I am pleased to add the 52nd of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.
Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhligher and I visited Lake Guntersville State Park (LGSP) on October 23, 2025, to scout a scheduled spring 2026 eagle view outing for the University of Alabama in Huntsville Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). The LGSP map in hand, we stopped by several indicated locations. I present an overview of our afternoon ramblings, keeping the narrative brief and technically superficial.
The eagle at the lodge set the tone for our scouting venture.
We enjoyed lunch at the lodge restaurant, our table overlooking the lake.
Cabins Shoreline
Our first suggested viewing spot was the shoreline adjacent to the cabins. We were to search the opposite bank for a summer-foliage-obscured nest. We did not find it, yet we spotted a pair of eagles soaring above us, an adult and an immature.
The photo at left shows the opposite shoreline, where the eagle’s nest, we were assured, lies hidden to our eyes. Regradless, who could not appreciate the cerulean sky, bright sunshine, and comfortable early autumn temperature!
Here is my 58-second video from the cabins lakeshore.
I’m a sucker for tall loblollies and shoreline vistas.
I wanted to revisit the nearby Cave Trail, hoping to quickly photograph the oak burled in the distinctive Big Foot image.
Brief Saunter at the Cave Trail
Here is my July 18, 2018 photo:
I intended to insert the new image here. However, just as there are days when I cannot remember what I had for lunch the day before, I failed to navigate us back the the infamous tree! I will try another day when we have more time for frivality. However, in searching, I did find a very unattractive, yet photo-worthy canker along the Cave Trail.
I recorded this 58-second grotesque Halloween canker video on an elm tree.
I sampled a twig from the elm and offer a still photo.
Town Creek Boat Launch
Our second viewing location forced us to look across the lake directly into the late afternoon sun. We imagined how much better the spot would be with the morning sun at our backs. However, the location kindly presented us with a great blue heron buffeted by persistent winds and surrounded by whitecaps.
I recorded this 59-second video of the windy great blue heron. Pardon the wind drowning out my narrative.
Unfortunately, the heron took graceful flight when I stopped recording.
As regular readers know, I am a huge fan of great blue herons.
Sunset Drive Greenway in Guntersville, Alabama
We drove to a final suggested site, this one off the State Park along Sunset Drive Greenway in the town of Guntersville. The shoreline and greenway are lovely. I intend to visit with Judy during the coming months, to enjoy a mid-morning stroll followed by lunch in Guntersville.
A highlight for such a stroll will be the massive eagle’s nest in a grand loblolly pine.
My 60-second Sunset Drive Eagle’s Nest.
Ours was not an outing requiring months of planning, air travel, and expensive lodging. We needed no reservations. Instead, we boarded Chris’ car after adjouring our 10:00 to 11:30 AM National Parks (LearningQuest) class session at Hampton Cove, drove 45 minutes to the park, grabbed lunch at the lodge, and began our scouting. I am a firm advocate of enjoying Nature near at hand…making the most of special places and everyday Nature!
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements.
I cannot offer a quote more poignantly apropos than this anonymous statement:
The strength of the bald eagle lies not just in its wings, but in its unyielding spirit…its symbol of purity, grandeur, wildness, mastery, freedom, independence, integrity, and Americanism.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_9446.jpg-10.23.25-LGSP-Near-Cabins.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-12-15 12:11:082025-12-15 12:11:08Brief-Form Post #52: Late October Afternoon Scouting for Eagles and Nests at Lake Guntersville State Park!
Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area, owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), is located in northwestern Butler County, Pennsylvania, just 30 minutes from where my son and his family reside north of Pittsburgh. Matt, his dog Oakley, and I circuited the 2.35-mile trail on the morning of September 22, the first day of autumn. I focus this photo essay on the exquisite old-growth northern hardwood forest.
My heart soared at the prospect of returning to an ecosystem shaped by a continental ice sheet just 13 millennia ago. The absolute freshness and newness stimulate wild conjecture and total admiration for Nature’s rapid recovery from thousands of feet of ice.
The Western PA Conservancy provided an online description:
Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area is particularly known for its spectacular display of spring wildflowers. An active floodplain, mature northern hardwood forest, and scenic cliffs make this property one of WPC’s most popular. It is believed that the steep, narrow gorge of Wolf Creek Narrows originally formed when the ceiling of an ice-age cave eroded and collapsed due to runoff from the melting glacier. The site now consists of a high-quality stream meandering through towering 50-foot cliffs. These natural processes, including annual flooding and ice scouring, as well as limited human activities, have resulted in diverse natural communities.
We have lots of karst topography and abundant caves in my present home range of northern Alabama, but nothing so exciting as ice-age caves and ice scouring!
The meadow trail below led into the deep forest.
Okay, I’ve opened the portal to Wolf Creek Narrows. Now comes the tough part. How do I package 31 photos and two brief videos into a Post digestible within 15-minutes? Species resident to the Allegheny Hardwood forests of my 1984-85 NW PA and SW NY PhD field research welcomed me with warm and comforting embrace.
I’ve found that brief videos tell a richer tale than still photographs and written narrative. I recorded this 58-second video within the mixed forest. I hope that I’ve stimulated your interest in this special place.
The Narrows and Wolf Creek lie beyond the forest edge.
Matt stands six-feet tall, behind a 30-inch diameter American beech. The red oak beyond the beech (at left) is nearly 40-inches in diameter.
You don’t need my narrative to appreciate the beauty, magic, inspiration, and awe of this park-like northern hardwood wonderland.
Take a look heavenward into this cathedral forest canopy.
I love the deep shade and open understory far below.
I frequently lead or co-lead organized woodland Nature excursions (saunters) in parks, preserves, refuges, and sanctuaries near my Madison, Alabama home. Like John Muir, I prefer sauntering in the woods…abhoring hurrying through the forest. I noticed that Oakley takes the same approach, sniffing and scenting her way within the woods, reading the signs, never missing an olfactory clue. My iPhone camera substitutes for scenting. So much of what I seek in Nature lies hidden in plain sight. I believe my own joy in discovery matches Oakley’s!
