nature preserve Archives - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

Early Signs of Spring on the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary!

May 27, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I co-taught a Huntsville, Alabama LearningQuest session on America’s National Parks on the morning of February 12, 2026, at the Hampton Cove WellPoint Senior Community. Afterward, an exquisite early spring afternoon beckoned me to explore the eastern half of the nearby Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary. Walk with me as I share some early signs of wildland spring within the 400-acre reserve in the bottomlands along the Flint River.

The Flint generally runs high with winter rains. On this day, the river is shy of bank-full, yet is high enough to submerge this sycamore’s base.

Here is my 48-second video of the main channel a few hundred yards from the Sanctuary’s east side entrance.

I’ve scheduled a prior winter season hike at the Sanctuary following several days of winter rains, only to be turned back by the Flint River overflowing its banks and sending floodwaters to within a hundred feet of the gravel parking lot.

I recorded this 58-second video of side channel with narration, at a point opposite the cut-off island one-half mile from the lot.

The main river channel lies just downstream from where I stood.

Here’s the same view (51-second video) without my annoying narration.

The bottomland forests and meadows were saturated. Soaked areas welcomed male frogs already intent on attracting females. All critters are single-minded. Life is all about reproduction…sustaining the species…whether amphibian, reptile, bird, mammal, fish, human, or fungus.

This little guy is of lone voice, yet persistent. Is some lonely girl frog listening…tempted, lured, and approaching?

My 42-second video recorded the lone male calling plaintively.

I like the rustic signage, slowly yielding to time and decay, reminiscent of Sleepy Hollow!

Old agricultural fields, populated with sedges and various other meadow species are transitioning to forest courtesy of natural tree and shrub regeneration, as well as trees planted in seedling shelters, many of which are protecting seedlings that died when planted during an extended fall drought two years ago.

Here is my 60-second video of wetland mitigation efforts in the meadows.

The trail passes east from the mitigation fields through this meadow that is regenerating with volunteer, now shoulder-high sweetgum trees.

I recorded this 60-second video as I strolled along the trail.

Ironweed (left) and sweetgum line the trail.

Mature hardwood borders the meadow.

I repeat often that every tree tells a story. This American beech along the trail in the dense bottomland hardwood forest within hearing distance of Highway 431 traffic noise, supplies life-sustaining sustenance via root grafts to three living stumps, including the one below right at the tree’s base.

I reecorded this 61-second video with explanatory narrative of the beech and the three adjacent stumps.

Although still six weeks from the spring equinox, our peeper friend evidenced that spring was in the air. That’s a far cry from our time living in the far North.

Early Spring Ephemeral Bonus

I’m drafting my photo essay prose on February 26. This morning at 5:00 AM Central Time, when our Madison, Alabama temperature was 58 degrees, I checked the temperature in Fairbanks, AK, my home from 2004-2008. It was negative 37; that’s 95 degrees colder. The snowpack was 40 inches. I copied these images at 11:00 AM local time from the University of Alaska Fairbanks webcam atop the Geophysical Institute.

The Fairbanks ground will not be absent snow cover through most of April. Spring flowers may not appear until mid-May.

I’ve adjusted my calendar here in the South. Within the regenerating meadow, in mid-February, I spotted two Virginia spring beauty blossoms (one at left). The flowering cress (right) presented itself on the sandy shore across from the island.

I loved our four-year Alaska venture, even the deep winters. I could have stayed for many years, but both of our adult children blessed us then with our first two grandkids, who this May will graduate high school! Life itself is a rewarding adventure, enriched many fold by our time in The Last Frontier — The Big Broad Land Way Up Yonder!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Life is all about reproduction…sustaining the species…whether amphibian, reptile, bird, mammal, fish, human, or fungal. (Steve Jones)
Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm. (John Muir)
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. (Helen Keller)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Me at right from a prior visit.

Lawson Branch Loop; Shoal Creek Preserve Spring 2026!

May 17, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I hiked the Lawson Branch Loop Trail of Shoal Creek Preserve on March 6, 2026, with fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and retired videographer Bill Heslip. Chris and I had previously circuited the Jones Branch Loop Trail (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/02/26/early-december-circuit-of-jones-branch-trail-at-shoal-creek-nature-preserve/). We sauntered a counterclockwise loop through the second-growth hardwood forest, noting the view above the Wilson Lake Shoal Creek Inlet, the tumbling Lawson Branch, and other notable natural features along the route.

