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Buckeye Impoundment in Early October on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (Part One)

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On October 6, 2024, a little longer than six weeks since my total right knee replacement surgery, I ventured to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge to gently explore Buckeye Impoundment, Blackwell Swamp, and Rockhouse Bottom by automobile and dirt road strolling. Not yet ready for woodland trail wandering, I welcomed the fresh air, seasonal transition signs, and diverse meadow, swamp, and Tennessee River.

Because the three ecological units are too much to stuff into a single photo essay, Buckeye Impoundment will serve as Part One of my October 6 exploration.

 

Buckeye Impoundment

 

On an August 2023 aerial tour, the impoundment appears as a mosaic of agricultural fields, meadows, and marsh vegetation. On the recent on-the-ground visit I parked within the forest where the east/west HGH dirt road emerges from the east. I walked south to about the edge of the photograph.

 

I photographed the winter-flooded impoundment on January 6, 2020, when the flooded wetlands attracts waterfowl vacationing from frozen northlands.

Buckeye

 

The impoundment is a complex and diverse ecosystem that ebbs, flows, and fluxes with the Corps of Engineers-controlled flooding. Marshland water remained in spite of an extended late summer dry period. Although beyond my roadside reach, the meadow vegetation is lush. The forest edge shows no sign of coloring.

I recorded this 60-second video before exiting into the impoundment:

 

I left the car and the forest shade behind. Bright sun greeted me; the woodland mosquitoes remained behind.

Buckeye Impoundment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Native vegetation along the road shows the signature of seasonal senscence and dryness. Small birds, grasshoppers, and dragon flies foraged among the drying grasses and herbs.

BuckeyeBuckeye

 

Some areas seemed oddly wet after such an extended period of limited rainfall.

Buckeye

 

I soon discovered that the entire impoundment has water control devices that are already impeding natural drainage.

Buckeye

 

Late in the season, an evening primrose is still flowering at the edge of this marshy area.

Buckeye

 

I recorded this 60-second video of marsh, primrose, and background crows calling:

 

Red-centered hibiscus refused to release summer.

BuckeyeBuckeye

 

I recorded this 56-second 360-degree turn around the impoundment, magnifying one of the two spectacular hibiscus flowers:

 

I found the diverse herbs fascinating, but with knees still too unstable to allow botanizing beyond the road edge, I settled for photos, videos, and a few generalizations. Aldo Leopold, in my view the nation’s premier conservation philosopher, hinted at my surgery-hobbled wanderings. I covet digging deeply into the plants, communities, and ecosystems I explore. I lean toward perusing the things of Nature…peruse, which contrary to common view of the term, means to study deeply.

Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.

The photos I captured do not express beauty so much as a diverse and rich ecosystem I am only superficially appreciating from afar.

Buckeye

 

A lonely fire ant hill stood at the road edge. I pondered the summer exposure of its location in baking sun. Imagine a powerful July thunderstorm rushing across the impoundment with rain pelting, lightning flashing, and winds howling. Or picture the absolute and isolated loneliness during the dormant months when the Corps raises the impoundment water level to leave a thin north/south strip of gravel road surface between twin lakes of waterfowl habitat.

Buckeye

 

I wonder do the raccoons that just several weeks before deposited persimmon-laden stools frequent the road surface in winter?

BuckeyeBuckeye

 

 

 

 

 

Does the coyote that also fed heartily on Diospyros virginiana fruit venture into the winter impoundment? Perhaps a better question is what creature eats the seeds that pass trough raccoon and coyote?

Buckeye

 

The dead red swamp crawfish on the gravel hints at another element of the impundment foodchain. I observed but was unable to photograph both a great blue heron and great white egrets, delighted consumers of raw crayfish morsels.

Buckeye

 

Suffice it to say that Buckeye Impoundment is worthy of ecological study far deeper than I was capable of performing in early October. I’d like to return with knees rehabilitated in the company of a wetand ecologists, herbaceous botanists, and other related specialists. My terrestrial ecology and forestry expertise does not serve me well in the impoundment setting, even when my knees are well!

Regardless, I found delight in consuming the observable ecological and aesthetic morsels on my knee-hobbled outing. Healing progress is palpable…day by day…week by week. I am a unabashed enthusiast for Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing, and a physical therapy zealot. A former athlete, I believe that every effort warrants training equivalent to prepping for the next race, game, match, etc. Healing is reward sufficient to the effort.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. (Aldo Leopold)
  • A novice at wetlands ecology, I’ve learned enough to inform me that I know nothing!
  • A former athlete, I believe that every effort warrants training equivalent to prepping for the next race, game, match, etc. Healing is reward sufficient to the effort.

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

Photo from my August 2023 aerial observation.

 

First Moderate Hike (Saunter) Since Knee Replacement Surgery: Rainbolt Trail

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On Sunday, October 13, 2024, I “co-led” a University of Alabama in Huntsville Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) hike on the Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve in Madison, Alabama. I used the term co-led liberally. I co-chair the OLLI Member Interest Group for hiking and Nature Walks. Just 7.5 weeks past my total right knee replacement surgery, this was my first attempt at a hilly, rocky, and uneven trail designated as moderately difficult. I lagged far behind, returned to the trailhead at the halfway point, and relished this new recovery benchmark!

The fifteen fellow hikers enjoyed the gorgeous weather, wished me well, and hoped I would soon reach the target of again fully participating.Rainbow Mtn

 

We began at the Rainbolt Trail, a new one-half mile section that meanders approximately 225 feet vertical to the Rainbow Loop Trail atop Rainbow Mountain. I made it nearly to Rainbow Loop. The Rainbolt moniker dates to the original resident, Mr. Rainbolt, his name long since simplified (or bastardized) to Rainbow. Eastern Red Cedar, a common pioneer species, dominates the Preserve’s harsher, drier sites.

Rainbow Mtn

 

The Hardscrabbled Forest

 

I puzzled over why Mr. Rainbolt found attraction to this rugged 350-foot monadnock of broken limestone, shallow soils, and mixed forest in the midst of an otherwise rich landscape of verdant valley, fertile farmland, and productive forest. Except for the 147-acre Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve the surrounding landscape has converted to an expanse of residential and commercial development. The southwest-facing hillside that the Rainbolt Trail ascends is particularly harsh, seasonally parched, and covered by scrubby second- and third-growth forest. Don’t look for towering hardwoods, excepting a few big fellows like the leaning oak below left and an occasional respectable shagbark hickory (right).