I can’t imagine Oakley concerned with steps, miles, time elapsed, or other metrics. For her, each sniff tells a tale. My objective is to learn from every Nature venture, intent upon constructing a meaningful tale in form of a photo essay like this one.
In fact, my retirement mission, practiced in these Posts, is to: Employ writing (and photography) to educate, inspire, and enable readers and viewers to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
I keep my nose fine-tuned for sniffing tree form oddities and curiosities. A living, deeply decayed, cankered intermediate canopy sugar maple forced me to snap photographs of both the canker and the brown mushrooms above. How long ago did the fungus (or fungi) infect the sugar maple? How long will the tree survive? Death is a big part of life in the forest, whether west-central Pennsylvania or Alabama’s Tennessee River Valley.
Again, so much in Nature lies hidden in plain sight. Oakley discovered untold olfactory treasures. Most un-attuned hikers would not have seen, understood, and appreciated the visual treasures I encountered in our brief morning excursion. Allow me now to superficially catalog the more notable main canopy tree species.
Diverse Species Introductions
With little need for extensive narrative, I offer photos expressing the forest’s dominant upper canopy tree species. Yellow poplar reigns supreme at Wolf Creek Narrows, just as the species rules the high canopy at my favorite deep forest stand along the Wells Memorial Trail in Alabama’s Monte Sano State Park.
I recorded this 59-second video of the forest’s mixed species.
I conducted my doctoral field research in the Allegheny Hardwood forests within 80 miles of Wolf Creek…forests dominated by black cherry. I revere the species for its beautiful high grade furniture wood, superior height growth, straight form, and handsome bark and foliage. The white-trail-marked black cherry (image below right) delivered a message meant for me. The species marked my professional development re-route. I worked 12 years after earning my Forestry BS for a southern paper and allied products manufacturing company that relied heavily on loblolly pine, a utility species here in the Southeast. Black cherry is anything but a utility species. It’s the filet mignon of furniture grade timber. Black cherry served as the North Star for my second career launch. The big white-blazed cherry signaled that the species remains a major emblem and totem for my path well into retirement. Among my fellow Union Camp foresters, I chose the path less traveled…one lined by black cherry trees (the other edged by loblolly pine) leading to a PhD and 35 years at nine universities.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
(Robert Frost)
American beech and yellow birch reminded me of my love for northern hardwood forests.
Basswood (tree and leaves) also ranges into northern Alabama, but the entire mixed species forest package at Wolf Creek represents a special orchestration that strokes my psyche and lifts my entire body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit. The assemblage reached me as Art Garfunkel belting his full-bodied Bridge Over Troubled Waters!
Black walnut tree and nut.
Bitternut hickory.
And nut.
Cucumber tree and leaf.
Red oak, deep memories, and an older gent feeling young-at-heart experiencing a symbolic step into his past…at home in a place he’d never been before.
Forests like this netted me decades ago, never completely allowing release. I think of Robert Service’s The Spell of the Yukon:
The freshness, the freedom, the farness–
O God! how I’m stuck on it all.
There’s a land–oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back–and I will.
It’s the great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder,
It’s the forest where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.
Some of me remains in the Far Northland of Alaska, where we lived 2004-08. Service nailed the place and my sentiment. In similar fashion, vestiges of these magnificent northern hardwood forests habituate my psyche. I want to go back–and I will, if only to the nearby Wells Memorial Trail, a suitable southern version of a rich upland forest.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
The rich northern hardwood forest is an orchestral composition, a natural Bridge Over Troubled Waters. (Steve Jones)
Black Cherry is a trail marker species, both a literal guide through the Wolf Creek Narrows forest…and a career/life path symbol and guidepost for me. (Steve Jones)
Mine is a story of passion for place and everyday Nature. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to these free weekly Nature Blogs (photo essays) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/IMG_9161.jpg-09.22.25-WCN-NA.webp18021352Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-12-11 04:59:022025-12-11 04:59:02The Northern Hardwood Forest at Pennsylvania's Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area
Judy and I closed on the house we built in Madison, Alabama’s Legendwood development, on December 24, 2015. I am posting this photo essay for two reasons. First, a tenth anniversary merits commemoration. Second, I feel compelled to remind my neighbors and friends how fortunate we are to reside in an enclave defined by Nature in a city and county growing explosively. Judy and I view our community as an oasis surrounded by busy roads, proliferating apartment buildings, and diminishing farmland and forests. Straying from my wildland-focused weekly Great Blue Heron Posts, I share these observations, reflections, photos, and two brief videos on Legendwood, a community of 124 homes, three ponds (the largest spanning 3.7 acres), a 5.2-acre woodlot along Balch Road, and a full, lighted sidewalk circuit totaling 3.48 miles.
The Rockhaven Drive entrance from Capshaw Road (left) and Legendwood Drive entrance from Balch Road (right) are attractive portals to a desirable, high-quality residential community. The map defines our neighborhood.
Likewise, the aerial photo shows Balch as the eastern border and Capshaw to the north. Woodgrove Drive and its homes constitute the western extent. A long row of new apartments borders our southern boundary, crammed against backyards and fences.
I’ll begin this virtual walking tour from the Balch Road entrance. Our 5.2-acre woodlot lies along Balch south of the entrance. Oak, hickory, maple, poplar, and other deciduous species dominate. Barren in winter, the forest offers deep summer shade. I’ve heard musings about selling the wooded haven. Such a sale would generate income, even as it condemns us to another commercial or residential enterprise pressing against our eastern flank. I object strongly to selling it simply to generate a little HOA income. The woods offer a rich, biological ecosystem, a buffer to external negative development pressures. I will gladly conduct information and interpretive saunters for residents within the parcel at request (I have a 1973 Forestry BS and a doctoral degree in applied ecology).
