

I simply can’t imagine one without the other.

 

Terrestrial ecosystems or meteorological grandeur competing? No, there is only unity…the entire web interwoven with beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration acting and presenting as one. As he often did, John Muir captured the notion flawlessly:

This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • To sit in solitude, to think in solitude with only the music of the stream and the cedar to break the flow of silence, there lies the value of wilderness. (John Muir)
  • I love gazing skyward through the dendritic weavings that soon enough will burst with spring’s greening.
  • Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)

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

 

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And Third: 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 Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

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

Steve's Books

 

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three 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 now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

 

 

An Aging Riparian Hardwood Forest on The Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

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Late afternoon on September 22, 2023, I decided for the first time since my June 19, 2023 triple bypass surgery to bushwhack alone into my favorite riparian hardwood forest at the nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. I’m a student of this forest, attempting with each visit to learn more about its history, composition, dynamics, and future. I employ a woods-wandering technique I call sauntering. I borrow the term from John Muir and a contemporary of his, Albert W. Palmer, who published A Parable of Sauntering in 1911:

There is a fourth lesson of the trail. It is one which John Muir taught me [during an early Sierra Club outing].

There are always some people in the mountains who are known as “hikers.” They rush over the trail at high speed and take great delight in being the first to reach camp and in covering the greatest number of miles in the least possible time, they measure the trail in terms of speed and distance.

One day as I was resting in the shade Mr. Muir overtook me on the trail and began to chat in that friendly way in which he delights to talk with everyone he meets. I said to him: “Mr. Muir, someone told me you did not approve of the word ‘hike.’ Is that so?” His blue eyes flashed, and with his Scotch accent he replied: “I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not hike!

“Do you know the origin of that word ‘saunter?’ It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, “A la sainte terre,’ ‘To the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.”

John Muir lived up to his doctrine. He was usually the last man to reach camp. He never hurried. He stopped to get acquainted with individual trees along the way. He would hail people passing by and make them get down on hands and knees if necessary to see the beauty of some little bed of almost microscopic flowers. Usually he appeared at camp with some new flowers in his hat and a little piece of fir bough in his buttonhole.

Now, whether the derivation of saunter Muir gave me is scientific or fanciful, is there not in it another parable? There are people who “hike” through life. They measure life in terms of money and amusement; they rush along the trail of life feverishly seeking to make a dollar or gratify an appetite. How much better to “saunter” along this trail of life, to measure it in terms of beauty and love and friendship! How much finer to take time to know and understand the men and women along the way, to stop a while and let the beauty of the sunset possess the soul, to listen to what the trees are saying and the songs of the birds, and to gather the fragrant little flowers that bloom all along the trail of life for those who have eyes to see!

I shall remain a dedicated saunterer from this day forward. My weathered knees no longer allow serious hiking. I insist on walking in the woods rather than walking through the forest. I also embrace Muir’s wisdom about experiencing life: The world’s big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.

HGH Road Riparian Hardwood Forest

 

Saunter with me as I transit the riparian hardwood forest south of HGH Road on a mid-September afternoon. I’ll begin with a 39-second, 360 degree sweep within the mature forest. Note that my narrative refers to the sweep as 380 degrees…the price I pay for accepting a first take without review. I’ve stopped seeking perfection in my short, unrehearsed videos. I find that a relaxed, non-scripted video seldom falls short of being adequate…occasionally even good.

 

High quality timber does not dominate these long-unmanaged forests. This 30-inch diameter red oak is deeply decayed. Occupying nearly a tenth of an acre of crown space, the tree has no commercial timber value. However, the US Fish and Wildlife Service manages these lands and their forests for values unrelated to timber.

 

Although not contorted by decay, this hickory is hollow to the core, a perfect den tree for squirrels, woodpeckers, bats, and assorted other wildlife.

 

This 32-second video depicts the peace, birdsong, and soft breezes within this 90-year old stand:

 

Ample dead and down woody debris characterizes these 90-year-old forests growing on rich riparian soils in northern Alabama. This tree uprooted at least a decade ago, lifting a root ball wasting away at my feet, and falling directly away. The log is well on its way to becoming humus and soil organic matter,

 

This individual did not blow over and lift a root ball; it died standing and its dead superstructure subsequently broke off at ground level, falling away from me. Little of the fallen bole remains. The carbon cycle spins rapidly in our climate! Aerobic decomposition is the rule. No future peat or coal deposits, nor even a thick organic layer in the topsoil.

 

This large oak pulled up a massive root ball about ten years ago. Fine and medium roots have long since decayed. The root ball soil has fallen or washed into a shrinking and softening pile. The fallen bole, and its cracked and hollow trunk, have already shed all bark and outer wood. Although far beyond my means and technology, I’d like to see a 10-15 year time lapse as this once mighty oak dissolves (not literally, but metaphorically) from solid wood to dust to soil organic matter.