Mixed oak, hickory, and other upland hardwoods populated the hillsides.

We enjoyed the winter, foliage-free video of the inlet.

Summer’s full canopy will obscure the view when leaves return.

Here is my 58-second video from above the inlet.

Chris (left) and Bill provide scale.

Mountain laurel graced the hilltop. I cut my youthful Ridge-and-Valley hiking teeth in the Central Appalachians, thick with this beautiful evergreen shrub. The valley view and the laurel transported me six decades aft temporally, to a period when I knew I would hike the trails, ascend the bluffs, and log the miles without end. A couple of months shy of 75 years, I am blessed to still cover Nature’s gentle woodland pathways, immersed in her endless beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration.

How could I possibly want for more than a spring stream, a wooden bridge, and a rustic bench for three seasoned seniors to rest a spell among the trees.

I recorded this 59-second video along Lawson Branch, referring to it incorrectly in the narrative as Jones Branch.

Spring sky, fresh waters, and absolute serenity and tranquility streamside are beyond compare.

I recorded this 40-second video of Lawson Branch.

Tumbling, gurgling, and singing require only an investment of time, energy expended, and woodland conversation. I’ve never played golf, but I sense that it breeds frustration, encourages drinking fermented beverages, provides exercise entailing getting on and off of a motorized cart, and leads to betting foolish sums of money. I know golf is referred to as a game that grownups play. I’ve witnessed too many miserable golfers to believe it is better than woodland rambling!

I recorded this 58-second video along Lawson Branch.

Golf courses are lovely summer places at dawn and after the daytime heat abates at gloaming. Otherwise, give me late summer woodland shade, preferably streamside!

Tree Form Oddities and Curiosities

I like scouting the forest rough for oddities and curiosities, not searching the brambles, vines, and snakepits for little white balls!

I am seldom disappointed when I seek strange critters like this dead snag with gaping maw, contorted jaw, and a single eye, daring the three old guys to approach the creek below.

I can never get enough of bizarre tree countenances, pattererned surfaces, and mossy complexions.

An imtermediate canopy black cherry with a prominent agrobacterial crown gall beckoned us to take a closer look.

Our Planet’s Most Essential Epidermis

I took two undergraduate courses in forest soils. As a practicing industrial forester in the southeastern US, I served 1975-79 as Project Leader for Tree Nutrition and Fertilization for our company’s 2.2 million forested acres (VA; NC; SC; GA; FL: and AL). My subsequent PhD explored soil-site relationships in the Allegheny Plateau of NE Pennsylvania and SW New York. I consider myself a forest soil scientist. Soil, whether forest, agriculture, urban, or anywhere is Earth’s essential membrane…all terrestrial life on our planet depends on this living and life-giving veneer. I seldom enter a forest where I don’t encounter a mature wind-toppled tree…having lifted its rooting mass and accompanying soil.

Bill is standing by an oak root ball lifted within the past few months. Although the regolith (the unconsolidated, loose, heterogenous superficial deposits covering solid rock) extends variously deeper below this lifted three-foot layer, this mantle is the essential stuff of life. Root penetration even on this large oak, ended at this depth. The exposed soil profile consists of a surface organic layer; an ‘A’ horizon of mixed mineral and organic matter (AKA topsoil); a zone of accumulation of leached organic and mineral components, the ‘B’ horizon. The root ball lifted at the boundary between the ‘B’ horizon and the ‘C’ layer of unweathered regolith.

Such is the simplistic equation of life in the woods…the magic of chemistry and physics. The soil holds, recycles, and processes through its rich association of living organisms, moisture, and thermal fluctuations everything needed for life. As we walk along wooded byways, our attention is focused above ground and high into the canopy, where it’s easy to assume that biological activity concentrates. However, I recall from my extensive and exhaustive dissertaion literature search that 75 percent of carbon turnover (biological activity) occurs below ground, within the soil. Watch yourself, that biological hotbed may reach out and grab you!