The south side of Legendwood beyond the Balch entrance welcomes residents and visitors with a touch of Nature (grassy lawn, beds, shrubs, trees, and hardscape), maintained contractually or by Board member and resident volunteers. Admittedly, the well-landscaped Legendwood roadside when a driver exits or is about to enter the Balch traffic flow, often escapes our notice and appreciation.
Judy and I walk an average of two miles daily through our community, ensuring our appreiation and enjoyment of the Nature of Legendwood. The northside amenities along Legendwood satisfy our quest for a home environment that nourishes body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit. Its no wonder our homes sell quickly and values outpace inflation.
Imagine the classlessness and boredom of entering a neighborhood absent median strips (like the one within a 100 feet of the entrance) and landscaped cul-de-sacs (at the end of Springhaven). I compliment our Board for establishing and retaining high standards for community aesthetics and individual home appearance.
The intersection of Legendwood and Hawks Crest epitomizes the aesthetic richness of our community, a step above nearby developments with dull, unimaginitive narrower lanes, cars parked curbside, and no standards for home landscaping and maintenance.
The cul-de-sac at the northern end of Hawks Crest features three nicely crowned ornamental trees, a small natural respite to a short street with seven homes, including the two along Legendwood.
At the southern end, few residents have reason to travel to Barons Court, yet Judy and I make a point to visit regularly on foot. A broad grassy expanse (a quarter-acre) beckons drivers at the south end of Hawks Crest where it meet Barons. Note: I suggest planting some trees early this coming spring.
Cul-de-sacs at both eastern and western ends of Barons have three (east) and two (west) shade trees. How pleasant!
The largest pond sits along Legendwood. Both photos look to the south from community property, mowed and maintained by our HOA. Residents have shoreline access to the entire perimeter.
Even as a picture expresses a thousand words, a video speaks for a hundred photos. I recorded this 56-second video.
Judy and I live in the second house west of the above video camera point. We maintain (mowing, fertilizing, pest treaments) a strip of common property 30 feet from our line (the wall in photo at left) to the pond and 100 feet long, a total of 3,000 square feet. We established and care for two perennial beds within the strip for all to enjoy.
I recorded this 58-second video at pondside.
Rockhaven Drive’s maple-lined median carries us north to Capshaw.
At Capshaw, a lovely sinuous walkway extends west along Capshaw 660 feet. This entire area and its 1,122 foot counterpart to the east, also adjacent to Capshaw, are maintained by our HOA.
The eastern extension offers a large, tree and shrub-topped berm to shelter homes on the north side of Legendwood from the Capshaw traffic noise. The photo at right looks south across the berm to homes along Legendwood.
Our community owns a small lot on the south end of the Woodgrove cul-de-sac. Like all the other Legendwood community parcels, this lot requires HOA financial outlays.
Judy and I built in Legendwood because of its very Nature. We knew this would be our final relocation to an above ground residence. When we visited in spring 2015, a great blue heron stood at what was to be our shoreline…the heron is a meaningful family totem, a sort of avatar for my long-deceased Dad. We are grateful for whatever force beckoned us to Legendwood. I’ve observed as many as 24 bird species on a quiet morning from our patio. We have seen in our backyard squirrels, chipmunks, wildland rats, rabbits, skunks, raccoons, armadillos, and voles, among others. Throw in slider turtles and a huge snapper or two, bull frogs, garter and brown water snakes, and even an osprey. Ten years ago, we saw an occasional coyote and deer. We converted a vacant eroded lot to our own natural refuge.
I hike often in area State Parks, Land Trust Nature Preserves, the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, and diverse other nearby (as well as distant — domestic and international) natural areas. I publish a free weekly Great Blue Heron photo essay on what I term Nature-Inspired Life and Living!
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
Walking and enjoying Nature in our neighborhood is necessary, even if not sufficient. I encourage all of our fellow residents to explore segments of our 3.48 miles of heavenly, paved, nearly flat, lighted sidewalks and trails, and experience the Nature of Legendwood!
And if you want to understand more about our 5.2-acre woodland, send me an email (steve.jones.0524@gmail.com). We’ll set a date and time to explore, preferably before spring transitions to heat, humidity, ticks, redbugs, mosquitoes, and the like.
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
The Nature of Legendwood is a compelling theme to distinguish our community from others. (Steve Jones)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. (Aldo Leopold)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/IMG_9898.jpg-12.4.25-W-on-Legendwood-from-Balch.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-12-08 09:44:482025-12-08 09:44:48The Nature of Legendwood Development
I am pleased to add the 51st of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.
On July 29, 2025, grandson Jack and I hiked the six-mile Evitts Mountain Homesite Trail in western Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park. See my related photo essay on natural features we explored in our trek from base to summit (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/10/08/hiking-the-homesite-trail-at-rocky-gap-state-park/). I focus this Brief-Form Post on the summit, the view, the Mason-Dixon line, and the survey benchmark at the summit boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania.
A high school senior, Jack is a history enthusiast. He understood the significance of standing at the survey monument 259 years after Charles Mason, a mathematician and astronomer, and Jeremiah Dixon, a surveyor, hacked and traipsed their meticulous progress across the frontier wilderness. Both men were members of the Royal Society, a British learned society formed to promote excellence in science. The survey set out to resolve the long-standing (since 1681) disputed boundaries of the overlapping land grants of the Penns, proprietors of Pennsylvania, and the Calverts proprietors of Maryland.
A string of power transmission towers parallels the line just to the north of the monument. Utility maintenance crews control ROW vegetation, opening a vist to the east (left) and west (right). Note on the westerly view that the power line extends across the ridges and beyond. The survey party powered (man and horse power) through raw untrammeled forest
In pre-Civil War days, the line separated slave states to the south and free-soil states to the north.
Here is my 60-second video atop Evitts Mountain
Evitt’s summit stands at ~2,200 feet, just 200 feet shy of Alabama’s highest point, Mount Cheaha. This ridge and valley landscape is my birth home terrain. I explored the Nature of this region from my earliest memories…hiking, camping, hunting, picnicing, and fishing. I hope that Jack feels some of the magic.