 

I mused about what long ago injury opened the trunk to the decay fungi that hollowed the bole. Was a lightning strike responsible for the vertical wound, shattering the trunk and creating the infection court through which fungal spores entered to begin internal decay? That isn’t the only unsolved mystery. I believe, with deeper contemplation, that the tree stood hollow with no externally visible vertical scar and split. Instead, when the tree finally yielded to gravity, its still impressive mass slammed into the ground shattering the rind, giving the impression that while vertical the tree trunk furrow permitted visual entry to its hollow core.

 

All fine branches in the crown (below left) have decayed. In fact, the crown consists only of the twin major forks. The base of the left fork evidences an opening that appears unrelated to shattering from impact. I view it as a den entry point for squirrels that inhabited the hollow tree. The fallen tree skeleton, as do all trees, stands, and forests, has a compelling story to tell. I’m glad my bushwhacking led me to its final resting place…to contemplate and decipher its tale, to examine the hints left on-site.

 

Nature provides many hints for us curious Nature enthusiasts. I relish these adventures in Nature-sleuthing. Sometimes, I celebrate when a hint leads unequivocally to a fact…a certainty. Too often, however, my conclusions fall within a zone of speculation. I’m okay with speculation, a mental process demanding deep thinking, tapping my decades of forestry study and deep woods experience, and forcing me to communicate the exercise via these Great Blue Heron photo essays. Fortunes won’t be saved or wasted as a result of my ruminations. No one is hurt if I have misjudged the circumstances that brought the tree to the ground. Many people who read these words might wonder why I don’t pursue some useful avocation…like golf, fishing, or antiquing. The truth is, Nature sleuthing is my hobby.

I’m providing hints and evidence (photos and videos) to allow you to draw your own conclusions about the nature of this mature riparian hardwood forest. I recorded this 1:15 video not far from the downed hollow oak tree I presented above.

 

Some standing dead trees leave a void in the crown, in this case what I estimate as a one-fifth of an acre opening. Adjacent trees are already vying for the precious sunshine, reaching inward. Forests are dynamic. The opening will be short-lived. Trees compete ruthlessly for finite site resources: sunlight, ground moisture, and soil nutrients. Nature is a meritocracy. The concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion do not translate from faddish human social endeavors (e.g., bloated university administrative offices of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) to Nature. Nature’s systems operate on performance. Nature doesn’t need a DEI vice president to decide which trees adjacent to the opening are allocated what share of the newly available sunlight.

 

To the victor goes the spoils. Such is the way of evolutionary success.

Some portions of the forest have transitioned by way of widescale windthrow and breakage to a noticeably smaller (younger?) stand. I will continue to ponder the successional pathways within this old growth riparian forest. Watch for me to develop the pathway in future Posts.

 

May your life be one of pleasant sauntering!

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations, from Albert W. Palmer’s recollection of a conversation with John Muir:

  • How much better to “saunter” along this trail of life, to measure it in terms of beauty and love and friendship!
  • How much finer to take time to know and understand the men and women along the way, to stop a while and let the beauty of the sunset possess the soul.
  • To listen to what the trees are saying and the songs of the birds, and to gather the fragrant little flowers that bloom all along the trail of life!

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. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And Third: 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), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

  • I love sauntering 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

Steve's Books

 

 

 

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three 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 now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

Brief-Form Post #23: October 11, 2023 Visit to a Drought-Parched Bradford Creek!

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I am pleased to offer the 23rd of my GBH Brief Form Posts (Less than three minutes to read!). I tend to get a bit long-winded 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.

 

I’ve tracked steady progress from my June 19, 2023, triple bypass surgery. Judy, Alabama grandsons Jack and Sam, and I enjoyed walking nearly 2.25 mid-afternoon miles on October 11 along the Bradford Creek Greenway in Madison, Alabama. I think at this early December date, I’ve achieved full recovery — hallelujah! It’s amazing what regular exposure to Nature and loving family can do to accelerate healing.

 

The Drought-Parched Creek

 

I’ve visited the Greenway scores of times since we moved permanently to Madison seven years ago. Every time, the creek has carried at least a minor flow, and occasionally I have witnessed the creek in flood, the greenway impassable. On this day, for the first time in my experience, only a dry bed greeted us.

Bradford

 

We watched a great blue heron patrolling the few pockets of standing water, like those below left. Contrast the meager water to the normal winter flow below right.

Bradford

 

Autumn Colors

 

We examined the first wave of emerging fall colors. Both poison ivy (left) and shining sumac presented red.

Bradford

Bradford

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweetgum showed off its burgundy hue.

Bradford

 

 

American persimmon (left) and smooth sumac carried a full load of ripe fruit.

BradfordBradford

 

Tall goldenrod’s deep yellow-gold competed with the best of fall foliage!

Bradford

 

A fall break (for Sam and Jack) stroll revealed many secrets about the advancing season. So much lies hidden in plain sight. My hope is that these walks with grandparents will sow the seeds of Nature curiosity that will reach across their lives.