Near the fallen oak, a handsome green ash reaches far into the canopy. I wonder whether it realizes that while its essentail life-energy derives from its solar partner, the real life action takes place below in the permanent darkness of its rooting zone. Is there a human parallel? An essential dimension of our human fulfillment that derives hidden from plain sight…a spiritual dimension that too often we shelter in darkness? I know I am guilty of reaching under the basket far too infrequently. I worry that the day will come when its too late to open the shutter.

I recorded this fifty-eight-second video near this green ash. I refer erroneously to the stream as Jones Branch. It is Lawson Branch.

Northern spicebush flowers early in the season, a delightful forebearer of spring ready to launch.

Spicebush seems a good place to close the narrative.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I worry that the day will come when it’s too late to open the shutter to the things I hold dear. (Steve Jones)
Such is the simplistic equation of life in the woods…the magic of chemistry and physics. (Steve Jones)
Soil, whether forest, agriculture, urban, or anywhere, is Earth’s essential membrane…all terrestrial life on our planet depends on this living and life-giving veneer. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief-Form Post #60: Oddities, Curiosities, and Mysteries in a Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Bottomland Hardwood Forest

May 13, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 60th 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 once again entered the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge bottomland hardwood forest south of HGH Road on January 15, 2026. I sought a break from writing, reading, and preparing for the two courses I’ll be teaching in the winter term at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and at LearningQuest, a similar program offered through the Madison County Huntsville Library. Each time I explore this extraordinarily fertile and rich WNWR forest, I seek the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe that I always find hidden in plain sight.

Temperature still in the upper twenties; these oyster mushrooms are frozen solid, adorning a downed hickory trunk, their mycelia decomposing the cellulose within. I’ve found that oysters are early saprophytes, flourishing within three years of tree mortality. I know nothing about cultivating oysters with home kits, much less commercial production. I harvested a few of these for omeletts, the first time I gathered frozen specimens.

Nearby I recorded this 59-second video within the forest, including a big oak.

The oak’s diameter breast height (4.5-feet above ground; DBH) exceeded three feet.

When still a supple sapling, this sweetgum suffered an impact from above, slamming it to the ground, yet maintaining its roots’ connectivity to the soil. The concussive force broke the now horizontal stem, where the gaping mouth remains today. A doramt bud erupted, sending a new stem/trunk vertically (left). The entire horizontal portion is hollowed by decay. The larger opening (right) is where the sapling roots still reach downward. The blowhole 18 inches from the severed topside root basal opening adds character and mystery to this woodland ogre.

I recorded this 59-second video of the fallen and somewhat recovered sweetgum and the similary tortured yellow poplar just 30 feet beyond.

The same toppled signature and fate. Both trees survive through natural resilience. Forest objects have been crashing onto hardwood saplings for thousands of generations of sweetgum and yellow poplar. Evolution has prepared both species (and many others) for striving beyond catastrophe to ensure seed production to extend the individual’s gene pool. The poplar at left fell toward the photo point. The other view is from the root end.

A peculiar red oak burl watched me approach. All of us, I posit, have playfully identified cloud shapes on spring and summer afternoons. I admit to engaging in the same pursuit with tree oddities. Can you do better than a praying mantis head with this one?

I may some day venture forth to capture images of these obscure, startling, and potentially evil growths in the dark of night…if I can get the nerve!

Washington Irving mused about the menace of darkness in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

There is nothing like the silence and loneliness of night to bring dark shadows over the brightest mind.

This sweetgum appendage matches the oak burl’s menacing scale! Shift the view angle by 90 degrees and get a completely different creature.

Subtle perspective shifts yield seeming endless varieties, especially when viewed through lenses of imagination. Again, try it in the dark!

Once again, Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) saw the macabre and horror in such tree embodiments:

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 traveller.

This eight-inch DBH eastern hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) sports an impressive waist-high burl, a spherical benign tumorous growth triggered by viral, bacterial, or fungal (or a combination) infectuous agents. If I stretch my imagination, I see a full frontal countenance with two eyes, pug nose, puffy cheeks, and a closed, slightly frowing mouth.

Albert Einstein was a tireless proponent of both imagination and good humor!