I know he appreciated our venture. I asked him to record and narrate a brief summit video.
Jack is the young one to the left!
I recorded a 39-second video of the survey monument.
Having grown up in Cumberland, Maryland, just 5-7 miles from the Pennsylvania line, I rekindled a strong homing emotion at the monument. Memories flooded back to hikes and outings with Dad. I hope that Jack stores, within reach, recollections of his Mason-Dixon venture with Pap.
As a hopeless, lifetime Nature enthusiast, I must end this essay with two Nature observations. Great mullein stood in full flower and velvet-leafed splendor at the power line.
A pair of two-striped grasshoppers found reason to celebrate the midday glory atop Evitts Mountain, atop a great mullein leaf, and just plain atop!
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements.
Granted, the Central Appalachians pale in comparison to even the Great Smokies or New Hampshire’s Presidential Range. Yet to a 74-year-old Nature enthusiast who in the 26 months preceding our hike, endured triple bypass surgery, two total knee replacements, bilateral inguinal hernia repair, and kidney stone blasting, I cherished trekking 1,100 feet to Evitts’ summit and relished our rest at he Mason-Dixon monument, serving as a healing and recovery benchmark.
We paused at the monument. I heard (not literally) the echoes of Mason and Dixon as they memorialized yet another ridgetop survey monument. I realized and included in Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits this simple reflection:
We do not stand apart from Nature, but are one with it!
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8290.jpg-07.29.25-Summit.webp15122016Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-12-02 14:22:532025-12-02 14:22:53Brief Form Post 51: Summiting Evitts Mountain and Reaching the Mason-Dixon Line
Judy and I returned to our homeland in Western Maryland to attend the rehearsal and wedding for Judy’s great-nephew (her sister’s daughter’s son) on August 1 and 2, 2025. The venue was the Back Barn at Piney Run, located on the Allegheny Front in Garrett County, at an elevation of approximately 2,800 feet. I resided and performed forest inventory for two summers (1970 and 1971) on the nearby 52,000-acre Savage River State Forest. In my view then…and now…the upper elevations of Garrett County are Heaven-on-Earth! I love her terrain, forests, weather, and firmament.
Co-author Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit and I published Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature, which aptly characterizes my feelings toward special places. My story of Garrett County and its State Forest is undoubtedly one of passion. I cherish my memories of the place and my introduction to a central element (forest inventory) of forestry practice.
I recorded this 59-second video reflecting on this Heaven-on-Earth wonderland!
I’ll employ this Brief-Form Post to highlight sentiments stirred by our t00-condensed August 2025 visit. Visibility reached the horizon across rolling fields and woodlots. A split rail fence added character and ambience. What you can’t see in the images is the low humidity, fresh breeze, and upper-60s midday temperatures, blessedly much lower than what is typical back in northern Alabama. Breathing deeply, the scenery and feel whisked me back to my young adulthood.
I recorded this 60-second video to emphasize the glory of the afternoon.
Low-base clouds scurried across the hills, rewarding us with contrasting shades of grey, white, and blue. I wanted a lounge chair and far more time than festivities, chores, and familial socializing allowed.
Even the multitudinous shades of green strutted their stuff, their palette richly deepening as sunset approached.
I present a third brief video echoing my sentiments about this special place and its everyday Nature!
Some photo images require no narrative.
The split rail fence harkens to a time long ago. I view the countryside as timeless, unchanged in the half-century since the forester-in-training cruised the forests of Savage River.
The Back Barn venue served the occasion well. I hope the newlyweds’ embrace persists as long as this special place has gripped my heart.
Monarch Domain
A patch of milkweed bordered the cornfield adjacent to the grassy parking area. I wished safe travels to the adults who will transit to Central America before fall leads to winter.
Wild carrot complemented the wedding veil theme!
Windmills on the Ridge
I saw scores of windmills across the highland front in both Maryland and adjacent Pennsylvania. Are these 90-meters-to-hub mechanical monstrosities a solution or just another facet of rushing too quickly to adopt a fix-of-the-moment? Fewer than half of the rotors were spinning. Is that a typical percent utilization? You probably noticed my applying the term monstrosities, suggesting my present day bias. These things are ugly! I see them as scars upon the pastoral landscape…blemishes on the countenance of my special place! Have we prematurely abandoned nuclear in favor of wind? Is coal the evil that some people consider it? Is human-induced climate change truly an existential threat to modern human civilization? Our climate prediction models are not reliable, yet we place tremendous trust in their declarations of unprecedented consequence.
Just 13,000 years ago, these rolling hills, transformed by periglacial climate owing to a massive continental ice sheet less than 100 miles to the north, stood 400 feet higher above sea level than they do today. The ice age abated; the ice sheet melted; correspondingly, the sea level rose some 400 feet…all of these planet-altering results occurred naturally, long before the era of fossil fuel powered industrialization.
I write in my introduction to Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: I am sounding a clarion call to understand and appreciate our relationship to Earth and our imperative to act accordingly. Mine is not a perspective of doom and gloom; others have followed that route and fallen short of the destination. I am not ready to endorse wholesale, sole reliance on renewable energy, but that is a topic for another day. I will say only that my special place is diminished. I am not assured that the solution is worth the economic, social, environmental, and aesthetic price. Rash action is the folly of fools.
I offer the counsel of Albert Einstein and Galileo Galilei:
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods. (Albert Einstein 1879-1955)
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. (Galileo Galilei 1564-1642)
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Breathing deeply, the scenery and feel whisked me back to my young adulthood. (Steve Jones)
There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. (Aldo Leopold)
Even the multitudinous shades of green strutted their stuff, their palette richly deepening as sunset approached. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8410-1.jpg-08.1.25-Back-Barn-at-Piney-Run.webp15122016Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-11-25 07:20:592025-11-25 07:20:59Piney Run on the Allegheny Front in Western Maryland: Reminiscing on a Special Place
I am pleased to add the 50th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.