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts to a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Today, I borrow a distinct reflection from Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer born in Salem, MA in 1804:

  • I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.

 

NOTE: I place 3-5 short videos (15-seconds to three minutes) on my Steve Jones Great Blue Heron YouTube channel weekly. All relate to Nature-Inspired Life and Living. I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE! It’s FREE. Having more subscribers helps me spread my message of Informed and Responsible Earth Stewardship…locally and globally!

 

Aerial Tour of Joe Wheeler State Park Man-Enhanced Amenities!

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On August 20, 2023, a friend took me aloft in his Cessna 182. We departed Pryor Regional Air Field, Decatur, Alabama at 7:00 AM under cloud-free but hazy skies, the threat/promise (depending upon perspective) of expanding heat index…arriving long after our return to the airfield. Our flight plan encompassed exploring the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and cruising the Tennessee River from Guntersville Dam downstream to Wheeler Dam (and Joe Wheeler State Park). I focus this Post on our aerial exploration of Joe Wheeler State Park.

I’ve enjoyed many on-the-ground hours at the Park, publishing numerous prior Posts focused on this State Park. Go to the Blog page of my website (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/), enter Joe Wheeler State Park in the search window, and read/explore the Posts at your leisure.

I snapped this photo at 8:17 AM over the south end of Wheeler Dam looking to the northside lock, and the forested Park shoreline stretching northeast from the dam.

 

Out of sight, a portion of the Park (southside cabins and the Multiple Use Trail) lies directly beneath me, visible in this view to the south both east and west of where the bridge reaches the opposite shoreline.

 

There is absolute magic in an aerial view of the famed US waterway, dammed by the Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee Valley Authority in the bleak Great Depression days of the 1930s for economic development, navigation, and power generation. From just 2,000 feet, the horizon expands exponentially. Since the first time my Dad arranged for a friend to take me airborne above our Central Appalachian home, I have been mesmerized by flying above a natural landscape. On such flights, the whole notion of my taglines…Nature-Inspired Life and Living; Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!…comes alive in crystal clarity.

 

As impressive as Wheeler Dam is from 2000 feet, it can’t surpass the October 19, 2022 pontoon boat view from the breast of the dam looking down into Wilson Lake, the next in the series of Tennessee River impoundments leading to the Ohio River.

Joe Wheeler

 

From this aerial vantage point a couple of miles east of the bridge crossing the dam, the Tennessee River (and Wheeler Lake) stretches eastward. First Creek empties into the Lake from the left. Nearly all of the forest surrounding the First Creek embayment is central to Joe Wheeler State Park. I have spent hours exploring trails and woodland within the field of vision from 2,000 feet altitude. I marvel that such an aerially-compressed view can account for at least half of the Joe Wheeler State Park Posts I have authored.

Joe WSP

 

And, a single photo can encompass an entire lifetime…my 72 years of life on Earth. Yet, in stating something so overwhelmingly significant in terms of my own meaningless life, I am overcome with humility. I don’t belong in the same paragraph with the compressed wisdom and perspective offered by famed astronomer Carl Sagan, who better than anyone else in history, encapsulated the meaning of this view of Earth, this our only home in the vast darkness of space:

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Internet Image

 

John Muir, the indomitable conservationist, Nature-advocate, and philosopher, distilled the reality of the pale blue dot that is Earth into a single thought…a perfect harmonious, beautiful vision and concept:

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

And Muir drew the dewdrop analogy a century before man first slipped the surly bonds of Earth! (John Gillespie Magee, Jr’s High Flight).

I recorded this 0:39 video at 8:19 AM, capturing the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of a very special place on the eastern edge of the First Creek embayment at Joe Wheeler State Park.

 

The view to the left includes the Lodge, part of the marina, a section of the golf course, the wastewater treatment facility, and the Day Use picnic, beach, and recreation area along the inlet east of the Lodge (closeup below right).

 

Aerial views complement our Earth-bound perspective, yet Earth-bound is where we reside. I snapped this sunrise photo in early June 2023, from the Lodge pier, where the boat is docked in the photo above left.

Joe WSP

 

Before departing the Park, we banked over that adjoining inlet, capturing a view of the Day Use area and campground.

Joe WSP

 

I took the photo below on the blustery evening before the sunrise photo, from the pier faintly visible in the upper left peninsula in the photo above. I am grateful for the opportunity to aerially explore familiar places August 23. However, I am a terrestrial explorer by experience and passion. I’ll accept and embrace the alternative perspective even as I will continue to relish my earthbound standard.

 

The campground reopened in the early summer of 2023 following two years of repair work necessary after a December 2019 tornado ravaged the Day Use area and campground.

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 of 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 to provide incremental operating and capital support for enhancing our State parks… and your enjoyment of them.