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

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

The bottomlands have shallow winter water tables. Windthrow is common, creating hummocks and hollows, mounds and pits, and pillows and cradles, colloquial expressions for the resultant microtopography. The hollows hold water until spring when evaporation and transporation increase to lower the water table. Many hold clear water. Critters are keeping this one muddy. Frogs?

Closing Observations

I spotted just a single cutleaf grapefern plant, fresh and colorful amid the stark brown leaves.

Before departing the refuge, I stopped by Blackwell Swamp along Jolly B Road. I leave you to enjoy the beauty of a sunny WNWR winter morning.

There is nothing dark, menacing, or gloomy about my morning Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge saunter.

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 apropos than Washington Irving’s observation 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

Brief-Form Post #57: Reflection In & On Beaverdam Tupelo Swamp — Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

April 21, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 57th 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 returned to Beaverdam Swamp Boardwalk on the afternoon of January 4, 2026. In the vicinity with time to spare, I leisurely sauntered the half-mile to the boardwalk terminus at the creek. The Boardwalk transects a National Natural Landmark within the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. This ancient tupelo forest is one of my very special natural places in North Alabama, just a twenty-minute drive from my home. I visit it 3-4 times annually to witness changes across the seasons.

I offer a few observations, reflections, photos, and three brief videos. A mixed hardwood stand occupies the gravel trail approaching the boardwalk, which crosses the tupelo swamp.

I recordedd this 58-second video beside a handsome green ash tree prior to entering the boardwalk.

I’ll spare you a detailed narrative. The elevated wooden walkway snakes through the ancient stand. I’ve seen the swamp nearly flush with the underside of the decking, perhaps 18″ higher than the current level.

We’ve received almost three inches of rain since then. I will visit once more before winter’s flush ends.

This is my 59-second video of the swamp from the boardwalk.

The swamp is rich with reflections and ripe for the kind of mind, heart, body, soul, and spirit reflecting that most of us enjoy but too often push aside in the hurry and scurry of life and living.

The buttressed tupelo trunk, draped in resurrection fern, etends downward in reflection and reaches high above.

The tupelo forest canopy is uniformly high. There is little understory or intermediate crowns, contrary to most of our upland forests..

A view upward reveals only the main canopy crown.

Darkness comes early early January. By 3:30 PM the sun was dipping to its winter nadir at 30 degrees south of west.

I recorded this 60-second video at the Beaverdam Creek terminus of the boardwalk.

The creek empties into Lake Wheeler’s Limestone Bay within a mile of the deck.

Death and Decay

A hollowed tupelo stands along the creek just upstream of the boardwalk terminus. Life and death dance breast to breast. One (always the same) will ultimtely prevail, returning tons of organic matter to the grand cycle of swamp and creek birth, decay, death, and rebirth.

Oyster mushrooms adorn a downed log. This common decomposer fungi, I’ve learned by observation, aggressively colonizes dead and dying trees, seeming to prefer hickories, hackberry, and elms.

I also found an aging lions mane mushroom on a heavily decayed stump.

This magnificent National Natural Landmark never disappoints, whether deepest January or during the dog days of August. I relish being so close to a special natural place

Robert Service, a Brit who spent time in the Far North 125 years ago, wrote in Spell of the Yukon:

It’s the great, big, broad land’way up yonder,

It’s the forst where silence has lease;

It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

It’s the silence that fills me with peace.

The Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge is not a great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder, but it does grasp me in its beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration:

There’s a land–oh, it beckons and beckons,

And I want to go back–and I will.

The freshness, the freedom, the farness–

Oh God! how I’m stuck on it all.

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 Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge is not a great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder, but it does grasp me in its beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration:

There’s a land–oh, it beckons and beckons,

And I want to go back–and I will.

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

Brief-Form Post #56: Quick Circuit of the Dallas Fanning Nature Preserve

April 15, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 56th 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 returned to the Dallas Fanning Nature Preserve in Huntsville, AL, on January 4, 2026. I sought a taste of Nature near home. I had previously described the preserve as a 58-acre wounded landscape, a remnant product of associated industrial development. I sauntered along the preserve’s 1.5 miles of flat trails, intent on finding what Nature lessons lie hidden in plain sight. The preserve does not protect pristine wilderness from imminent threats in our rapidly urbanizing region. Instead, its designation reserves the property for immediate low-intensity nature-based recreation and for its long-term natural transition to wildness.