I’ve rambled through the bottomland forests of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (WNWR) south of HGH Road routinely since my 2018 retirement to northern Alabama. Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger recently secured 1937 aerial photographs of the area. The images confirm some of my suppositions of forest history and contradict others. I focus this brief-form post on the forest west of Jolly B Road and south of HGH Road, where the 88-year-old image validates my supposition that this area of mature forest was open farmland when engineers completed Wheeler Dam. I captured photographs and videos for this Brief-Form Post on August 30, 2025.
The red line on this 1937 aerial image depicts the location of today’s gravel HGH Road, separating private land to the north from WNWR south of the road. The aerial photo, even though of poor resolution, clearly shows open land where I captured the photographs and two brief videos, a few hundred feet east of the copse of trees north of the road. Today, everything south of HGH is a mature forest.
This is the mid-morning view to the east where I parked along HGH Road. To all appearances, a shady forest road.
I recorded this 59-second video at the same location with the former open land to the south (right).
I turned my camera to the south, where a mature forest stands in the once open field.
Pointing my camera to the west, I again captured a shady forest lane.
I recorded this 54-second video looking west with the former open land to the south (left).
The two images below look into the towering mature forest where fields once grew agricultural crops.
Nothing in Nature is static. A century ago, these rich bottomlands, tended by farmers and mules, produced crops of corn, beans, and cotton. Priot to those years of sweat, anxiety, good years, and bad, other generations cleared the luxurious old growth forests to enable agriculture.
Nature always stands at the ready. The process is simple and long-practiced. Stop plowing, discing, and sowing. Nature fills the void with wind- and critter-born seeds. Bare land transitions to herbs, shrubs, seedlings, and eventually to vibrant stands of maturing trees.
This coming dormant season Chris and I will return to this old field mature forest for a deeper examination, without the company of mosquitoes, chiggers, ticks, and leafy poison ivy!
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. The great philosophers and physicists are attributed with exploring the notion of nature’s insistence on eliminating nothingness or emptiness. I say so be it; let them ponder the esoteric and say what they wish.
I adopt a simpler view, having learned through observation and experience that Nature hungrily fills every element and feature of any ecosystem I have observed. Vaporize 96,000 acres of forest on the footslopes of Mt. St. Helens in May of 1980; see the verdant slopes 45 years later. Scorch nearly 800,000 acres of Yellowstone National Park in 1988; see the wounds healing 37 years hence. My simpler view:
Nature abhors a vacuum.
I suppose I could attribute the wisdom to Henry David Thoreau:
Nature abhors a vacuum, and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.
He added a twist of poetry to the axiom, suggesting that Nature fills us who venture into her realm. I embrace both variations. Nature rapidly filled the WNWR void when agricultural operations ceased. Contemplating the succession from field to forest fills me as well…body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit swell with the essence of Nature.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/IMG_8873.jpg-08.30.25-WNWR-HGH-1937-Field.webp18571290Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-11-20 07:30:562025-11-20 07:30:56Brief-Form Post #50: Field to Forest in a WNWR Bottomland -- Armed with a 1937 Aerial Photograph
I am pleased to add the 49th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.
On July 29, 2025, my grandson, Jack (then 17), and I hiked the Evitts Mountain Homestead Trail at Western Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park, ascending 1,100 feet to the summit of Evitts Mountain, a six-mile round trip. A mile from the parking area, an extensive burned area rose uphill on the east side of the mountain. The trail, an old jeep road, obviously served as an effective fire break. I estimated that the fire burned within the past three years, running hot enough to kill at least half of the upland hardwood (oak-hickory) main canopy trees and all of the understory trees and shrubs.
A hardwood forest fire of this intensity occurs only under special circumstances, generally a very windy spring day after forest ground surface fuel has dried. One may think intuitively that autumn’s leaf litter would be more likely to burn. High winds with low humidity occur more often in the spring. Autumn seldom brings the intense dry winds that follow a late spring cold front. By mid to late April in these Central Appalachian forests, the prior year’s leaf litter and fine fuels cure rapidly. In late April of 2016, such a day in nearby west-central Pennsylvania saw nearly 10,000 acres of hardwood forest burn, the largest Pennsylvania forest conflagration in 26 years.
I imagined such a day triggering the fire leaving the evidence I observed. The fire left an impression of a wildfire racing up the slope consuming understory and killing overstory trees, a fire more intense than I would expect from a prescribed fire.
However, my online search discovered a November 7, 2022, announcement (Cumberland Times-news.com) of a planned 90-acre prescribed fire in the park on the east slope of Evitts Mountain, the location where I snapped these photographs and recorded the video. Excerpts from the notice:
Controlled burns for forest and wildlife habitat management are always conducted with safety as the top priority. Burn staff are trained practitioners who monitor the weather leading up to and during a burn to ensure the fire remains at the desired intensity and smoke is carried up and away from roads and homes. If the required conditions for temperature, humidity, moisture levels, cloud cover, and wind are not met or they unexpectedly change, the burn will be postponed.
Foresters and ecologists recognize that fire is a critical ecological process for many environments, including the typical Appalachian forests of oaks, hickories and pines that cover most of western Maryland. Since the 1930’s however, a lack of fire has unintentionally harmed forest health.
The controlled burn at Rocky Gap State Park is being conducted to help a variety of fire-adapted native tree and plant species, including table mountain pine (which needs fire to regenerate), pitch pine, oak trees, blueberries, huckleberries, and many native wildflowers. A more open forest will also improve habitat for birds, bats, and other animals, while also making it harder for destructive pests like pine beetles to travel between trees.
Another significant benefit of controlled burns is the reduction of dry wood and organic matter on the forest floor that build up over time, which then reduces the likelihood and severity of dangerous wildfires.
Part of the controlled burn will also be conducted through the use of an ignition drone, which allows a drone operator to drop incendiary devices on the interior of the burn site. This not only results in a more precise ignition pattern, but also reduces the need for crew members to traverse difficult terrain near the active burn.