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

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

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

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

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

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations from my aerial flight and the breath-taking perspective from 2,000 feet above God’s northern Alabama wild and domesticated patchwork quilt:

  • When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
  • On such flights, the whole notion of my taglines…Nature-Inspired Life and Living; Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!…come alive in crystal clarity.
  • I am mesmerized by flying above a natural landscape, where beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration reach into my soul.

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. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And Third: 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 Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

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

Steve's Books

 

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three 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 now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

 

 

 

Three Mid-September Nature Stops at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

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By September 16, 2023, nearly three months after my triple bypass surgery, I had healed enough to spend time alone at the nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge…unaccompanied by a fellow Nature enthusiast. I enjoyed three distinct facets of the Refuge that afternoon: driving and stopping along Rockhouse Bottoms Road on the north shore of Lake Wheeler; exploring the northern edge of my favorite riparian hardwood forest just south of HGH Road; and experiencing the tranquility of Blackwell Swamp.

 

Rockhouse Bottoms

 

I felt the liberating force of venturing alone into wildness, regaining confidence in myself, even if all three micro-explorations kept me within a few hundred feet of my vehicle. As they say, one step at a time! The Corps of Engineers and TVA tamed the Tennessee River 90 years ago. Lake Wheeler varies no more than five feet in elevation (water level) over a calendar year. The river no longer ebbs and flows with seasonal freshets, spring tempests, and extended droughts. Commercial tugs and barges ply its waters with assured full-pool ease.

 

Threatening clouds offered a hint of rain, yet my home rain gauge would not record a drop the remaining two weeks of September. Not to worry,…Lake Wheeler will continue to serve navigational (and power generation) needs. I watched a gentleman cast for game fish off-shore from his kayak. He landed several fish that I could not identify beyond most likely as bream. I had not brought my binoculars. The I-65 bridge crosses the river downstream just out of sight.

 

I recorded this 31-second video as the fisherman worked his bait offshore. My mind traveled back many decades to fishing with Dad and my brother along the rivers and creeks among western Maryland’s Central Appalachians. I regret not bringing along a folding chair to while away an hour enjoying the river and breathing in the summer afternoon’s soothing elixir.

I recorded this thirty-two second video along the Tennessee River:

 

I remind myself that these sandy river terrace floodplain fields are fertile, well-watered, and richly productive. This field is among the 4,000 acres of the Refuge that are under a Cooperative Farm Agreement.

 

I recorded this 0:31 video of Cooperative corn farming along Rockhouse Bottoms Road:

Under contract with the US Fish and Wildlife Service the producer manages the crop, leaving 15-18 percent of the harvest for wildlife consumption.

 

HGH Road: Thunder Echoes

 

The heavier (less sandy) soils inland nearly a mile, similarly fertile, support the riparian hardwood forest that I frequently bushwhack north to HGH Road. I spotted this recently bolted and scarred red oak as I cruised along HGH Road. Evidence suggested that the strike occurred the prior week when a cluster of thunderstorms raked Madison and Limestone Counties. This strike reached from the tree’s base as far into the crown as I could see. Long strips of bark and stout slivers of wood spear the ground within 50 feet of the bole.

 

This was a powerful blow! Will it be fatal? I’ve seen trees similarly struck that survived for decades. Others lost foliage within a week. Where do I place my bet? I don’t look for it to leaf out next spring. I stood in awe, camera in hand recording this 31-second video, sensing the absolute power of Nature’s ferocity just a week prior.

 

Because the tree stands within 50 feet of HGH Road, I will track its progress frequently.

Blackwell Swamp

 

Blackwell Swamp lies along Jolley B Road midway between the river and HGH Road. I love the habitat and ecosystem diversity represented by the open lake water along the river, the adjoining agricultural fields, the deep riparian hardwood forests along HGH Road, and the saturated swamp riverine habitat at Blackwell. Every ecosystem at Wheeler tells a compelling story.

 

I recorded this 31-second video as I enjoyed the sounds, visuals, and summer mood of the swamp:

 

I will revisit the Refuge trifecta once autumn weather takes a firmer grip on northern Alabama.

 

I grew up in country far removed from the Tennessee River. My Central Appalachian Ridge and Valley roots offered nothing remotely akin to the three stops I experienced September 16. Yes, I miss autumn in western Maryland…and on up into New England…where vibrant colors, sharp-edged weather shifts, and wide temperature swings prevailed. I also yearn for a little deep winter, lamenting that here our chances are slim. However, I refuse to succumb to memories that inflate the wonder of deep, fanciful recollections of falling and drifting snow, a roaring fireplace, and the pure frosted white a fresh blanket of snow brings to a sparkling dawn.

I need only remind myself of my mid-June triple bypass surgery and the reality that even if I resided in the land of blizzards and Hallmark winters, my spouse of 51 years would declare my snow shovel off-limits! So, I’ll occasionally welcome a bit of weather melancholy…and embrace our northern Alabama winter weather delight that counters our hot summers. I tell people who may not be familiar with our dormant season that fall ever-so-slowly grades into spring, sprinkled now and again with a day or two of winter.