I first visited the preserve on November 28, 2022. My January 11, 2023, Great Blue Heron Post summarized my impression: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2023/01/11/dallas-fanning-nature-preserve/

The preserve is well-marked within a light industrial zone. I circuited all trails in 90 minutes, at a leisurely pace, pausing frequently for photographs and brief videos.

The trails are gentle well-surfaced, and flat. The only challenge I encountered was mental — trying to reconstruct the story of the past use that created the tortured land, most of which through preservation is destined to recover naturally to brush and forest.

My 60-second video captures the most severely disturbed area.

The associated industrial development stripped and leveled at least 20 percent of the tract, since planted to loblolly pine. This is raw subsoil…course, stony, absent organic matter, infertile, and xeric. The pine are chlorotic, stunted, and doomed to at least decades of insufficient nutrients and moisture.

Dark green foliage and much larger trees signal pockets of lesser disturbance. Imagine standing at this location in 2126 at a photoboard showing vegetation progression in ten-year increments since 2026!

Less harshly disturbed sections beyond the planted pine, where some modicum of residual topsoil remains, are converting to brush and hardwood trees. Shining sumac is flourishing. Nature is adept at reclaiming abused land. A new forest is emerging.

The trails also transect a 30-50 year old forest. Always alert for tree form curiosities, I spotted this black cherry tree that some force (falling branch or tree, an ice storm, wind, or machine) bent and broke the then saping-size stem. The tree sent a shoot skyward at the break, retaining its bent lower trunk and the break-point stub. Every tree has a story to tell.

Here is my 60-second video of the preserve’s 3.5-acre greenspace adjacent to the ample parking lot.

I stopped near a loblolly pine destined to provide summer shelter for a picnic table.

Already its crown is depositing pine straw mulch, yet another example of Nature’s insistence on healing the insults from past disturbance.

Taken from near the green space pine tree, this photo shows the emerging forest surrounding the green space.

Preserve managers have recently planted longleaf pine along the field edge. The seedlings will require supplemental watering during dry periods over the initial 2-3 summers.

I view the Dallas Fanning NP as a novelty variety of preserve. I’m accustomed to seeing wildland preserves. I view this one as an outlier, in effect a former wasteland…an afterthought…attempting to steward its transition to a desired future condition. Additionally, I see it as a cause worthy of monitoring, documenting (permanent photo-points), and celebrating. I plan to visit every 2-3 years. I’ll keep you posted.

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 apropos than an observation I made in the text above:

Nature is adept at reclaiming abused land. A new forest is emerging.

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

Mid-December Saunter on Monte Sano Oak Park Trail

April 6, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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

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

I recently saw a relevant meme:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A minor wooden bridge crosses a ravine, currently dry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dallas Spring greeted us with surface water among the rocks.

Meager flow hinted of the wet season to come.

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Squeezing a 90-Minute Woodland Saunter into Four Hours!

April 1, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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

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

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

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

Ephemeral Spring Flowers

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

Violet woodsorrell is a common woodland spring ephemeral.

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

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

Eistein knew that Nature held natural secrets of unfathomable depths:

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

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

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

Virginia creeper is opening its palmate leafy umbrellas.

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

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

Shiny New Leaves

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

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

Rusty blackhaw was just showcasing it rust-hued leaves.

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

Our group paused when we intersected Rainbow Loop Trail.

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

Stone Statuary

One of our party stood gazing at Balance Rock.

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

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

Einstein saw extraordinary value in mind-rambling:

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

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

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

Trees Meet Stones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Closing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief-Form Post #55: Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment Crooked Oaks Nature Resort

March 18, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 55th 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.

Arriving in Auburn on the evening of November 13, 2026, fellow retired forester (and Auburn University forestry graduate) Chris Stuhlinger, my grandson Jack (18), and I visited the College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment’s (CFWE) Crooked Oaks Lodge and Quail Hollow Gardens, the former estate of the university’s revered 1980s football coach, Pat Dye. The 415-acre preserve lies about 15 miles WSW of the university near Notasulga.