Unfortunately, I found no online commentary or YouTube videos of the fire or its results. Clearly, I view the burn rationale and intent as well-reasoned. The results, a full two growing seasons after the November 2022, prescribed fire, suggest that the burn exceeded the planned level of intensity. Too many main canopy oaks succumbed. Survivors suffered basal scarring that will allow heart rot to infect.
I’d like to see an official assessment of the burn. How do results compare to purpose and expectations?
I recorded this 58-second video of the burn area above the trail.
Midway through the third growing season after the burn, some areas (left) remain mostly barren of regrowth. Other areas, like the two photos above the video and the image at right show robust understory resurgence, including tree regeneration.
The stand beyond Jack shows the desired intact overstory and vigorous regeneration.
At my request, Jack ascended 75 feet above the trail to capture these images of the uphill side of a sawlog-size chestnut oak. Because leaf litter and fine fuels aggregate on the uphill side of trees, the fire burned hotter in the concentrated debris, killing the cambium. Witness the mushrooms from decay fungi already infecting the tree that is otherwise undamaged.
A closeup of the colony of decay fungi mushrooms.
We found a number of trees below the road that showed deep decay and hollowing of oak trees similarly scarred on their upslope side from a fire decades earlier.
Controlled fire can be a valuable tool for forest management:
Foresters and ecologists recognize that fire is a critical ecological process for many environments, including the typical Appalachian forests of oaks, hickories and pines that cover most of western Maryland. Since the 1930’s however, a lack of fire has unintentionally harmed forest health. [From the online announcement}
During my 12 years with Union Camp Corporation (1973-1985), I oversaw prescribed burning on tens of thousands of acres, including a single day in Alabama when we ignited 4,300 acres, intentionally (by aerial ignition) and under control. Like all tools, the use of fire requires careful planning, responsible and informed implementation, and post-treatment assessment and learning. Again, I would like to see the review of this particular prescribed fire.
I will not pass judgement. I wasn’t there. I refuse to criticize. I can only posit that the result does not appear to have yielded what was intended.
All of us who have accomplished much, have missed our mark, fallen short, or failed from time to time. Always, our intentions were sound:
A good intention, with a bad approach, often leads to a poor result. (Thomas A. Edison)
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. (Samuel Johnson)
Over my career, I missed 9,000 shots; I was on the losing side of nearly 300 games; on 26 occasions when my teammates entrusted me to take the last minute winning shot, I missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again, and that’s why I succeeded. (Michael Jordan)
I hope the various agency planners and pratitioners learned from the November 2022 prescribed fire.
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Thomas Edison implored that good intentions must be matched with a good approach. Russell Stevens focused his related admonition to prescribed burning:
Prescribed fire is a process and should be well planned to safely accomplish desired goals. (Noble Research Institute)
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8338-1.jpg-7.29.25-RGSP-Burn-Evidence-Uphill-Scar.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-11-17 07:54:182025-11-17 07:54:18Brief Form Post #49: Lessons and Observations from a Maryland Mountain Hardwood Forest Fire
On August 9, 2025, I assisted with the delivery of a Teacher-Educator Adventures in Alabama State Parks Workshop at Joe Wheeler State Park. Funded by a grant from the Caring Foundation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the workshop introduced the 23 participants to the Nature of the park face-to-face. They engaged with expert naturalists, experienced field-based learning, and received program curricula, lesson plans, and teaching kits. My role was simple: offering opening words of inspiration and lunchtime reflections on Aldo Leopold, a pre-eminent conservation scholar of the twentieth century.
A recently painted water tower welcomed visitors to Joe Wheeler State Park.
Just a 50-minute drive from my Madison, Alabama residence, the park welcomes me at least once every season. I enthusiastically agreed to assist with the Saturday workshop.
Setting
We gathered at the Day Use Area pavilion along Lake Wheeler, enjoying fair skies and a summer breeze. Alabama State Parks Chief Naturalist, Renee Rainey, welcomed participants and introduced speakers and staff.
Renee is a tireless champion of Nature education and interpretation.
Words of Inspiration
Asked to offer words of inspiration, I emphasized that Nature education is a process of outdoor immersion, discovery, illumination, inspiration, and encouragement. I reflected on the dual, and seeming contradictory, emotions I felt when I first encountered a full profile view of Alaska’s Mount Denali (McKinley) from the nearby, and much lesser, Mount Quigley in 2005. Simultaneously, the feelings of absolute humility and overwhelming inspiration brought me to tears…and nearly to my knees. The gleaming towering white mountain ediface reached high above me, just 20 miles south of where I stood. Breathless, I knew that nothing in my life matched its glory…its significance…its eminence…its symbol of Creation and God. Countering the weight of Humility, its Inspiration lifted me…buoyed me…reminded me what John Muir knew all along:
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.
I counseled that their role as educators requires an approach steeled in humility and inspiration. Humilty in recognizing that they are changing the world through each young person they reach, educate, and encourage.
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. (Robert Louis Stevenson)
And Inspiration in accepting that the differences they make can last a lifetime and beyond…permanent, resilient, and immutable, like Denali Mountain.
Pulitzer Prize novelist and essayist Louis Bromfield wrote in his non-fiction Pleasant Valley of his life’s work rehabilitating his old worn out Ohio Farm:
The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished…The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge, and hard work. (Louis Bromfield (1896-1956)
Whether shaping Malabar Farm….or an eager sixth grader…wisdom, knowedge, and hard work, fueled by passion, and laced with humility and inspiration, carry the day.
What a great pleasure and privilege to engage with enthusiastic educators.
Setting the Stage
Environmental Educator and Main Guest for the workshop, Jimmy Stiles, introduced Dr. Scott Duncans’s Southern Wonder: Alabama’s Surprising Biodiversity. My intent is not to reiterate workshop content. Instead, I want to give you a feel for the major themes and a sense of the exquisite setting.
Why should we focus on our state’s biodiversity? First and foremost, Albert Einstein, instructed us:
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
We cannot truly know our state and teach environmental education without understanding our location, climate, geology, geography, and surrounding ecosystems. Biodiversity is interwoven with all those factors.
