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
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_0294.jpg-1.4.26-Dallas-Fanning-NP.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-04-15 12:54:312026-04-15 12:54:31Brief-Form Post #56: Quick Circuit of the Dallas Fanning Nature Preserve
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!
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_0074.jpg-12.13.25-Oak-Park-Trail.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-04-06 11:24:472026-04-06 11:24:47Mid-December Saunter on Monte Sano Oak Park Trail
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
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!
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
https://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/IMG_1141.jpeg-03.28.26-Seasoned-Learners.webp9001200Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-04-01 13:21:312026-04-01 19:05:47Squeezing a 90-Minute Woodland Saunter into Four Hours!
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.
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/2025/11/IMG_9710-1.jpg-11.15.25-Crooked-Oaks.webp18831412Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-03-18 09:49:302026-03-18 09:49:30Brief-Form Post #55: Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Environment Crooked Oaks Nature Resort
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-DeficitDisorder 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!
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/2025/11/IMG_9716.jpg-10.15.25-Kreher-Nature-Center.webp17811336Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-03-05 08:37:132026-03-05 08:37:13Re-Visiting Auburn University's Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve and Nature Center
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!
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/2025/09/IMG_9072-1.jpg-09.21.25-Leebrook-Park-Land-Trust-scaled.webp25601920Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-02-06 08:51:492026-02-07 09:00:15Crispy-Leafed Early Autumn at Leebrook Park in Pennsylvania's Franklin Park Borough
On October 14, 2025, I had nearly two hours to roam before meeting with a colleague to prepare for a scheduled joint seminar the next week. I visited the tupelo swamp on the northeast side of Huntsville’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary. I had no objective beyond seeing what may lie hidden in plain sight during the dry autumn season. Never disappointed by my routine impromptu explorations, I discovered a portfolio of interesting features.
A Big Oak Topples into the River
Sometime this past summer, this 2.5-foot diameter water oak toppled violently into the adjacent Flint River, blocking at least half of the river’s width. The crown clings to the brown leaves that were in full flush when the tree fell.
I recorded this 58-second video of the toppled water oak.
I wonder whether the crown will hold in place when winter rains swell the river to bankfull and beyond. The force will be powerful. Only Nature knows her limits, yet cares nothing of the consequences. I’ll keep an eye on her antics and impacts.
I observe in nearly every Post, death is a big part of life in our forests.
Another Big Oak Decomposes and Decays
Across eight years of permanent residence in North Alabama, I am learning better how to estimate the pace of decomposition and decay based on observation. Marian Moore Lewis, author of Southern Sanctuary, and I encountered a recently uprooted red oak on November 18, 2020 in this same bottomland forest. Fine roots were still evident; the root ball soil remined intact; bole bark and crown appeared fresh.
The massive root ball is clearly weathering away in my October 14, 2025 photo. Only the largest woody roots remain, yet even they are rapidly decaying. Trunk bark is shredding and stripping. Five years leave a striking mark on a large oak. My eye is calibrating. I am confident that I can estimate time since windthrow within 2-3 years, through the first 20 years. By then, the soil incorporation is in control.
I will continue to Monitor…and Learn.
A Rich Species Mix
With litte necessary narrative, here are some of the tree varieties I encountered.
A nice crop of walnuts beneath a 24-inch diameter black walnut.
A sycamore and an attractive natural forest floor arrangement of peeled sycamore bark, a dropped leaf, and a seed ball.
Sycamore’s peeling bark is one of its distinctive features.
During my frequent Nature interpretive walks, more than half of participants recognize sycamore, provided I offer some hints and prompts.
Carpinus caroliniana is an understory to mid-canopy hardwood that has been a favorite of mine since my undergraduate student days. I learned its common name as musclewood. It resembles the sinewed fibers of a muscled arm. Other common monikers include American hornbeam, blue beech, and ironwood. I photographed two individuals.
I’m a lifetime fancier of tree form oddities and curiosities.
An Attractive Fungal Resident
A twin water oak nestled aged resinous polypore brakets in its fork.
I recorded a 58-second video at the infected twin water oak
Again, death is a big part of life in our forests. The twins are diseased. Mycelia are decomposing and decaying the twin. Death is underway. Although macabre, the truth is that the end begins at the start…for all life on earth.
Answer Me This
Just ten feet from the infected twin, I spotted this galvanized nail in another water oak. Yet another story that I cannot but weakly ponder. Did it mark a survey point? Is it related to transfer of the private property to the city to create the Sanctuary? A scavenger hunt or geocaching site? Pardon the pun, but I am unable to nail the reason!