Rainbow

 

My 59-second video highlighting the scrubby forest:

 

The trail wanders along limestone ledges and scattered pole-size hardwoods and cedars. Forget about deep shade, cool hollows, and refreshing breezes. Even with most leaves still clinging to the overstory, ample sunshine penetrates to the forest floor. Tree height is the single best indicator of forest site quality, a surrogate for soil moistire, available nutrients, and microclimate.

Rainbow

 

High closed canopies typify rich sites. The dead oak snag at left stands under a large opening. In nearby riparian forests such attrited openings fill rapidly. The same snag rises at left from a rock ledge bulwark. Contrast the apparent depth and extent of soil here to the deep expansive soils in the nearby Tennessee River flood plain.  The perpetual process of life and death in the respective forest is integral to both sites, but the pace correlates with fertility.

Rainbow

 

Decay and decomposition perpetuate the carbon cycle, the essentual flow of mass and energy within the forest. Within the Rainbow Mounatain Nature Preserve’s 147 acres, a map of soil site quality, productivity, and the pace of carbon cycling would vary from a low on the W/SW-facing slope where the Rainbolt Trail ascends to the concave lower slope where Rainbow Spring descends to the E/SE. I focused my PhD dissertation on soil-site relationships in the Allegheny hardwood forests of NW PA and SW NY nearly 40 years ago. I am amazed how applicable the findings are across the eastern US mid-lattitudes.

 

 

The Rainbolt Trail consistently tells the tale of poor forest productivity.

Here is another 59-second scrub forest video:

 

The harsh conditions (heat, drought, shallow soils, and westerly wind exposure) do not favor large boles and tall tree growth. A shattered 15-inch-diameter red oak snag and a nearby fallen dead oak of similar size bear testament.

Rainbow

 

In such a forest, understory stems are often the same age as the main canopy. This three-inch-diameter sapling, deeply hollowed by rot, stood for decades along what a year ago became the new trail. I neglected to examine its wood to identify species. Well, not so much neglected but failed to bring along my pocket knife.

RaibowRainbow

 

Although I spotted no other evidence of fire history, this charred cedar told the tale of a decades-old event when a westerly wind sent an escaped brush fire upslope, consuming the downed cedar and other brushy debris. When I next traverse the trail I will look for other signs of past burning.

Rainbow

 

The Preserve has suffered the incidental and intentional abuses of 200 years of human action as the city of Madison slowly encroached what would become the Preserve.

 

Limestone Mountain Bones

 

Just as Balance Rock serves as a natural landmark near the Preserve summit, Alligator Rock fulfils the same purpose on Rainbolt Trail, although less prominently and certainly less spectacularly.

Rainbow

Rainbow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See my 49-second video of Alligator Rock:

 

Perhaps because my recovery-impaired mobility forced me to pay more attention to nuances of my passage, I noticed a stone visage that no one else has mentioned. I see a sphinx-face or a ram’s head with prominent eye sockets and brows, and a strong collar and powerful neck. Was this a fleeting paranormal wisp that took form beyond just my recovery-induced stress of wandering alone on the trail?!

Rainbow

 

Further below as I descended I saw a bleached catlle skull trailside! Or maybe it’s a piece of weathered limestone. Now that my knees are much better healed, it’s time to retrace the route and test whether the figments (and fragments) remain.

 

And then there appeared ancient ribbed carcasses. Did Mr. Rainbolt herd poor-site cattle who mineralized on these hardscrabbled, nutrient-poor, moisture-stressed hillside? There are strange tales to be told and relived on the Rainbolt Trail.

Rainbow

 

I am a natural resource scientist, securing my PhD in 1987. Over the course of my academic career, I competed successfully for a quarter of a billion dollars in grants and contracts. As Chancellor of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, I led America’s Arctic University’s 3,500 faculty and staff. As Chair of the Governing Board of the University of the Arctic, I led a consortium of 90 high-latitude colleges and universities enrolling more that 700,000 students. As I look back across a fulfilling higher education career, I attribute much of my meager success to good humor, vivid imagination, and not taking myself too seriously, hence the ram’s head, bleached skull, and ribbed carcasses!

Rainbow

 

Einstein nailed it:

I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • The Preserve has suffered the incidental and intentional abuses of 200 years of human action as the city of Madison slowly encroached on what would become the Preserve.
  • Except for the 147-acre Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve, the surrounding landscape has converted to an expanse of residential and commercial development.
  • Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. (Albert Einstein)

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

 

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographeerved.”

And Third: I am availabd by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Resle for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

Rainbow

 

 

Introducing Little Mountain Forest School

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My Introduction to the Little Mountain Forest School and Its Undergirding Philosophy

 

On October 30, 2024, at the invitation of Beth Barry and Sarah Callaway, co-founders and directors, I enjoyed an orientation visit to the Little Mountain Forest School. I chatted individually with Sarah and Beth as staff-led breakout groups of the 23 students went through hands-on instruction and exploration near the Overlook at Monte Sano State Park. Having written exhaustively about the continuous cycle of life and carbon in forests, I listened with glee to the youngsters talking about decomposition. What could be a better learning laboratory than a 90-year-old hardwood forest?

Albert Einstein would have endorsed the notion of an outdoor school, having observed:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

The LMFS philosophy is apparent and in concert’s with Einstein’s.

MSSP

[Image from the LMFS website]

 

I am a lifetime advocate of outdoor recreation, education, and learning…for people of all ages. Environmental education, including my undergraduate forestry studies, is a contact sport, requiring hands-on, dirty-kneed examination and experience. As President of Antioch University New England, I had the pleasure of knowing and learning from Dr. David Sobel, a renowned American educator and academic, responsible for developing the philosophy of place-based education. He has written extensively on the topic in books and numerous articles. He was a Core Faculty member and Director of Certificate Programs at AUNE. I experienced David conducting a workshop for teachers along the windy shore of Lake Champlain in Vermont. He is a master of his craft. Beth and Sarah arranged for David to visit with them as they launched LMFS. They’ve learned from the best

A few quotes from David evidence that his wisdom is germane and timeless:

You can’t bounce off the walls if there are no walls: outdoor schools make kids happier—and smarter.

We tiptoed the tops of beaver dams, hopped hummocks, went wading, looked at spring flowers, tried to catch a snake, got lost and found. How fine it was to move at a meandery, child’s pace.

What’s important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it and feel comfortable in it, before being asked to heal its wounds.

[Image from the LMFS website]

 

Richard Louv is a journalist and author of ten books, including Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, The Nature Principle, and Vitamin N. Translated into twenty languages, his books have helped launch an international movement to connect children, families, and communities to nature. LMFS exemplifies the tenets of Louv’s philosophy of engaging children in Nature. Richard’s quotes are priceless and his advice more applicable now than ever before:

We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense.

Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our chidlren’s health (and also, by the way, in our own).

Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.

Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child.

Reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.

Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees.

[Image from the LMFS website]

 

The Nature of My Visit

 

This portion of the photo essay will present more like one of my routine woods-wanderings. Keep in mind that I offer it within the context of LMFS, an entity new to me, yet deeply rooted in a philosophy and practice that I have promoted and embraced intellectually for years. I accepted Sarah and Beth’s invitation to serve on the LMFS Board after our morning interactions. Watch for subsequent photo essays as I engage more deeply.

Allow me to introduce my on-site wanderings within the forest where LMFS conducted its morning learning adventures on October 30. Before my 9:15 AM “appointment,” I visited with an old friend, an ancient hollow chestnut oak sentry standing just south of the Overlook along the trail that runs along the plateau edge. The view at left below looks north to the Overlook parking area. The gaping hollow faces the trail.

Monte SSP

 

I recorded this short video of the tree. Listen carefully to background audio of autumn breezes and happy LMFS students!

 

The hollow offers a line of sight through the tree. Eventually, physics will topple this State Park denizen. An arborist rule of thumb is that a tree is at precarious risk of falling when the diameter of wood rind is less than one-third the diameter of the tree. I will not be surprised if on some future visit, I find the chestnut oak shattered, its carcas blocking the path, decomposing, recycling its essence into the soil.

 

The autumn-yellow leaves of a sasafras waved in the breeze above the students as they discussed decomposition. How apt!

MSSP

 

Six decades ago, when I was their age, I relished my informal learning outdoors with Mom and Dad fishing, hiking, picnicing, and camping. I did not suffer Nature Defecit Disorder or Vitamin D Defieciency, thank God!

MSSP MSSP

 

Far too many children today aren’t as fortunate as I. It has made all the difference for me, fundamentally shaping my life and charting my career. I am grateful now for the chance to make difference for tomorrow by serving the LMFS Board.

MSSP

 

Nature is rich with objects and opportunities for learning. Tree form oddities and curioisities fascinate me, and I believe would likewise have intrigued Albert Einstein:

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

People like you and me never grow old. We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

MSSP

 

Rather than dig deeply into the many objects spiriting my own curiosity, I will end with photographs of plants, trees, leaves, and other objects that could stimulate learning and inspire curiosity for LMFS students.

Wintergreen barberry, an evergreen shrub with sharp thorns.

 

Carolina buckthorn.

 

The long arm of an oak waving to the students heading into the forest north of the area where they had gathered to explore decomposition.

MSSP

 

My 57-second video titled Combatting Nature Deficit Disorder at Little Mountain Forest School atop Monte Sano!

 

A red oak, tortured and swollen with a fungal infection, a primary agent of decomposition.

 

A chestnut oak, hollowed by decay, backlighted by fall foliage.

MSSP

 

Exquisite crown shape, perhaps particularly interesting on this day before halloween.

Monte SSP

 

I am a champion of curioisity as a catalyst for learning. Allow me to close with additional Einstein quotes:

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

My all time favorite conservationist, Aldo Leopold, expressed similar sentiment:

Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?

I pledge fidelity to the wisdom of Sobel, Louv, Leopold, and Einstein in my Board service to LMFS!

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
  • You can’t bounce off the walls if there are no walls: outdoor schools make kids happier—and smarter. (David Sobel)
  • Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities. (Richard Louv)

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: “©2024 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

 

 

 

Brief-Form Post #37: Autumn Mid-Day Descent to Monte Sano’s Wells Memorial Trail!

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I am pleased to add the 37th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit 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 October 30, 2024, 69 days since my total right knee replacement surgery, I ventured solo to the Wells Memorial Trail at Alabama’s Monte Sano State Park. The difficulty is only moderate, yet following five surgeries (including triple bypass) in 16 months, my strength, endurace, and confidence are not up to par. The magnificence of the Well Memorial cove hardwood forest beckoned. I accepted…and subsequently celebrated…the test. I offer these observations, reflections, photos, and brief videos from my afternoon sauntering.

The trailhead is located at Three Benches, a confluence of several trails.

Monte Sano

 

Parked at the bicycle pavillion, I descended toward Wells via the Sinks Trail. The upper slope forest carries thick ropes of grape vine; their leafy vegetation rides the tree canopy, enjoying full sunlight. People assume the grape vines climb the trees. No, the vines originate from seed or vegetative sprouts when the forest begins anew following natural disturbance, agricultural abandonment, or timber harvesting. The young vines reach skyward as the trees grow. The vine on the yellow poplar tree at right did not need to grow a stout trunk to support its wieght; the poplar did the grunt work…the heavy lifting.

Monte SanoMonte Sano

 

My heart soared as I entered the cathedral forest. The trees tower. The changing autumn foliage presented a stained glass backdrop.

Monte Sano

 

My meager words add little…and maybe even detract from…the somber grandeur of this special place.

Monte Sano

 

I recorded this 59-second video along the trail through some hefty, heaven-reaching oaks and hickories:

 

Conservationist Aldo Leopold once said that he loves trees, then added that he is in love with pine tree. I am in love with northern red oak, the headliner in the Appalachian forests that shaped my life-passion and vocation.

Monte Sano

 

The images of forest and wandering trail need no narrative.

Monte Sano

 

The bird-pecked yellow poplar  and its ascent to the heavens asks nothing from me, and in return gives far more than I ask.

Monte Sano

Monte Sano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the three benches and the Wells sign are the surgery-recovery benchmark I sought. I recalled my recreational competetive distance running days (competed against my prior best times) when I crossed the finish line for a marathon. In its special way, reaching the benches was a crossing of equal weight and significance.

Monte Sano

Monte Sano

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recorded this brief video lying on my back near the trailhead, gazing into the high canopy above me:

 

Ah, who could ask for more! A large yellow poplar, stunning oaks and hickories, leafy path, and autumn-yellow forest glow.

Monte Sano

 

 

Here is my 58-second video showing the beckoning trail:

 

A fallen hollow oak branch served as a hickory nut snackbar.

Monte Sano

 

I ascended back through the upper slope natural grape arbor, completing a notably rewarding hike, a Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing venture.

Monte Sano

 

I’m grateful that such pleasures are within reach and that I am able to once again thoroughly and delightfully experience them.

 

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. William Wordsworth captured Nature’s magic in simple beautiful verse:

Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher.

Feeling the Glow of an overdue return to Nature!

Monte Sano

 

 

An Early Fall Exploration along Madison, Alabama’s Bradford Creek Greenway!