I am ready for our extended fall-to-spring to begin.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations, from a single Louis Bromfield quote (Pleasant Valley):

  • By September 16, 2023, nearly three months after my triple bypass surgery, I had healed enough to spend time alone at the nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.
  • I felt the liberating force of venturing alone into wildness and regaining confidence in myself. As they say, one step at a time!
  • Every one of the diverse ecosystem elements at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge tells a compelling story.

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. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

And Third: 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 Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

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

 

All Three Books

 

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three 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 now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

 

Mid-August 2023 First Time Visit to Forever Wild Shoal Creek Nature Preserve

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August 18, 2018, while in Florence, Alabama taking photographs in preparation for my October 13, 2023 presentation at the city’s 27th Annual Horticulture and Tree Conference, I stopped by the nearby Forever Wild Shoal Creek Nature Preserve, my first “wildland” venture since triple bypass surgery eight weeks prior. I admit to a bit of trepidation as I wandered from the trailhead. I didn’t penetrate the 298 acres for much more than 15 minutes, turning well short of Shoal Creek, a future destination when I return.

Shoal Creek Preserve (dedicated by Forever Wild resolution as the Billingsley-McClure Shoal Creek Preserve) allows visitors to explore 298 acres of fallow fields, mature upland hardwood stands and scenic creek bottoms in Lauderdale County. Waterways on the tract include Indian Camp Creek, Lawson Creek, Jones Branch and Shoal Creek.

The tract was purchased in part through a Land and Water Conservation Fund grant awarded by the Alabama Department of Economics and Community Affairs, as well as through financial and in-kind contributions from the City of Florence and Lauderdale County.

Two trails totaling 4.3 miles give hikers views of Shoal Creek, Indian Camp Creek, Lawson Branch, and Jones Branch, all on this small 300-acre property.

Jones Creek at the entrance road to the property, SW corner of the 298-acre NP, drains into Shoal Creek where backwaters of Wilson Lake swell Shoal Creek. Shoal Creek enters the Tennessee River at Turtle Point Yacht & Country Club

 

I felt fortunate to reenter Nature, albeit cautiously, just eight weeks from open heart surgery. The sky could not have been more welcoming…cerulean blue with puffy cumulus. I’m a softy for trailhead signage, especially when graffiti and trash don’t mar the scene. My compliments to those maintaining the area.

 

I like the red roof over the entrance marquis. Here’s the view from 100 yards within the trail, looking back to the red roof.

 

Trails at Shoal Creek NP are well marked, a necessity for first time trekkers, and a comfort to those who are returning infrequently.

 

The interpretive text I quoted earlier mentioned acres of fallow fields. Importantly, nothing in Nature is static. A fallow field transitions in our moist temperate climate rather rapidly from meadow to woody brush to young trees to forest and finally to old growth forest. The photo below shows a meadow still dominated by herbs and forbes, a mixture of annuals and perennials. Come back at ten-year intervals and you won’t believe your eyes!

 

No one can dispute the beauty, wonder, magic, and awe of Nature’s richness and her grandeur. Can you imagine a yellow more vibrant and rich than the blossom of this partridge pea, a native legume common in such early successional habitats? I wonder, how many partridge pea plants per meadow acre is sufficient? Ideal? The same can be asked of any plant, animal, insect, or life form in an ecosystem. Is there a mathematical formula to derive the optimum mix of taxa? In simplest terms, there is no correct answer. Nature doesn’t need a species diversity comptroller to track and enforce ratios, minima, distribution, variances from norms, and standard deviations.

 

And yet, today’s societal leanings are embracing a mindset that places great stock on monitoring, categorizing, and meticulously controlling metrics related to human Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as though some bureaucratic class understands the optimum admixture for human affairs, varieties, races, genders, ethnicities, and predilections. Nature, on the other hand, cares only about the function and outcome from a proven, timeless, and extraordinarily successful sorting mechanism — an effective meritocracy. In human endeavors, some bureaucrat may deem five partridge pea plants per acre as ideal. Nature simply does not care…that hapless staffer knows nothing!

The fallow field below will convert to forest if left to Nature’s devices. I admit, however, to a bias toward mixed habitat. Were this already a closed forest, the lovely sky would lie hidden beyond an enveloping canopy. Bluebirds, grasshoppers, meadow voles, and harriers would yield to species common to the mature forest. We maintain the early successional cover only through active and deliberate management! Prescribed fire is one obvious tool. I don’t know what managers of the preserve plan. I’ll watch with anticipation.

Shoal Creek Nature Preserve

 

Among other plants thriving within this section of meadow are Eastern red cedar, blackberry, thistle, sweet gum, poison ivy, and many other woody perennials, shrubs, and trees. A new forest is emerging.