The ever-present lake served as backdrop for the entire day.
Jimmy presented how the ice age that ended 13,000 years ago influenced Alabama’s present-day biodiversity (my 60-second video).
Jimmy and NW District Naturalist Amber Coger presented where we are, the Highland Rim, emphasizing the importance in knowing our location and context.
Fishing as a Learning Exercise
Obviously, Lake Wheeler and its associated ecosystem is a major component of where they are. Joe Wheeler State Park Naturalist, Jennings Earnest, oriented the teachers to one of the lake’s residents, its ubiquitous sunfish. For some participants, this was their first fishing experience. Excitement ran high!
Here’s my 60-second video of Jennings readying the educators to fish.
Exemplifying a critical characterization of teaching, Jennings exudes passion and enthusiasm
He admits that he has the best job on the planet!
I recorded this 57-second video capturing the moment when one of the teachers landed a sunfish.
Not a trophy, but a successful teachable moment.
The day could not have been better. These moments along the lake will accompany participants into their fall classrooms and will infuse the spirit and passion of their teaching.
Often I find that others who preceded me constructed verbiage long ago far superior to any utterances I might make to express timeless wisdom. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was among them.
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
I believe our workshop instructors planted seeds that will multiply manifold times through the students they touch.
Meeting Animal Friends
Again, I offer some photos with narrative unecessary: box turtle and American aligator.
Black kingsnake.
I recorded this 46-second creature-teacher video
Knowing our setting and introducing some of our common animal neighbors impressed participants.
Measuring Vegetative Cover
Jimmy conducted an exercise adding an element of quantifying elements of our surroundings, like measuring vegetative cover in field and forest edge.
I recorded a 56-second video of measuring vegetative cover.
I remember summer days prescribed burning, marking and cruising timber, laying out roads, and other field tasks during my 12 years practicing industrial forestry…hard demanding days of exertion, sweating, challenge, and near exhaustion. And, too, younger days! As a 74-year-old retiree, such days would be more than I can handle. The state park workshop required no such toil. Total relaxation, at least physically. A bit of intellectual engagement, which knows no limit to date, just some continuous tuning by teaching, speaking, writing, and woods-sauntering!
Steve’s Shoreline Ramble
I explored during sessions, wandering (and wondering) along the lakeshore. As I’m drafting this narrative, some Leonard Da Vinci wisdom emerged from my mental recesses:
It’s not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.
I regret not including that wisdom in my lunchtime message. The workshop’s core theme is opening the educators’ eyes to understanding the Nature around them. Empowering them to see, appreciate, and understand all that lies hidden in plain sight, like the magnificent eastern tiger swallowtail sipping nectar from a buttonbush.
Or the clouded skipper on a buttonbush nearby.
Buttonbush seedpods give the plant its moniker.
I added each participant to the distribution for my weekly photo essays. I hope at least a few find time to read this edition. I know I learned as much as they did. I admire their eagerness to learn and I sensed their desire to deliberately incorporate Nature into the fabric of teaching.
I am privileged to occasionally interact with educators committed to learn from and teach in accord with Nature.
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson
I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness. John Muir
Alabama State Parks Foundation
I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), 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)
Nature doesn’t steal time, it amplifies it. (Richard Louv)
I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
Every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by Nature. (Steve Jones)
Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!
I am available for Nature-Inspired Speaking, Writing, and Consulting — contact me at steve.jones.0524@gmail.com
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
Reminder of my Personal and Professional Purpose, Passion, and Cause
If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:
Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.
Vision:
People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.
Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!
Steve’s Four Books
I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.
I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:
I love hiking and exploring Nature
I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
I don’t play golf!
I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8525-2.jpg-08.09.25-JWSP-BCBS-Workshop-scaled.webp25601920Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-11-12 02:31:042025-11-12 02:31:04Teacher-Educator Adventures in Alabama State Parks Workshop Lakeside at Joe Wheeler State Park!
I am pleased to add the 48th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.
Happy Halloween!
I wander (and wonder) in North Alabama’s forests during daylight hours. Even in full sunlight, I encounter spooky sights, sounds, and situations. Were I marauding the sylvan haunts in darkness, I might be more unsettled, deranged, and addled than I already am! Take a stroll with me among some of the weird forest demons, ogres, wraiths, and ghouls I’ve photographed since retiring to North Alabama.
I see an oaken dragon’s head — an eye, its ear, a smiling mouth, and a nostril. A friendly daytime image…but what visage materializes when we transition into deep dusk?
In the age of Harry Potter, a Whomping Chestnut Oak!
From my term as NC State University Vice Chancellor (2001-04), I see a red oak Wolfpack mascot!
A hickory-carved African tribal mask, its stern glance, forebodingly rigid brow, and flared nostril. Nothing amiable in that countenance!
A not-so-happy white oak’s wide mouth. How dare I trespass through his glen!
Reflecting the dark mood of the forest, one of Gary Larson’s best!
Trees can be unabashedly hostile, demonstrating their evil intent by devouring the human insult of posting metal signs. Beware!
A ram’s head awaits the unwary passer-by. Don’t bend over to tie that loose boot-lace!
This angry cycloptic black locust, glaring across the 200-year-old Mooresville Cemetery, sent a chill down my spine midday! There is no tolerance in that singular occular portal…malice prevails! My soul trembled.
I shivered standing within reach of the threatening smoke tree along the Green Mountain Halloween Forest Trail!
Fine literature expresses magic in words far more effectively than my photos and feeble narrative. Consider Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
There is nothing like the silence and loneliness of night to bring dark shadows over the brightest mind.
Startled by this bigfoot oak tree at Lake Guntersville State Park in 2018, I returned for a fresh photo on October 23, 2025, but could not find it. Where did it go? When might it reappear? Have any park guests been reported missing?
Grandson Sam and I risked life and limb under this creepy crawling oak carcass on Monte Sano State Park.