We did not know in advance that our visit coincided with the Crooked Oaks Open House. We modified our Saturday plans to include stopping by to see this exquisite addition to the CFWE, and assess its potential for integrating the property into the College’s education, research, and extension mission. Two old foresters with Auburn ties welcomed the chance to stroll the central trails, ponds, and infrastructure. Chris is a graduate and supporter of the College. I held a tenured full professor appointmentat in the College (then a School) from 1996-2001, when I served as Director, Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

My intent with this Brief-Form Post is to offer a glimpse of Crooked Oaks, a delightful slice of the Old South charm of a traditional hunting and entertainment property, Lodge, and Gardens. I offer a few photographs. Two crooked oaks stand along the pathway from the Lodge to the former Dye residence.

A 35-foot longleaf pine tree stands along the pathway beyond the foreground longleaf pine branch and needles to the my left as I snapped the photo. Loblolly pine dominates the evergreen component of the property.

I (and the pond) reflected on the brilliant azure sky…not a cloud across the firmament, matching the open house with open sky.

I recorded this 58-second video to capture the essence of Crooked Oaks in a manner not attainable with still photos and my feeble written prose.

The former Dye residence overlooks the pond, amid the peace, quiet, tranquility, and comfort of Nature, far removed in time, distance, and dimension from the competive autumn Saturday maelstrom in Jordan-Hare Stadium and Pat Dye Field. I know that Nature is soothing, calming, and regenerative. Coach Dye expressed love for his farm in rural Notasulga. No wonder he sought refuge among the crooked oaks, and the Japanese maples he cultivated there.

Like his Hall of Fame footall career, he established an Earth Stewardship legacy at Crooked Oaks Hunting Preserve and Quail Hollow Gardens Japanese Maple Farm & Nursery.

I imagine that the people coach Dye shaped and inspired and the lifeblood of the university he loved, flow metaphorically with the gentle stream tracing through the landscaped garden bordered by several of his cherished autumn-red Japanese maples.

An Alabama native green anole proudly expressed ownership of a pondside deck. The lizard reluctantly allowed me to snap a photo, but seemed perturbed and impatient for me to continue walking.

I arrived at Auburn University as ACES Director in 1996. Dye coached his final footbal season in 1992. He resided on the farm for another 19 years after I left for the next step of my career in 2001. During my ACES tenure I knew only that Dye had been a football and athletics institution at AU. Dealing with establishing a Court-Ordered unified state extension system (combining the separate programs at AU and Alabama A&M), I had no time to learn more about Coach Dye, his Nature interests, or the property. Now retired in Alabama since 2018, I am intrigued. I want to know more about Crooked Oaks and the man who created it. I want to return, walk the 400+ acres, and peer into the Stewardship drive that fueled Dye’s passion for the land, the College, and the distant future.

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 can only speculate on Coach Dye’s motives for creating the Crooked Oaks legacy and placing it in perpetuity with CFWE.

I step backward 80 years to Louis Bromfield’s non-fiction Pleasant Valley (1945), his tale of passion for rehabilitating the old worn out Ohio farm, Malabar, he purchased in 1938. Perhaps my favorite conservation statements among all the great observations by the Who’s Who of conservation greats is Bromfield’s:

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.

That is all any of us who care pasionately about earth stewardship can do. I dedicate my writing, teaching, speaking, and leading Nature tours to changing a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge and hard work.

Re-Visiting Auburn University’s Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve and Nature Center

March 5, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Arriving in Auburn on the evening of November 13, 2026, fellow retired forester (and Auburn University forestry graduate) Chris Stuhlinger, my grandson Jack (18), and I visited Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment’s (CFWE) Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve and Nature Center. I invite you to join us as we tour this fabulous education and interpretation facility.

I snapped these photos when Chris and I visited Kreher in November 2023. See my photo essay chronicling that visit: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/03/06/iron-bowl-visit-to-auburns-kreher-preserve-and-nature-center/

I have a special attraction to Kreher. During my 1996-2001 term as Director, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, I held a tenured Full Professor position in the CFWE unit before it became a College. Among other interests at Auburn, Jack is considering a program in CFWE. Chris continues to support the College; on Friday, he delivered a guest lecture on Urban Forestry. Jack and I observed.

Moreover, Kreher follows a mission (Promote a sense of stewardship towards nature through quality environmental education…) that aligns beautifully with my Retirement 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.