 

Because still photographs fall short of revealing a cogent reality, I recorded this 1:00 video with narration:

 

Panicoideae grasses, large native perennials, dominate this area. Panic grasses are deeply rooted. Without active management (usually in the form of prescribed fire), forest will succeed. The olde truth prevails…nothing in Nature is static.

 

Shining sumac is a small, early successional tree. This thriving specimen is producing a full seed crop, attracting meadow-habitat birds that will consume the fruits. Digestive juices will scarify the hard seed, encouraging germination when the birds deposit the seed elsewhere in the meadow. Again, I ask, how many shining sumac individuals is enough? Optimum? What is the ideal number of seeds per acre? How many goldfinches are needed to properly disperse the seeds? Perhaps when we know how many angels can sit on the head of a pin we can answer such questions about Nature and her ideal species numbers and distributions. I shall remain a species comptroller skeptic, just as I will forevermore fail to see real value in business, industry, government, and universities bloating with DEI staff and administrators.

 

I am certain of my own bias to rich and varied habitat, like this image from the Shoal Creek Nature Preserve website.

SCNP Website

 

I’m curious to see what the future holds. Does the Preserve have a management plan? Does it prescribe treatments for maintaining habitat diversity? By what means? I feel a little guilty posting this photo essay on the basis of my very preliminary and shallow explorations post-surgery. However, my elation at stepping back into Nature overshadowed my guilt. I plan to return and I will dig more deeply.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Nothing in Nature is static.
  • As in our own lives, successional stages carry us from youth to maturity to our senior years.
  • Experiencing a new (to me) Nature Preserve whets my appetite for deeper exploration and understanding.

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: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

  • I love hiking and exploring in 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 actually 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 grand kids, 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

Steve's Books

 

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

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

 

Early September Potpourri at Alabama’s Joe Wheeler State Park!

/in /by

I returned to Joe Wheeler State Park on September 6, 2023, to meet with Renee Raney who had recently been appointed as the Alabama State Park System’s first Chief of Education and Interpretation. Appointed from within the System, Renee is a consummate nature devotee, experienced naturalist, and committed champion of the System’s three-part mission of conservation, recreation, and education.

Introducing Alabama State Park System’s Chief of Education and Interpretation

 

Here is the 58-second video I recorded on September 6, and posted on my YouTube channel to introduce Renee:

 

I’ve known Renee since retiring to Alabama in 2017. She and I will be co-teaching a winter term OSHER Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) course on Connecting Nature and Wellness at Alabama’s State Parks at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. We took advantage of our wanderings at JWSP to brainstorm ideas for the six-week course. Rather than focus on the course, allow me to present this 44-second video promoting the course, and then move on to the potpourri of Nature delights we encountered in our Park sleuthing:

 

Potpourri of Park Delights

 

I enjoy the signs across the state welcoming me to our state parks. Shortly after entering Joe Wheeler, Wheeler Lake reached out to greet me.

JWSP

 

 

I am an avowed soft touch for clouds, water, and forested shoreline. The view from the boat launch did not disappoint. If I had not entered forestry school, I may have pursued meteorology. I admit to a lifelong addiction to and fascination with all things weather. In fact, forestry is inseparable from weather: tree planting and soil moisture; prescribed fire and wind, humidity, and smoke dispersal; road maintenance and storm forecasts. The fair weather clouds in the photos below don’t portend an incoming storm, although a local isolated thunderstorm did drop 1.31 inches at my home (40 miles to the east) that evening. Since then, I have measured just 0.40 inches over the intervening 48 days!

JWSP

 

I recorded this 0:32 video from the dock at the First Creek inlet boat launch.

 

White morning glory hung tightly to the marina railing near the Joe Wheeler State Park Lodge. Finding Nature’s many gifts and delights does not require incursion deep into the park backcountry.

JWSP

 

We appreciated the late summer frost flower in full bloom.

JWSP

 

Renee and I found both kousa dogwood, an Asian ornamental dogwood resistant to anthracnose fungal infection, and Carolina buckthorn near the Lodge, both bearing ripe fruit..

JWSP

 

I’ve photographed this unique loblolly pine tree on prior visits to the park. I wanted Renee to see some of Nature’s hidden magic. The horizontal ridges result from sapsucker bird pecks introducing some type of organism (fungal, bacterial, or viral) that triggers swelling and ridging along the axes. I have never seen such raised ridges on hardwood trees,

JWSP

 

We also found several downed logs heavily infected with Trametes fungi. These wood decay agents are strictly dead wood consumers, one of the many organisms that return dead and down woody debris to the forest floor. Renee carries a tiger stuffee to serve as a frame of reference for forest critters, novelties, and all manner of delights.

JWSP

 

We photographed the tiger on the sweetgum roots below. A strong wind leaned the tree 20 degrees downwind, lifting the windward roots until the tree found sufficient support on a downwind neighbor. A future blow may uproot the tree…or the sweetgum may resist the pressure for many decades. Nothing in Nature is static.