/in /by

 

On October 4, 2024, five and one-half weeks beyond my total right knee replacement surgery, I continued my recovery and reentry to Nature exploration. Judy and our two Alabama grandsons (Sam, 10, and Jack, just shy of 17) accompanied me. My appreciation for the simple pleasures of the Common in Nature grew during my forced Nature Deficit Disorder period! I was eager to absorb a dose of Nature’s elixir along the nearby Bradford Creek Greenway, a flat paved surface appropriate for this stage of my recovery.

Innumerable times, I’ve introduced adults and kids to the compound, fierce-looking thorns of our native honey locust trees. I seldom include Latin names in these photo essays, yet some scientific monikers, like Gledistia triacanthos, are irresistible! Somehow the sweet, sugary resonance of honey locust belies its fanged thorns waiting to prick and puncture the unwary woods-rambler.

Bradford CreekBradford Creek

 

Familiarity breeds contempt, an apt adage. Take a closer look, then back away from the forked spikes. Were I inclined to sate my curiosity, I would dive into an internet rabbit hole to determine the one or many evolutionary impetuses for evolving the loathsome appedages. Perhaps on a day when the fall weather is not so perfect as today’s.

Bradford Creek

 

I recorded this video at our prickly friend.

 

This tupelo tree with its gnarly roots is one I visit frequently. Never have I seen it with such little water. I measured just 0.70″ of rain in August; a little over 3.00″ in September; and just 0.72″ in October. Bradford Creek is demonstrating the serious rainfall deficit.

 

A few deeper channels hold water sufficient to retain all manner of stream life.

Bradford Creek

 

Two and one-half miles south of the Heritage School trailhead, some flow, albeit painfully slow, persists.

Bradford Creek

 

My brief video from the south-end bridge speaks softly of our persistent drought:

 

Nothing in Nature is static. Since my prior visit, an easterly wind pushed a trailside 18-inch diameter shagbark hickory past its critical strength threshold. Toppled, the tree reveals its rotted and weakened east-facing trunk. In so many ways, Nature offers rudimentary lessons in applied physics.

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment. (Leonardo da Vinci)

Bradford Creek

 

The species’ bark is uniquely distinctive, whether standing vertical or recently resting supine.

Bradford Creek

 

Here is my 53-second fallen shagbark hickory video:

 

The standing tree evidenced the basal rot. Now fallen, the rotten-to-the-core stump leads me to wonder how it stood at all. The tree was not able to withstand the wind. Trees so close to the disturbances of installing the sewer line and constructing and maintaining the greenway sustain injuries that open infection courts for pathogens and decay fungi. Their days are numbered.

Bradford Creek

 

No one in our region could complain about an absence of October sunshine.

Bradford Creek

 

I recorded the call of a mockingbird celebrating the fine day in the canopy of a cedar tree between the greenway and Bradford Creek.

 

I’m sure you’ve heard people complaing about hayfever instigated by goldenrod pollen. They are mistaken. Goldenrod pollen is heavy and sticky, the plant relying on insects for pollination. Ragweed is the principal late summer and early fall hayfever culprit.

Bradford Creek

 

This ailanthus webworm moth is one of goldenrod’s many pollinators.

Bradford Creek

 

 

Blue mistflower also provided color along the greenway.

Bradford CreekBradford Creek

 

Cardinal flower also brightened my return to Nature.

Bradford Creek

 

Straw-colored flatsedge carries an apt moniker.

Bradford Creek

 

Walking or biking along Bradford Creek occasionally rewards me with a snake sighting, most often a gray ratsnake. Unfortunately, a passerby decided to crush the head of this small copperhead, and leave it on the pavement. In every matter concerning informed and responsible Earth Stewardship, ignorance can be an overwhelming obstacle.

Bradford Creek

 

Until my final breath, I will hold fast to my retirment 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.

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • A short return to Nature five weeks following surgery pays dividends, amplifying and accelerating physical and mental healing!
  • There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment. (Leonardo da Vinci)
  • The older I get, the more I don’t know.

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.”

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), 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Signs of Big Winter Winds at Joe Wheeler State Park

/in /by

I’m drafting this photo essay on Saturday morning, September 28, 2024, just five-and-one-half weeks after my August 20, 2024, total right knee replacement surgery. I ventured into Nature last on August 19, 2024. My backlog of pre-surgery observations, reflections, photos, and brief videos is nearly depleted, and I’m not sure when I can recharge my inventory. My knee recovery is on pace, but questions of timing remain. Therefore, I am returning to a set of photos and brief videos I compiled on a March 2023, trip to Joe Wheeler State Park, where I discovered lots of winter wind damage. [NOTE – I am publishing this photo essay on October 31, 2024. I am now about 85 percent recovered and returning to the woods!]

My recollection of what I wanted to convey with each image is fresh. The theme I intended to explore remains relevant to The Nature of North Alabama and Nature-Inspired Life and Living. I suppose we can blame my failure to follow through earlier on a series of health issues after March 2023: triple bypass surgery; total left knee replacement surgery; bilateral inguinal hernia repair; kidney stone removal; and total right knee replacement surgery. I know…such minor inconveniences may seem a lame excuse!

 

Two Hardy Senior Forest Denizens

 

Our forests are ever-changing. Seldom do I enter a forest without seeing a fresh blwodown. However, I frequently encounter senior citizens that have persevered. In an 80-90-year-old stand at Joe Wheeler, this nearly four-feet diameter sugar maple is likely a century older, perhapss formerly standing along an old property line or fence row, withstanding the test of time, wind blasts, lightning strikes, or ice storms.

Joe Wheeler

 

This massive yellow poplar likewise beat the forces of time. Larger than three feet in diameter and topping 100 feet tall, it may stand another century, or crash to the ground tomorrow. I wonder if Las Vegas oddsmakers will entertain gambling on tree-toppling? I hope not. The only bet I would place is that gravity will remain undefeated!

Joe Wheeler

Joe WSP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am eager to return to the Park this coming dormant season to check on these two denizens.

 

A Series of Winter 2022-23 Windthrow Casualties

 

Perched on bluff overlooking the body of Wheeler Lake within sight of the dam, this large hollow red oak yielded to the irresistable force of wind and gravity. An arborist’s rule of thumb states that when the combined thickness of wood rind is less than one-third of the tree’s diameter, the tree is subject to breakage and windthrow. This one failed the hollow tree windthrow threshold test. Interestingly, the trunk shows no externl evidence that it is hollow.

Joe Wheeler

Joe WHeeler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s my 3:16 narrated video of this shattered oak. This giant left a void…one that Nature will fill. Tons of organic woody debris will inexorably recycle to soil and new life.

 

The now prostrate trunk points east, evidencing the westerly wind that leveraged the tree beyond its strength threshold.