These interpretive signs signal Kreher’s commitment to author Richard Louv’s tenets from Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder and other of his books:

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).

Auburn’s CFWE celebrated the Environmental Education Building grand opening on December 7 and 8, 2024 (https://kpnc.auburn.edu/eeb/). The new building is an education and interpretation wonder located near the entrance of the 130 acre preserve.

Relevant websites extoll the building and associated elements extensively. Chris and Jack wandered within the unique outdoor classroom.

My objective with this photo essay is to disclose the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration revealed in our 90-minute traverse along two miles of preserve trails. We had only limited time to explore before heading back to North Alabama. Importantly, we wanted to get a sense of the place, knowing that we would someday return for a deeper dive when staff could tour us through the new building and guide us along educational trails.

Perhaps stating the obvious, I am not a photographer. Yes, I take photographs of things, objects, and scenes I love and understand. My equipment is an iPhone, which is, in, fact, a remarkable tool. I’m learning how to do more with it. Loblolly pine trees in the former farmland reach at least 100 feet. The photo at left struggles with their height, presenting them with an exagerated lean to a vertical vanishing point. Aha, I thought, I can edit to eliminate the distortion (right). Not so fast! I believe I prefer the unedited photo — that’s how it looks in real life. But, what do I know? Yet, maybe I do know best. I’m 53 years beyond earning a forestry degree…more than half a century of gazing into the firmament through tree crowns.

I realize that I created the original distortion by aiming the camera at 45 degrees, intending to emphasize the exceptional tree height. I’m learning, albeit slowly. The eye-level photo at right makes the trees look squatty rather than towering.

Managers employ prescribed fire routinely to reduce fuels, manage understory vegetation, and maintain a parklike appearance, ideal for an education landscape populated with wandering young learners (of all ages!). Charred trunks are common. I am a longtime proponent of prescribed fire. I love the look, and the effect!

Tree Form Oddities and Curiosities

Not all the property’s trees reached for the heavens. I believe this old water oak stood at the edge of an open field that is now occupied by the vigorous young pine forest. Its tortured form suggests age, physical abuse, and exposure to the vagaries of storms without the protection of a closed forest. The bole is hollow and split. Healthy, protected, and vigorous oaks don’t present views from on side to the other!

Wind severed two-thirds of its top decades ago. See the open wound at the top where its vertical trunk once extended. The huge right-lateral branch likewise left the tree from a powerful gust. The tortured canopy remains sustained life, even at the cost of surviving without vigor…simply hanging on to life. The photo at right suggests further mutilation and humiliation (Do trees suffer humiliation?). Long ago, a wind blasted the tree away from the camera, lay it flat. I survived that blow, appearing to craw away, sending a shoot to vertical, only for a future gale to curse its crown.

Despite the frantic and persisten efforts of the water oak, the old field pine stand flourished and continues to thrive.

Another oak, much older than the old- pines, bears a curious burl. My imagination transformed the bulbous creature to a sad hedgehog peering around the trunk. See its tight mouth, broad nose, morose squinting eyes, and furrowed brow.

Albert Einstein, the 20th century’s foremost theoretical physicist, appreciated the fine art of curiosty:

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

The true wonders of Nature lie hidden in plain sight. I wonder what Einstein would have see if he had wandered along the Kreher trails with us?

A society’s competitive advantage will come not from how well its schools teach the multiplication and periodic tables, but from how well they stimulate imagination and creativity.

I love forest visits with my grandkids. I try to kindle their imagination and creativity.

A building plaque recognizes dear friends, Emmett and Vi Thompson. Emmett is a former CFWE Dean.

A Bird Impact Prevention Window honors longtime Center Director Jennifer Lolley and recognizes her continuing legacy of nurturing curiosity and inspiring people to connect with the wonders of the natural world.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I love forest visits with my grandkids. I try to kindle their imagination and creativity. (Steve Jones)
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. (Richard Louv)
A society’s competitive advantage will come not from how well its schools teach the multiplication and periodic tables, but from how well they stimulate imagination and creativity. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Crispy-Leafed Early Autumn at Leebrook Park in Pennsylvania’s Franklin Park Borough

February 6, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Judy and I visited our son, Matt, and his family in late September 2025, at their home in Butler County, Pennsylvania, 20 miles north of Pittsburgh. We explored several parks and natural areas, including Leebrook Park, located in Franklin Park Borough, Allegheny County. Come along with Matt, Judy, Hannah, Nate, and me as we view memorable Leebrook Nature attractions on an autumn afternoon.