 

JWSP

 

Much of the woodland extending from the Lodge to the Day Use area and campground shows clear evidence of having been pastured when the COE and TVA acquired the impoundment buffer lands 90 years ago. Evidence of such past land use includes black locust exiting the present forest and large muscadine vines fully enveloping the 90-year-old main canopy. I snapped the image below right during a March 2023 LearningQuest tour I led in the same stand in March 2023.

JWSP

Joe Wheeler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black locust is an aggressive pioneer species, rapidly colonizing abandoned pasture across north Alabama. The species commonly declines when the stand reaches age 70-plus years. I included these two images of dead black locust in this same stand from a January 2022 nature photography course I co-led at the park. Here’s the Great Blue Heron photo-essay I published about the declining black locust stand in March 2022: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/03/22/black-locust-decline-and-two-champion-trees-at-joe-wheeler-state-park/

Joe WheelerJoe Wheeler

 

The evidence of the former black locust stand occupying this area of Joe Wheeler State Park is slowly disappearing…with mortality and subsequent decay and organic matter recycling. I have championed the idea of systematically establishing permanent photo-points within all 22 Alabama State Parks to document and chronicle changes every 5-10 years. The demise of the black locust forest would be memorialized in the historic photo record.

Chimney Memorial within the Campground

 

Renee and I examined this old chimney on a hilltop within the campground. Like every tree within a forest stand, the chimney has a story to tell. Its tale will become part of the education and interpretation narrative at Joe Wheeler State Park.

JWSP

 

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • I am so pleased that the Alabama State Park System has appointed Renee Raney as Chief of Education and Interpretation!
  • Every tree, every stand, and every forest within our State Parks has a compelling story to tell.
  • Albert Einstein understood the wisdom of Nature education and interpretation: “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

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: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

 

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

 

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

  • I love hiking and exploring in 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 actually 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 grand kids, 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

Steve's BooksJoe WSP

 

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.

 

 

Triple Bypass Surgery Recovery at Tennessee’s Lake Norris: Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!

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July 7-14, 2023, I luxuriated (and began deep recovery from major surgery) in the blessed balms of healing Nature and nurturing family on Tennessee’s Lake Norris (TVA impoundment on the Clinch River). I gratefully opened all five personal portals to the powerful elixir: body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit!

Shedding the Shrouds of a Major Setback

 

Readers and followers by now know my tiresome tale of an early June 2023 failed stress test, June 15 shocking catheterization result (I’m a former competitive distance and marathon runner, damn it!), and June 19 triple bypass surgery. My surgeon released me from the hospital on June 26. Eleven days later (July 7) Judy and I departed for a long-planned, family-gathering vacation week at a rental house. The surgeon reluctantly granted passage…with a list of caveats, in accord with I maintained fidelity. Our kids, grandkids, and a total of 19 family members awaited the arrival of the recent patient.

Judy drove. I sat on the back seat with my right leg (from which surgeons had harvested a primary vein for the bypass) elevated, stopping every hour for me to stretch and walk. I wondered whether I would be reduced to a blubbering old fool upon arrival and reunion. I’ve learned that major surgery (in some ways a reminder of mortality) is as much an emotional ordeal as it is physical. My maudlin frailty did not erupt, yet stayed close at hand, likely evident to loved ones.

The week worked wonders. I’ve been promoting the theme of Nature-Inspired Life and Living since I began publishing these photo-essays. When I suffered a minor stroke (another major blow to the old athlete!) in April 2022, I added a second theme: Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing! The Lake Norris week gave me a full dose that I will cherish forever. I won’t weaken your resolve to read more of these Posts by identifying all family members, regaling you with their exploits, or droning on about the swelling in my right leg, the agony of sneezing, the difficulty of sleeping, and my reduced appreciation for food, etc.

Instead, consider this Post a portfolio of the week’s moments in Nature that lifted my soul, stirred my heart, and spurred me to appreciate life, living, today, tomorrow, and the people, places, and things that matter.

 

Arrival Nature Infusion

 

Here’s our arm of the Lake when we arrived at 5:56 PM July 7. My heart leapt.

 

Without narration, I recorded this 30-second video shortly after snapping the still photo above.

 

A Thundershower Boost

 

The next afternoon at 4:58 PM, I recorded this 28-second video of a thundershower. I am a lifelong weather enthusiast, unable to resist the thrill of fat raindrops and a rumble of thunder.

 

Daybreak Immersion and Lift

 

I can’t recall the last time I missed dawn. Nature offers a gift every time the sun lifts above the horizon. July 9 at 7:00 AM a few wisps of ridge-riding fog draped the nearby shallow ridges. Alto-cumulus graced the firmament above our inlet.

 

The sun lifted from behind the low ridge to our east at 7:43 and 7:46 AM July 9. How could anyone be disappointed with days that began with such beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration!?

 

I frequently cite the timeless wisdom of John Muir, who often encapsulated my own sentiments in words far grander than I could ever achieve:

This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.