I will continue finding riddles I cannot solve.
Water Tupelo Swamp
I grew up and attended forestry school far north of the natural range of water tupelo, which may explain my fascination with this forest type. I’ve published at least a dozen Posts about my adventures in this forest type, including several in the Sanctuary. I will offer only an album of photographs without detailed narrative. These buttressed tupelo draw me. The dry season standing water and soil saturation hint at the deeper water ahead in the winter.
You don’t need much beyond my 60-second swamp tour video overview.
Strange tree forms and a haunting aspect dominate.
This is far removed from the upland hardwood forests I wandered in my youth.
I recorded a 48-second video of a massive water tupelo. I estimated its ground-level diameter as 12-14 feet!
I relish the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration!
What is the hairy, grizzled, bearded old man of the tupelo forest!?!?
See my related Post (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/10/27/brief-form-post-47-strange-bearded-tupelo-trees-air-root-mysteries-and-curiosities/) for the answer!
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
Tupelo forests are far removed from the upland hardwood forests I wandered in my youth. (Steve Jones)
Death is a big part of life in our North Alabama forests. (Steve Jones)
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (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/2025/10/IMG_9411.jpg-GSWS-East-Side-10.14.25-Water-Tupelo-Aertion-Roots.webp20161512Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-02-02 12:30:132026-02-02 12:30:13Curiosities, Oddities, and Mysteries In a Sanctuary's Bottomland Hardwood Forest!
Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area, owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), is 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 Wolf Creek and streamside elements of the preserve.
Forest Portal to Wolf Creek
The ecotone where deep forest meets the stream corridor represents a sharp transition from shaded stillness, damp air, and relative silence to gurgling water, bright sunshine, and refreshing breezes.
The towering old growth hardwoods tap streamside soil moisture and fertiity available in the deep alluvial soils. Their streamside branches harvest full sunlight from the opening above the stream channel. The trees have nearly unlimited access the the essential resources necessary for maximum growth: moisture, nutrients, sunlight, and space.
I love the stark visual contrast of closed shade to open stream. The sun found a way to spotlight a leaf-covered patch of forest floor near the stream.
Too often I encounter southern streamside forests supporting thick understory cover of greenbriars, cane, and brush. I appreciate the parklike high forest and sparse ground cover along Wolf reek.
Wolf Creek Proper
The stream channel and canyon floor beckoned and embraced us. I vividly recall taking Matt accompanying me hiking along woodland streams 40 years ago. Along Wolf Creek, I sensed our roles shifting, feeling as though now I accompanied Matt as we circuited the Narrows trail system. I suppose such is the circle of life.
I recorded this 59-second video of Matt and Oakley along Wolf Creek.
The press of family visitation affairs limited the time available at Wolf Creek Narrows. I would loved to have lingered along our transit. Many places were custom made for leaning against a tree streamside, sipping coffee or hot chocolate, nibbling a cookie, or eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Funny, when Matt was young, it was I who endured busy days, time constraints, and the pressures of living. It is now I who has time for a liesurely pace.
I recorded this 59-second video along Wolf Creek.
We paused at the road bridge that marked our turn-around point. The orientation of clouds and sun created contrasting views of Wolf Creek. Bright sunlight highlighted the view upstream (left). Clouds darkened the sky and the stream as I snapped a photo downstream. Nothing in Nature is static. A heartbeat flits by and everything shifts.
We reentered the deep forest, leaving the road and stream corridor to enter what I term a a place of reverence…a streamside cathedral.
Streamside Cathedral
I felt the solemnity and said a prayer for those who loved Lucy Jeanne Chalfant and this special place. Lucy was born just four years after Judy and I entered the world some 100 miles south of here in western Maryland. As I stood silently, I felt Lucy’s presence. She walked on with me for a spell, and she returns as a vapor as I draft this narrative.
Lucy Jeanne Chalfant (1955-1993)
This trail is blessed in loving memory of Lucy, a daughter, sister, and friend. Walk in peace. Find serenity, courage, and wisdom. May the tranquillity of this place abide with her spirit and all who pass here.
I felt the peace, tranquility, and serenity. I pondered Lucy’s story. What took her from her parents, siblings, and friends at the fresh age of 38? I was four at Lucy’s birth, and I write these words 33 years after she ascended to a place of permanent and ultimate renewal. What makes me so blessed as to pass silently through the sylvan refuge where her memory persists? Who among those who loved her return? I can imagine no better place to rest, linger, and remember. Something touched me on the trail…and left a mark.