I always appreciate well-marked trails and informative signage.

Upper Roadside Parking Entrance

We entered by a trailhead distant from the main parking lot, primary entrance, and recreation fields. The second-growth mixed hardwood stand occupied a long-abandoned pasture.

I recorded this 60-second video as we traipsed through the former pasture forest.

This sugar maple, likely the same age as the overstory trees, sports a massive canker, infecting the entire trunk, and accounting for the tree’s distortion and stunted growth.

Nate provided scale.

Eight to ten inch diameter black cherry and red maple trees stand side by side. Germinating decades ago six inches apart, they have closed the gap. Inosculation is the term describing trees that seem to grasp one another, growing eventually as one.

Hannah (18) and Nate (12) stood atop a dead and downed trunk before leaping to the leaf-littered ground. Not a big deal, you say, but in the sunest years of their grandfather, it is a moment worth cherishing.

Rather than hike into the lower forest and needing to climb back to the car, Matt relocated us to the lower, richer slope with a far more interesting forest.

Lower Trail at Playing Field Entrance

Larger trees, greater variety of tree species, and wrinkled terrain drew my interest.

The bowl-shaped ravine supported a stand of cove hardwoods: mixed oaks, sugar maple, black cherry, a single sycamore, shagbark hickory, and yellow poplar, among others.

My 60-second video captured the special essence of the cove.

Trees reach more than 110 feet skyward. Such sites are characterized by deeper soils, greater soil moisture, denser shading by virtue of their lower slope position, and protection from ridgetop winds. I love the look and feel (shade and microclimate) of Appalachian hardwood coves.

The centered tree above (left) is a colorfully-patterned sycamore:

I recorded this 36-second video focusing on the three bird or mammal cavities in the towering top of the sycamore.

Shagbark hickory is as happy and comfortable on the hills of west-central Penn’s-woods as it is on Alabama’s Cumberland Plateau.

Always alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, I had to capture the image of this main canopy sugar maple. Suffering a decades-old upper crown injury, the old denizen has a snout and eye where the stem broke. Two large forks ascend in a prominent U-shape from the snout. The odd creature appears to stand sentry above the sylvan cove.

I find enchantment in such peculiarities, knowing full well that there is a story to be told. A heavy burden of snow or ice decapitated the younger tree? A thunderstorm gust brought its top down? I can only imagine the year, month, and causal agent.

Spiral Grain and Woodpecker Excavation

Spiral wood grain fascinates me. I see it often in downed hardwood trees after decomposition sheds their bark. When I discuss spiraling with others, nearly everyone insists that the spiraling should be apparent in the bark of a living tree. I insist, contrarily, that the phenomenon is completely hidden beneath the bark. Finally, I found direct evidence. This spiraled, standing dead oak has lost much of its bark, revealing the grain (right). The still clinging bark above (right) evidences no external indication of the structural spiraling!

Works of Nature’s creative sculpturing abound. Woodpeckers hungry for grubs and adult insects are assisting decomposition of this standing trunk.

A brief three-generation, leisurely family stroll reveals many secrets, mysteries, and magic in a place close to home, publicly maintained, and accessible free of charge. As I draft this narrative, I am halfway through teaching a six-week adult education course on our US National Parks. At the outset, I offer a Warning/Caution/Alert: Don’t be so smitten, enamored, and captivated by our incredible 63 National Parks that you ignore and shun the incredible beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of local special places and everyday Nature. LeeBrook Park is one such example — much closer, less expensive, and less crowded than Yosemite, Yellowstone, or the Grand Canyon! Enjoy pancakes at home, have a sandwich in the park, and be home for dinner.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

A brief three-generation, leisurely family stroll can reveal many secrets, mysteries, and magic in a place close to home, publicly maintained, and accessible free of charge. (Steve Jones)
I find enchantment in tree form oddities and peculiarities, knowing full well that there is a story to be told. (Steve Jones)
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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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