 

As I’ve incessantly observed in these photo essays, nothing in nature is static. Decay fungi consumed wood fiber across the decades, annually expanding the hollow. The large-canopied crown continued to build mass, compounding the leveraging force of wind and gravity. The oak will live on through the carbon cycle as decomposers reduce wood to soil organic matter and other life forms.

The trunk of this hackberry giant did not fail. Instead, the wind used the tree’s mass to twist and wrench the roots from the soil. Once loosened, the tree acted as the first in a hackberry domino series. Wind combined with the multi-ton mass momentum of the swaying tree served as an irresistible force. Physics is a big part of life…and death…in the forest, whether determining if a tree stands or falls, and regulating fluid transport within the tree.

Joe Wheeler

 

The hackberry brought several smaller downwind trees to the ground.

Joe Wheeler

 

As I often note, a short video (this one 3:31) tells the tale better than my feeble prose.

 

John Muir spoke of the physical and ecological interconnectivity of all elements of an ecosystem:

Tug on anything in nature and you will find it connected to everything else.

The hackberry-toppled stand epitomies the physical interdependence.

Joe WSP

 

This oak tree shattered at the stump. Decay fungi mushrooms signal that decomposers are hard at work.

Joe WSP

 

Again, nothing in Nature is static.

Joe WSP

 

Our State Park trails demand ongoing maintenance attention. A fallen hickory crossed the trail.

Joe WSP

 

My 3:12 video captures the the windthrow jumble and gives a sense of how the wind flows across the lake and buffets the forest, even on a fair weather spring day.

 

Not all crashing trees knock their neighbors to the ground. The top of a windthrown tree pulled this smaller pole-size tree into a nearly horizontal position just ten feet above the forest floor. I’ve seen such trees survuve for decades. I often photograph the survivors as what I refer to as tree form curiosities and oddities. Let’s come back and visit this one in 20-40 years. Well, perhaps I may not be up to it at ages 93 to 113!

Joe WSP

 

I love contemplating Nature’s forest wonders and mysteries!

 

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.
I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
  • And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. (John Muir)
  • The calm of a fine spring day belies the brutal winds that can ravage a winter forest.

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 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

 

Joe Wheeler SP

 

 

Exploring the Forest along Lake Wheeler at Point Mallard Park!

/in /by

On September 29, 2024, I co-led a University of Alabama in Huntsville OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) Nature Walk at Point Mallard Park in nearby Decatur, Alabama. We departed a picnic shelter at 3:00 PM as a shower associated with superstorm Helene was abating.

 

The Park borders Dinsmore Slough and Flint Creek on the west extension of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, on the south side of the Refuge. The Tennessee River (Wheeler Lake) and the Refuge reach some 20 miles upstream to Ditto Landing, on the north side of the river southeast of Huntsville. I view the Refuge as one of my go-to places for Nature wandering. The view below to the east and southeast looks exclusively over the west end of the Refuge.

 

Randy and Kim’s hat and umbrella evidence that the rain had not yet ceased as they provided foreground to the expansive lake and Refuge forest edge at the far shore.

 

Nature alone provides amusement and sparks curiosity and imagination. Over the past 13 millennia, since Native Americans first populated this region, the Tennesee River provided food, transportation, and sites for gathering and habitation. Humans have left the mark of their occupation in countless ways across those 130 centuries. I wonder how many Native men, women, and children leaned a stone against a young sycamore tree, and then witnessed the tree slowly grow around it, a seeming act of consumption. Maybe none. However, one of our recent inhabitants propped a five-foot slab of cement against this sycamore 10-20 years ago. Darrell and Kim stood near it for scale. Certainly the effect is amusing, curious, and sparks immagination…but the result is not Nature acting alone.

 

Rain pften enriches my forest wanderings, even as it dampens the way and soaks my garb. Since retiring to northern Alabama, I’ve grown fond of the perrenial green and smooth bark of supplejack vine. I don’t recall ever seeing the wetted vine showing prominent white vertical striations. I’ll henceforth pay more attention. This may turn out to be a unique individual or perhaps this is a common feature hidden in plain sight without the accent provided by the earlier shower.

 

The eight-inch diameter sycamore below left likewise drew my attention…and camera lens. The half-green and white trunk punctuated with brown flecks would, without the recent wetting, have been nothing special. I hadn’t noticed one of our OLLI group walking along the trail in the distance until I examined the photo. The background elements enhance the image of the tree.

 

The nearby 10-inch-diameter sycamore, backdropped by the slough, does not project the same attractive bark countenance.

 

Always on the lookout for tree form curiosities and oddities, I found intrigue and mystery in water oak. The bloated, convoluted form signals internal decay…or alternatively viral and or bacterial infection emanatring from an old wound. In reality, I can’t say for certain. The tree is grossly mishapen due to some combination of physical and biological factors. The tree may be hollow…or it may have exotic wood grain within. Were I a bowl-turner of wood craftsman, I might have greater interest in what lay hidden beneath the bark.

 

Here is my 51-second video of the contorted water oak:

 

Although we classifed our OLLI outing as as a Nature Walk, the group soon advance beyond me in the damp afternoon. I was content to proceed at a Nature Walk pace, seeking novelties hidden in pain sight.

Woodland Fungi

 

Numerous and varied mushrooms attracted my attention. Oysters, one of my favorite edibles, grew on a downed trunk just off the trail. I harvested a cluster, with a primary purpose of showing the group far ahead what they had missed as they commited the unpardonable sin of walking through the forest rather that sauntering within the forest. I admit to a secondary purpose — making sure that I protected enough of the cluster to saute with tomorrow morning’s eggs!

 

Not nearly as large and conspicuous, trooping crumble cap mushrooms appeared to live uo to their name, marching across the sodden litter.

 

I failed capture a decent photo of the large colony of amber jelly mushrooms we encountered after we connected with the full OLLI group as we returned to the parking lot. All local jelly mushrooms are edible. I the interest of Nature education and interpretation, I collected a handful of the jellies. These were among the largest individuals I have found. Were I foraging on a property where I had permission to harvest, I could have collected a bucketful of both amber jelly and oysters. Here are my educational samples cleaned and ready for simmering, should my interpretive purposes be fulfilled!