This special place reminds me of words Robert Service applied in his The Spell of the Yukon:
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.
I recorded this 56-second video of a moment of deeply spiritual reflection at Wolf Creek Narrows.
I wonder, are Lucy’s spirit mists rising within the canopy 120 feet above the forest floor.
As with any forest saunter, I found delights. A speckled sycamore trunk reached into the soaring crown. A hollowed stem opened 30 feet above ground, welcoming whateever critter occupies the sheltering interior.
I recall in my youth grabbing a World Book encyclopedia volume from the shelf and thumbing rendomly through the pages, discovering what treasures lie hidden within, awaiting my curious and eager mind. I’m struck now at age 74 by how similar is my woodland sauntering. I’m thumbing through the forest, gleefully sating my curiously eager mind, still discovering and learning as I wander…and wonder!
Magical Mystery Tour: Ferns and Toads
Sensitive fern (left) and Christmas fern, common here and back in Northern Alabama, greeted me along the way. I shall remain a fern aficionado as long as my stride carries me through dark woods.
Wood fern (below) and New York fern, ubiquitous across my doctoral research forests in NW Pennsylvania and SW New York, is not common in northern Alabama.
An American toad, hiding within a protective rock crevice, likely knows where he will wait out the coming winther.
I am completing this narrative two days before Christmas, a season when the Pennsylvania toad is tucked away, secure from winter predators and Pennsylvania’s piercing Arctic blasts. Madison, Alabama is forecast to experience upper 60s to lower 70s through Christmas weekend, and then drop into the upper teens the following week. What’s an Alabama toad to do?
Thoughts and Reflections
I offer these observations:
I thumb through the forest, gleefully sating my curiously eager mind, still discovering and learning as I wander…and wonder! (Steve Jones)
This trail is blessed in loving memory of Lucy, a daughter, sister, and friend. Walk in peace. Find serenity, courage, and wisdom. (Memorial stone for Lucy Jeanne Chalfant (1955-1993))
Nothing in Nature is static. A heartbeat flits by and everything shifts. (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_9189.jpg-09.22.25-WCN-NA-Upstream.webp18001350Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-01-21 13:03:542026-01-21 13:03:54The Stream at Pennsylvania's Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area
On October 12, 2025, I led a scheduled Land Trust of North Alabama hike on the Rainbolt Trail, Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve in Madison, Alabama. I led 16 participants, ascending ~250 feet to the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail, then to the Balance Rock near the preserve’s summit, and returning to our trailhead. I knew as the leader and interpreter, I would have no time for photos, videos, and detailed personal exploration. Instead, I scouted the route three days in advance, sauntering to snap photographs and record brief videos to include in this Post.
I found multiple delights worthy of pointing out to the hikers. Fragrant sumac, often mistaken for poison ivy or poison oak, grows trailside on the Rainbolt Trail lower slope.
Carolina buckthorn, an understory shrub, is also common along the lower hillside.
Amur honeysuckle, an East-Asian invasive, is likewise common, unfortunately.
Chinquapin oak is among the many oak species populating our uplands.
Always alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, I photographed this rock-kissing chestnut oak with resurrection fern aside one of the many limestone ledges.
Rainbow Mountain is one giant limestone ledge!
I recorded a brief video of a terraced ledge and a shagbark hickory standing sentinel against it.
A still photograph of the shagbark hickory with its intricate plated, shaggy bark.
There is no limit to elements of Nature hidden in plain sight. My goal in leading any Nature Walk is to encourge participants to look, see, understand, and appreciate. The task of interpreting is complicated by a narrow trail, varying pace, and a wide range of participant interest. I try to reach as many as I can and transfer as much as I am able.
Alligator rock, admitedly an imaginative stretch, fascinated everyone.
I had recorded a brief alligator rock video on my scouting visit.
A three-stemmed chinquapin oak served as another point of interest…and learning. You’ll see in the video below that this fern-draped stem is one of three.
I recorded a brief video at above cluster.
A contorted dead Eastern redcedar, flanked by chinquapin oak and green ash seedlings, sported a pleasant cape of resurrection fern.
Viewed from different angles, the cedar with fern presents a lovely natural sculpture.
I never tire of the menagerie of beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration that Nature provides, like this supplejack vine spiraling on a hickory sapling. I hoped that some level of my amazement, surprise, and delight transfered to my fellow hikers. Enthusiasm for Nature can be (should be) a contagion.
Oh, what a treasure is this whitemouth dayflower!