Most of these apparitions appeared when I’ve been alone. Would they have ventured forth were I sauntering with others? Perhaps being alone signals a confidence and power of which I was not aware. To be honest, I see far more when I wander alone. So much is hidden in plain sight. Companions can be a distraction…or at other times a visual catalyst. I embrace the wisdom in this poster. As a lifelong certifiable introvert, I accept the power and comfort of being alone!
I know that I am never truly alone in Nature. A mature white oak offered a branch stub stegosaurus head to greet me as I drifted past!
Among the strangest sights I’ve encountered are the bearded tupelo men in the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary tupelo swamp.
Wherever my life and living have taken me, I’ve cherished the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of woodland Nature. I find myself again and again.
Contrary to the dark Halloween theme, I prefer the mood and tone of Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements.
I cannot offer a quote more poignantly apropos than Washington Irving’s from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveler.
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
Subscribe to my free weekly photo essays (like this one) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_6602.jpg-03.08.25-Mooresville-Cemetary.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-10-31 07:47:502025-10-31 07:47:50Brief-Form #48 : Demons, Ogres, Wraiths, Ghouls, and Other Halloween Forest Spectres!
I am pleased to add the 46th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.
I frequent forest wildness wherever my excursions take me, searching for the beauty, magic, mystery, wonder, and awe that lie hidden in plain sight. This Post derives from years of experience, study, and contemplation, inspired by some recent discoveries (August 15 and October 14, 2025). My focus is on two examples of specialized tree roots.
Adventitious Water Roots
I published a GBH Post on September 17, 2025, chronicling a mid-August visit to Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary (the Sanctuary), reporting:
We found a puzzling phenomenon, 100-feet from the shore and out of our reach, on the upstream section of Jobala Pond. Two clearly living red maple trees (Acer rubrum), standing in water, called out to us with a pinkish circumferential ring 2-4″ immediately above the water line. I magnified the image up to the limits of resolution clarity, showing the fibrous nature of the feature. I shared via social media, generating speculation. Chris and I agree with several persons who suggested that the trees, attempting to survive the saturated soil environment, sprouted air roots above the water for supplemental aeration.
Niether of us, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I, had previously seen such a curiosity. I scoured the literature and found no succinct explanation. Note: Scoured the literature may be a little overstated! I looked, but it wasn’t like I was preparing my doctoral Literature Review. Shall I say, nothing relevant jumped out at me.
Then, lo and behold, just two months later while solo-exploring the dry-season water tupelo swamp on the Sanctuary, a Eureka moment surged from among the mosquito-infested early autumn dampness!
This three-foot diameter (dbh: diameter breast height) water tupelo, standing in persistent water in the dry-season swamp, evidenced that the winter water level reaches more than two feet higher. Although this stem stands out of my reach in my upland hiking boots, other nearby tupelos stood on dry season upland. And what a surprise to see a band of fibrous air roots ringing the high water marks.
Perseverance does indeed reward the patient and persistent Nature enthusiast. I did not visit the swamp intent on discovering the phenomenon; I went only to seek what delights might be hidden in plain sight! Even the literature opened slightly to my focused stealth…inquiring specifically of water tupelo air roots. I found:
LENTICEL AND WATER ROOT DEVELOPMENT OF SWAMP
TUPELO UNDER VARIOUS FLOODING CONDITIONS
DONALD. HOOK, CLAUD L. BROWN, AND PAUL P. KORMANIK
Forest Service, USDA, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, Athens, Georgia 30601; School of Forest Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30601; Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, Athens, Georgia 30601
Plant physiology is a is not a subject for the faint of heart, or well-suited to an old retired forest generalist. Suffice it for me to conclude:
Experts confirmed the existence of such a phenomenon.
The authors observed, Water roots developed primarily under continuous flooding in moving water, some apparently originating beneath the phellogen of a lenticel and others within the phellogen or its derivatives.
Chris and I correctly explained the curiosity we observed two months prior on the red maple trees standing in water at the edge of Jobala Pond.
I discovered another facet of delight. Dr. Paul Kormanik, the third listed author, was an acquaintance during my forest industry research period (1975-79), a half-century ago.
Leonardo da Vinci relied on observation and experience to inform reason. He would have applauded Chris and me:
Wisdom is the daughter of experience.
Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.
I recorded this 59-second video of what I termed incredible adventitious air root beards.
I loved the incredible adventitious root beards! Shall we call these trees the old men of the Tupelo Swamp? I plan to revisit when winter rains fill the sloughs.
Another Variety of Air Roots
Muscadine grape vines drape the bottomland forest at GSWS. I photographed these curtains of air roots south of the tupelo swamp. I’ve encountered the phenomenon in other wetland hardwood forests across northern Alabama. I presumed their purpose was to reach the ground (as these do), take root vegetatively, and provide propagation of their genotype. Now I am less than certain.
Once again, my uncertainty spurred additional literature scouring, if you will. A Mississippi State University Cooperative Extension on-line bulletin amplified my uncertainty:
Aerial root formation in Vitis has been documented on different grape species; however, the driving forces behind the formation of adventitious roots are not well understood.
So, where does that lead me? I have yet to document a case of the air roots sprouting regenerates when contacting the forest soil. I can suggest alternatively that thess drapes capture moist air condensation (swamp fog) to supplement aeration when soils are saturated. I pledge to continue observations and exploration, in the spirit of Albert Einstein:
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
One cannot help but be in awe when [one] contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
In my realm of forest Nature exploration, I conclude: The more I learn, the less I know!
Closing
I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements.
I cannot offer a quote more poignantly apropos than Albert Einstein’s:
One cannot help but be in awe when [one] contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
I add my own bullet of Nature wisdom:
The more I learn, the less I know! (Steve Jones)
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
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https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_9412.jpg-GSWS-East-Side-10.14.25-Water-Tupelo-Aertion-Roots.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2025-10-27 08:52:162025-10-27 08:52:16Brief-Form Post #47: Strange Bearded Tupelo Trees -- Air Root Mysteries and Curiosities!