 

 

Only during retirement have I begun my pursuit of edible mushrooms, beginning with oysters and evolving through a currect set of nearly one dozen species more or less common in northern Alabama. Lion’s mane is my favorite; I don’t find it as often as I would like. I love morrels, but I am afriad that we lie south of their preferred range. I even like the common puffballs and meadow mushrooms that I find in neighborhood lawns and athletic fields. I hold fast to several foraging rules I have adopted:

  1. Eat only those species for which my certainty is 100 percent
  2. Never consume an uncooked mushroom
  3. Clean harvested mushrooms to remove most of the associated insect and slug protein
  4. Urge potential foragers to do extensive homework — don’t take my word for anything
  5. Don’t chew off more than you can bite — a twist on the more common advice to not bite off more than you can chew

The process of foraging, cleaning, cooking, and packaging is time consuming. At the completion of this chanterelle foraging venture three years ago, I felt like I had chewed off more than I could bite!

Chanterelles

 

Mushroom foraging is an active hobby, and a great way to learn about new facets of the forest ecosystem. Both oysters and jellies are the reproductive organs (spore-producing), chanterelles are associated with myc0rhizal fungi which form essential symbiotic relationships with tree roots.

 

Clearing Sky

 

We’ve watched the news of Helene’s devastation from Category Four impact at Florida’s Big Bend to its record-setting rainfall and flooding through Georgia, the Carolnas, Virginia, and Tennessee. Much of the most flood-ravaged region lies within the upper Tennessee River Basin. Almost without exception, the storm delivered from five to 30+ inches upstream from Chattanooga, including the French Broad Basin and Asheville. I measured just 1.51 inches in my Madison, Alabama backyard gauge. We were fortunate to be far west of the track. The clearing sky at Point Mallard revealed no damage…only the damp beauty of parting clouds.

 

I recorded this 46-second video of promising evening freshened by the departing showers.

 

I great egret likewise welcomed the drying weather. With the slough behind me, the egret stands in a wetland pondadjacent to the Park golf course. Egrets and herons elevate the esthetic value of such recreational venues, and amplify the ecosystem integrity and ecological complexity of revirside Park.

 

I felt blessed just five weeks after total right knee replacement surgery to return to Nature’s glory on such a placid evening on gentle trails. I’m rekindld, rejevenated, and grateful!

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Gloomy skies and rainy days can lift routine Nature to a level of exceptional beauty.
  • Nature’s ferocity (i.e. Helene in the southern Appalachians) often displays a softer side, in this case, three days of gentle showers in the Huntsville area.   
  • 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. (John Muir)

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

 

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographeerved.”

And Third: I am availabd by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Resle for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com

 

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

 

 

 

 

 

An August Afternoon Stroll along Indian Creek Greenway!

/in /by

On Friday, August 9, 2024, I stopped by Huntsville, Alabama’s Indian Creek Greenway to trek a couple of miles to capture images of mid-summer flowers, trees, seasonal breezes, and the mood of Indian Creek in the late afternoon shade. I wanted to inhale Nature’s summer essence before my total right knee replacement on August 20. I had my left knee replaced on January 23, 2024. I know what to expect. I will be out of my woodland sauntering mode until mid-October when I hope to be on track for the kind of mobility I’ve missed for years! [Note: I’m putting the final touches on this photo essay just a couple of hours after hiking (slowly and cautiously) the one-half-mile Rainbolt Trail on the Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve in Madison, Alabama on October 13, 2024!]

I entered the greenway at 2:30 PM and enjoyed a drier airmass and lower temperatures. There was no need to deal with the more typical hot, hazy, and humid days of mid-August!

Indian Creek

Indian Creek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like so many of our greenways, this one occupies a sewer line right-of-way running through an active flood plain, the overflow triggered several times a year by drenching thunderstorms and prolonged winter and spring rains. The stream ran at a routine summertime flow as I walked along the trail and occasionally penetrated to creekside. I’ll report on my creek-proximate wanderings in a complementary photo essay.

I recorded this 59-second video a few hundred yards from the southern end of the greenway. I began the video with a magnificent green ash tree rising from the forest edge. I remind readers that these urban flood plains are naturally fertile with deep soils routinely refreshed with sediment- and nutrient-laden flood waters. The ash and other riparian forest neighbors express site quality with their height, this ash reaching at least 100 feet above the forest floor.

 

Here is a still photograph of the subject green ash tree. Well, I must admit that this a screen shot from the video. At the top edge of the photo, leaning in from the opposite greenway edge, a black walnut crown is attempting to close the aerial tunnel over the pedestrian and biking path.

Indian Creek

 

When an old forester (BS in Forestry, 1973) seeks a woodland saunter as he returns home from an OLLI UAH Board meeting, can anyone deny him the joy of focusing a video or two on special trees! I found the mostly sunny skies mesmerizing above the greenway and its trailside forests. This time, I centered the 57-second video around a large shagbark hickory.

 

There are things I cannot resist, of which one is the complex bark of shagbark hickory, which like the song of a Carolina chickadee says its name.

Indian Creek

 

I am a relentless fan of the writings of Aldo Leopold, America’s consummate conservationist and father of North American wildlife biology. He observed:

Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.

Shagbark hickory is a work of art, a consequence of timeless evolution. It’s the only tree of our southern hardwood forests with overlapping plated bark. To what advantage evolutionarily, I ponder? I’ve heard that various woodland bats find shelter under the plates. Do the bats deter foliar-consuming insects, or gobble stem-boring weevils or nut pests? I don’t know the answer, nor did a quick internet query yield an explanation. Leonardo da Vinci may be one of the top five scientific minds of the past 1,000 years. I base my observation that the tree’s bark owes its peculiar nature to evolution on a simple da Vinci quote:

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment.

Those in local, state, regional, and national circles of Nature enthusiasts often lament of a species that it is an alien, an invasive, a pest, and other derogatory monikers. Chinese yam is one such interloper growing in profusion at this section of the greenway edge.

Indian Creek

 

An NC State Cooperative Extension online source stated:

Chinese Yam was introduced here as early as the 19th century for culinary and cultural uses and is now considered an invasive plant species in several states. It has spread from Louisiana to Vermont and can form dense masses of vines that cover and kill native vegetation, including trees, within a variety of moist, disturbed habitats. It spreads by seed, tubers and by the small tubers in leaf axils.

I marveled at the small branch tubers, recalling that they are edible. While I do abhor widespread, truly invasive ecosystem-threatening alien plants like Chinese privet and kudzu, I do not get exorcised by Chinese yam. Instead I shall view it as Earth-native and not particularly worthy of calling out the National Guard.

I recorded this 57-second Chinese yam video:

 

Here is a screenshot of two leaf axil tubers.

 

Giant ragweed is an impressive plant native. The cluster below has already reached eight feet. An online source spoke of it in ways seeming unkind:

This is an annual herb usually growing up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) tall, but known to reach over 6 m (20 ft) in rich, moist soils. The tough stems have woody bases and are branching or unbranched. Most leaves are oppositely arranged. The blades are variable in shape, sometimes palmate with five lobes, and often with toothed edges. The largest can be over 25 cm (9.8 in) long by 20 cm (7.9 in) wide. They are borne on petioles several centimeters long. They are glandular and rough in texture.