My journey of discovery and joy is not limited to the botanical. The physical environment stirs my soul. I am a closet geologist, fascinated by this layered limestone head wall (view to the South left and North right) at the suumit of the preserve. How many millions of years ago did the source marine creatures die and their sediment collect on a shallow tropical sea floor?
Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!
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Thoughts and Reflections
I offer my observations:
Nothing in Nature is static; every visit reveals a distinct face.
Leading a Nature walk, I try to reach as many as I can and transfer as much as I am able.
Enthusiasm for Nature can be (should be) a contagion.
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
I am pleased to add the 53rd 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.
Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area, owned and managed by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC), is 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. My heart soared at the prospect of returning to an ecosystem shaped by a continental ice sheet just 13 millennia ago. This Post focuses on a recent blowdown within the Natural Area and my reflections on the implications for the affected stand.
Blowdown in the Forest
All forests are in flux. Individual trees germinate, grow, senesce, and die. Forests come and go with disturbance. Wind, ice, fire, insects, and disease affect trees and entire forests. I observe often that death is a big part of life in forested ecosystems and, for that matter, in any ecosystem. Within a discreet portion of the Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area old growth forest, a wind storm (thunderstorm downdraft or microburst; derecho; tornado; or perhaps sustained winter gales) toppled enough mature trees to give the affected stand a unique character.
The fallen trees align parallel to the wind direction, their lower trunks shattered or the entire tree uprooted. Based on the apparent progress of woody debris decay, I estimate that the wind event occurred within the past three years.
The wind eliminated enough overstory canopy to significantly reduce forest floor shading. Already understory woody and herbaceous plants are responding with increased vitality. Nature abhors a vacuum.
A cinnabar bracket fungus has colonized this downed American beech, evidencing that the windthrow-accelerated carbon cycling is in full gear.
Elevated root mounds provide ideal sites for herbaceous exploitation. White ash seedlings are quickly colonizing the forest floor on either side of the downed white ash tree.
Not all of the downed trees resulted from the discreet recent event. These trunks toppled more than five years ago. This hardwood stand, like most of Pennsylvania’s forests, is probably even-aged, regenerating following some catastrophic event, such as timber harvesting, widespread major wind, or fire.
An even-aged forest grows in a predictable manner. The inverse J-shaped diameter distribution is one such formulaic metric. Consider the graphs below as a generalized representation of the growth pattern across time. A young even-aged stand my have thousands of stems per acre. Look above at the many ash seedlings surrounding the single mature fallen ash. Over decades, the stand density (stems per unit area) declines. What may have been thousands becomes hundreds, and ultimately scores and dozens. Average stem diameter of the white ash seedlings (two rows above) is less than an inch. The fallen mother (seed source) tree is perhaps two feet.
The tendancy of an even-aged old growth hardwood forest is to gradually transition naturally to uneven-age. Some of the windthrow openings may be large enough to allow trees, their germination triggered by the recent storm, to emerge into the upper canopy, representing a younger age class. Many of the openings will at least be large enough to allow a sapling or mid-canopy cohort to establish, staging one or more of those individuals to rapidly ascend into the main canopy when a subsequent storm topples a large dominat tree, or a cluster of the original old growth cohort.
The forest is in no hurry. Its evolutionary pathway prepared this very successful admixture of species to flourish and persist when conditions are favorable and respond when change presents opportunities. The ash seedlings are already carpeting the ground now blessed with open canopy sunlight. Although my examinations were only surperficial, I observed that American beech, sugar maple, and white oak are stand components. They are shade tolerant species that can persist for decades under a full canopy. They and others are poised to constitute a greater percentage of the future dominant canopy.
The forest is changing, as are all forests. The wind event accelerated the change. I’d like to monitor it annually over another several decades, but my own life curve continues unabated. Perhaps I can revisit Wolf Creek Narrows another time or two, but there are no guarantees. I am grateful for having made this inaugural visit. I’ve learned something of this slice of Nature near to my son’s home and not too far from where I conducted my forestry doctoral research four decades ago.
I am addicted to special places and everyday Nature. Wolf Creek Narrows Natural Area is one such Special Place.
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:
The forest is in no hurry. Its evolutionary pathway prepared it to flourish and persist when conditions are favorable, and to respond when change presents opportunities to exploit.
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_9139.jpg-09.22.25-WCN-NA-Blowdown.webp17641324Steve Joneshttp://stevejonesgbh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/gbhweblogo.pngSteve Jones2026-01-05 12:02:412026-01-05 12:02:41Brief-Form Post #53: Wolf Creek Narrows Forest Renewal in an Old Growth Northern Hardwood Stand!