Mid-morning the same day I photographed the striking blue flowers of chicory and the delicate foliage of mimosa.

 

Virginia pines stood as foreground to the ridge-view across the inlet at 9:21 AM. Clouds still clung to the Cumberland Mountains (right at ~2,500 feet) at 9:26 AM.

 

Venturing Onto the Lake

 

Still July 9, I ventured onto the lake in our pontoon boat. The clouds had thickened (non-threatening) by 9:54 AM. I love water, trees, and clouds…and a boat filled with loving family!

 

I recorded this 31-second video to add depth and substance to my still photos.

 

The days raced along. A green heron visited near the dock on July 11 at 10.25 AM. Although the great blue heron is my signature avian avatar, I love this second cousin. How kind of it to stop by, perch for several minutes, and then depart. Although I did not photograph any great blues, we saw a dozen or more during our week.

 

July 11, I ventured back onto the Lake, capturing these images at 11:06 and 11:13 AM. Dead-fall along shoreline on the left adds character and texture to the scene. My forester’s eye stays riveted both on the immediate shore, then lifts to the ridges near at hand and the mountains at distance. I find fascination with the manner in which tree roots anchor to the layered rocks at right.

 

Sunset Cruise

 

My early morning ramblings did not dissuade me from a sunset cruise July 11. On the west side of the Eastern time zone, at 8:12 and 8:29 PM, the evening sky remains bright just three weeks after the solstice. Shadows are lengthening and deepening by the latter window, in both of these views to the east.

 

Here are the same two times (8:12 and 8:29 PM) looking to the west, the sun dipping to the tree line on the right.

 

This 18-second sunset video sweep captures the sunset magic more effectively.

 

I mused often that just three weeks prior I lay deep within what a Mended Heart volunteer at the hospital described as a dark tunnel. A day or two out of the ICU, with chest drains still connected and the entire ordeal shrouded in mental fog, I wondered whether I would ever emerge. My visitor said, “You will see daylight beyond the darkness. Bright skies; warm breezes; birdsong; hope and promise. This current pit of mental anguish is temporary. Hold on; have faith; be strong; dedicate yourself to recovery.” The Lake at sunset proved him right. The coming night porteneded a far different nature of darkness than what the immediate surgery aftermath imposed.

I sensed a type of rebirth with the entire ordeal, including the surge of renewal that accompanied my week at the Lake with family. The views east and west at 8:32 and 8:35 PM brought the promise of a night enriched by the warmth of family, a campfire with s’mores, and a new dawn ahead.

 

I hold dearly to my photo-essay mantras: Nature-Inspired Life and Living; Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing!

Once again, Muir captured the essence of my healing week:

The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.

 

I am encouraged by the wisdom, knowledge, and passion of a handful of dedicated nature enthusiasts who are Naturalists with the Alabama State Parks System. Foremost among them is Renee Simmons Raney, Chief of Interpretation and Education. Renee posted the following on her FaceBook site this morning (August 15, 2023) as I drafted this photo-essay, which you have just perused, on my own healing journey:

Emerson said, “Happiness is not in another place — it is in THIS place. Not for another hour, but THIS hour.” We have a tendency to look ahead and we are driven toward tomorrow. I recall lessons on Cheaha mountain as a child at the knee of my Daddy. He taught me in the ways of our ancestors, Cherokee and Hebrew: to sit very still, to listen, to look, to smell and to be very ware…out of the stillness comes a symphony of life: all around me and within me. This lesson is for everyone in every moment no matter where you are or what is happening. Be still. Be ware. Find your peace. Discover your joy. Ease into your healing. It doesn’t depend on someone else. It is right there-a little spark inside of you. Cherish it. Nurture it. Breathe in and feel it grow. Be still and know that I AM. (Psalm 46:10)

My Great Blue Heron website extolls what I term the four levels of fitness:

  • Four levels of fitness – I urge readers to recognize the critical nature of their own four-dimensional fitness, even as they understand that capacity, performance, fulfillment, and enjoyment correlate with health and well-being. That maintaining fitness across all four fronts enhances a person’s ability to perform and draw satisfaction and fulfillment:
    1. Mental – acuity and sharpness
    2. Physical – health and vitality
    3. Emotional – friends, family, colleagues
    4. Spiritual – embrace of a presence larger than self

The four levels are critical, I’ve learned, to both maintaining the status quo…and to recovering from significant setbacks. Renee’s text amplifies the fourth level: Be still and know that I AM!

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Thanks to family and Nature, I’ve emerged from the post-surgery darkness of a foreboding tunnel.
  • The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls! (John Muir)
  • Nature’s “grand show is eternal.” (John Muir)
  • Be still and know that I AM! (Psalm 46:10)

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: “©2023 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by an another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

 

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

 

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

  • I love hiking and exploring in 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 actually 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 grand kids, 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

Steve's Books

 

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three books offer observations and reflections on my relationship to the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any and all from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.