Ragweed pollen is a common offensive allergen. The plant is a serious agricultural nuisance and a tough weed to control. That it is a native doesn’t make the farmer dealing with it more accepting nor less aggravated.

Indian Creek

 

I’ve been a lifetime proponent of spring ephemeral wildflowers, the woodland beauties that populate the forest floor between the onset of warming days and full leaf-out within the forest canopy. Retirement has enabled me to spend more time appreciating the summer wildflowers that seem happiest along forest edge habitat. Wingstem greeted me along the greenway.

Indian Creek

 

A silvery checkerspot butterfly appreciated the wingstem for reasons other than aesthetic.

Indian Creek

 

Ironweed is a summer perennial member of the aster family. I see it commonly on forest edges. I never tire of its rich color.

Indian Creek

 

I recorded this 34-second video of another common forest edge woody species, osage orange. Maclura pomifera bears many common names, among them: mock orange, hedge apple, bow wood, horse apple, monkey ball, monkey brains, and yellow-wood.

Indian Creek

 

European settlers found that a perimeter of osage orange stakes would self-sprout quickly into a dense fence-tangle of growth effective at protecting vegetable gardens and crops from marauding domestic grazers and foraging wildlife. Native Americans prized the wood for bow-making. I urge readers to dig more deeply into web sources to learn more about this curious and valuable small tree or shrub.

Osage orange is a member of the mulberry family. I recorded this 45-second video of our native red mulberry not far from the osage orange:

 

European settlers arriving along the Virginia coast in 1607 enthusiastically mentioned the abundance of mulberry, common from Florida to Ontario and west to the plains. Birds consume the sweet fruit and distribute the scarified seeds, which establish readily along edges and across meadows.

Indian Creek

 

Here is my brief red mulberry video:

 

Black walnut prefers rich well-drained sites along streams like Indian Creek. This cluster of three hefty nuts portends a good walnut crop. Unlike the largely inedible osage orange fruits, many wildlife species lust for big meaty walnuts.

Indian Creek

 

 

River birch’s moniker does more than hint at its preferred creek and riverside growing sites. I like its pendulant branching and exfoliating bark enough that we planted a three-stemmed specimen in our backyard. Our irrigation system meets its requirement for ample soil moisture even in periodic dry stretches.

Indian Creek

 

I could not resist recording another short video of the greenway, its meadow corridor, the stunning sky, and the narrow forest edge, and a rough path heading to creekside.

Here is the 59-second video that transitions from the greenway through a narrow border forest to creekside:

 

Note the “candy cane” sewer line ventilation pipe along the greenway.

Indian Creek

 

Were I not scheduled for knee surgery 11 days hence, I may have suppressed my videographic eagerness. However, each is brief and every one offers a unique emphasis. I recorded this 57-second video near my turn-around point at 3:02 PM, focusing on the brilliant sunshine and afternoon breeze (listen to it!), and including a short transit across the forest border to the shore of Indian Creek.

Indian Creek

 

I’ll use this same video to begin my subsequent photo essay highlighting Indian Creek!

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment. (Leonardo da Vinci)
  • Oh, how insulting to something as beautiful as ironweed to include “weed” in its name!
  • An urban greenway (along a sewer right-of-way) just 4.5 miles from my home supplies an endless stock of Nature’s fine elixir!

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 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

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell to My Professional Mentor and Hero

/in /by

Note: This is not one of my routine Great Blue Heron photo essays. View it as my brief tribute to a man who will live within me through the years remaining.

Dr. Glenn O. Workman, a lifetime professional mentor, and hero, reunited with his forever sweetheart Shirley along a spring wildflower-lined woodland trail two nights ago. Friends and family will memorialize Doc on October 16, 2024, in his hometown of Keyser, WV on what would have been his 95th birthday.

I won’t repeat the tale of our 55-year relationship. Instead, I refer you to my 2018 Great Blue Heron Post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2017/11/28/sowing-seeds-tomorrow/

Judy and I helped establish a forestry scholarship in his name at Allegany College of Maryland in 2014. Here we are with the 2019 scholarship awardee.

 

My respect, appreciation, and admiration for Doc strengthened across the years. Somehow, I began to realize that he shared the sentiment, often telling others that I was one of his top two students…ever. I’ll take that feeling of satisfaction and reward to my own endpoint.

Currently co-teaching an OLLI course on great conservationists, I am preparing a lecture on Aldo Leopold, my personal favorite American conservation exemplar. I learned that Mr. Leopold graduated in the first cohort of students at the Yale Forestry School, founded in 1900 by Gifford Pinchot, another conservation great. Ironically, I entered Allegany Community College’s new two-year forestry program in 1969 with the first class Doc recruited. Doc faithfully tracked and cheered me as I secured my forestry BS, established a career foundation in the forest products industry, secured a forestry PhD, and then served across 30+ years at nine universities.

Gifford Pinchot opened a gateway for Aldo Leopold in the same way that Doc opened a door for me. Although I do not claim Aldo Leopold status, I do acclaim Gifford Pinchot-level reverence for Doc. At age 91, he still offered a smile from a forest edge seat, fueled by a mug of coffee and a warm blanket. Emanating from his aging frame, I could still sense the young forestry professor who tirelssly spirited us on field trips.

 

Doc epitomized an essential truth, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Doc cared. He believed in me, and that made me far better.

 

I will never forget this fine gentleman. He altered my course. Perhaps some day we will once again search the vernal forests for spring ephemeral wildflowers, somewhere on the far side of a central Appalachian ridge.

Here is an abbreviated form of Doc’s obituary:

     Cresaptown, MD – Dr. Glenn Orrick Workman, Jr., 94, of Cresaptown, passed away peacefully at his home with his children and family members by his side.  

     Born on October 16, 1929, in Keyser, WV, he was the only son of the late Glenn Orrick Workman, Sr. and Mildred Martha (Barnard) Workman. He is also preceded in death by his wife Shirley Y. (Mills) Workman.

     Dr. Glenn O. Workman, Jr. graduated Keyser High School in 1947. A Bronze Palm Eagle Scout, he went on to earn an AA degree at Potomac State College and his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Biology at West Virginia University. in the field of Biology.  Other academic awards and accomplishments include:

Science Department Chair, ACM, 1968-92

Founder & chair, ACM Forestry Department, 1970-92

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Allegany College of Maryland, “Glenn O. Workman Forestry Scholarship Fund.”  The fund was initiated in his honor as a co-founder of the College’s Forestry Program.  Memorial donations may be made to the Dr. Glenn O. Workman, Jr. Memorial Scholarship, Allegany College of Maryland Foundation, 12401 Willowbrook Road, Cumberland, MD   21502.

Fungi and Other Discoveries along the Hickory Cove Nature Preserve’s Legacy Loop Trail

/in /by

July 30, 2024, my two Alabama grandsons accompanied me on my first visit to the Land Trust of North Alabama’s Hickory Cove Nature Preserve northeast of Huntsville. We sauntered along the 1.75-mile Legacy Loop. I set the slow pace making observations and snapping photographs of mushrooms and other interesting features along the trail. They alternately surged ahead and fell behind, mostly the former.

Hickory Grove

 

Every north Alabama trail is rich with human history. Native Americans occupied these lands for 13 millennia, leaving few obvious traces. European settlers left their mark more visibly and indelibly. A few hundred feet into the forest, a side trail directed us to the spring house, a sure indication of prior domestication, and a clear suggestion that Hickory Cove is not wilderness by the untrammled by the hand of man definition. Wildness, certainly; wilderness, no.

Hickory Grove

 

Sam stands at the old spring house foundation, likely an early 19th Century refrigeration construct for surviving here in the deep south prior to electricity and modern food preservation. The concrete trough (right) sits 100 feet downhill, still at brimful. I wondered whether our Native antecedents tapped this natural water source.

Hickory Grove

 

Trailside Fungi

 

I repeat often my observation that death is an essential facet of life in the forest. Sometimes an agent of tree death and always a primary decomposer, fungi are ubiquitous in our north Alabama forests. Usually invisible inside wood, among ground-level organic matter, and within forest soils, fungi hyphae are active year-round. They periodically manifest as mushrooms, their reproductive organs, spewing billions of spores to generate new colonies.  A curry bolete drew our attention, its red cap waving a banner.

Hickory GroveHickory Grove

 

Most boletes are mycorhizal, sprouting from hyphae within the soil adjacent to roots (ectomycorrhizae) or alternatively within tree roots (endomycorrhizae), often symbiotically engaged with fine roots and root hairs of trees. This group of fungi includes neither pathogens or decomposers.

Hickory Grove

 

We also identified violet-grey boletes.

Hickory GroveHickory Grove

 

Six inches across, wood mushrooms demanded that we stop to examine and photograph.

Hickory Grove

 

Pale yellow Amanita had begun to fade and break apart; even decomposing fungi produce mushrooms subject, as are all organisms, to biological breakdown. It’s the common tale of ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Hickory Grove  

 

Examining the photo above right, I spotted a rock-critter lurking behind the Amanita. What is this woodland denizen? I asked my immediate family. They saw a bear, dog, bighorn sheep, and turtle. Such it is with clouds, forest limestone rocks, and oddly shaped trees!

 

I’m reminded once again of Albert Einstein’s delightful fascination with imagination:

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

Fairy parachute mushrooms encircle the base of this dead cedar tree. An invasionary airborne fairy battalion dropped in the night prior, now huddled around the cedar awaiting a call to action.

Hickory Grove

 

My iNaturalist hesitantly identified these as turkey tail mushrooms (Trametes versicolor), also listing several species from the Stereum genus as possibilities. Rather than declare turkey tail, I will go with genus Stereum. This colony appears to be thriving on a recently fallen red oak.

Hickory Grove

 

Toothed crust mushrooms coat this mature hickory. A single deer mushroom stands at the edge. Tree moss clings to the trunk at the far left margin. I recall hiking within the rain forests of southeat Alaska, where nary a forest surface is absent some kind growth. We do not qualify as rain forest, albeit 55 inches annually is a lot of rain.

Hickory Grove

 

A closer look at the crust mushroom corroborates its moniker.

Hickory Grove

 

We found Trametes cubensis growing among tree moss on the deeply furrowed bark of a chestnut oak.

Hickory Grove

 

An edible mushroon, white-pored chicken of the woods visually decried its presence near the trail. The Land Trust prohibits collecting anything on its preserves. The boys and I made our observations, snapped a photograph, and left the mushroom behind.

 

Many of our native vines (muscadine, scuppernog, Virgina creeper, and poison ivy) ascend into the upper canopy by attaching their air roots to  rising tree stems and branches. Supplejack instead climbs by spiraling with companion vines or woody branches of trees and shrubs. I love the weakly striped perennially green stems.

Hickory Grove

 

Sam found two whitelips snails flourishing along the trail. We stopped to examine them. They continued along their merry way, at what we assessed as faster than a snail’s pace!

Hickory Grove

Hickory Grove

 

 

 

 

Many trees in our second (or third) growth forests are survivors from the prior generation. Imagine a prior landowner harvesting firewood, fenceposts, pulpwood, and scattered sawlogs around the time of the Second World War. The operation did not remove every tree, leaving hollow snags such as this red oak. It survived until this spring when its thin wood rind could no longer resist the forces of wind and gravity. Sam stands at left beside the hollow shell stump, which half-houses the accumulation of composted organic matter collected over a century or more. Just across the trail, Sam poses at the tree’s top where it leans almost vertically against another tree.

 

I took delight when Sam discovered the carcas and understood its story. I recorded this 58-second video at the scene. I’ve observed previously in these photo essays that a picture is worth a thousand words, and a brief video is priceless!

 

Nearly every north Alabama forest I explore dates its origins back 80-90 years. This 12-inch diameter green ash fell across the trail this summer. Crews made a clean chainsaw cut to remove it. Ash rings are very easy to discern and count. This cross-section, just a foot or two above the root collar, reads 86 years!

Hickory Grove

 

There are many stories revealed by a walk through the woods with grandsons. Knowing that Pap was scheduled for knee replacement surgery on August 20, the boys tried to stay within sight. My right knee hobbled me, subjecting me to unsteadiness and an inability to recover when and if I stumbled. About halfway, I did lose my balance and go down…it seemed to happen in slow motion. I’ve been stumbling in the woods for 70 years. I was unruffled; they were concerned. It seems just a few turns of the years that I was introducing their Mom (daughter Katy) to woodland wanders, then a few years when I carried these young men as babes when hiking, and now it is they who helped me back on my feet and offered assistence when the footing looked tenuous.

Einstein’s wisdom extended far beyond theoretical physics. Relative to my musings on my relationship to chldren and grandchildren, he observed:

Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

  • Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand. (Albert Einstein)
  • Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. (Albert Einstein)
  • Death and decomposition are a big part of life in the forest.

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.”

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), 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

 

 

Hickory Grove

 

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.