parks Archives - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

Brief Form Post 51: Summiting Evitts Mountain and Reaching the Mason-Dixon Line

December 2, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 51st of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

On July 29, 2025, grandson Jack and I hiked the six-mile Evitts Mountain Homesite Trail in western Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park. See my related photo essay on natural features we explored in our trek from base to summit (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/10/08/hiking-the-homesite-trail-at-rocky-gap-state-park/). I focus this Brief-Form Post on the summit, the view, the Mason-Dixon line, and the survey benchmark at the summit boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania.

A high school senior, Jack is a history enthusiast. He understood the significance of standing at the survey monument 259 years after Charles Mason, a mathematician and astronomer, and Jeremiah Dixon, a surveyor, hacked and traipsed their meticulous progress across the frontier wilderness. Both men were members of the Royal Society, a British learned society formed to promote excellence in science. The survey set out to resolve the long-standing (since 1681) disputed boundaries of the overlapping land grants of the Penns, proprietors of Pennsylvania, and the Calverts proprietors of Maryland.

A string of power transmission towers parallels the line just to the north of the monument. Utility maintenance crews control ROW vegetation, opening a vist to the east (left) and west (right). Note on the westerly view that the power line extends across the ridges and beyond. The survey party powered (man and horse power) through raw untrammeled forest

In pre-Civil War days, the line separated slave states to the south and free-soil states to the north.

Here is my 60-second video atop Evitts Mountain

Evitt’s summit stands at ~2,200 feet, just 200 feet shy of Alabama’s highest point, Mount Cheaha. This ridge and valley landscape is my birth home terrain. I explored the Nature of this region from my earliest memories…hiking, camping, hunting, picnicing, and fishing. I hope that Jack feels some of the magic.

I know he appreciated our venture. I asked him to record and narrate a brief summit video.

Jack is the young one to the left!

I recorded a 39-second video of the survey monument.

Having grown up in Cumberland, Maryland, just 5-7 miles from the Pennsylvania line, I rekindled a strong homing emotion at the monument. Memories flooded back to hikes and outings with Dad. I hope that Jack stores, within reach, recollections of his Mason-Dixon venture with Pap.

As a hopeless, lifetime Nature enthusiast, I must end this essay with two Nature observations. Great mullein stood in full flower and velvet-leafed splendor at the power line.

A pair of two-striped grasshoppers found reason to celebrate the midday glory atop Evitts Mountain, atop a great mullein leaf, and just plain atop!

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements.

Granted, the Central Appalachians pale in comparison to even the Great Smokies or New Hampshire’s Presidential Range. Yet to a 74-year-old Nature enthusiast who in the 26 months preceding our hike, endured triple bypass surgery, two total knee replacements, bilateral inguinal hernia repair, and kidney stone blasting, I cherished trekking 1,100 feet to Evitts’ summit and relished our rest at he Mason-Dixon monument, serving as a healing and recovery benchmark.

We paused at the monument. I heard (not literally) the echoes of Mason and Dixon as they memorialized yet another ridgetop survey monument. I realized and included in Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits this simple reflection:

We do not stand apart from Nature, but are one with it!

Nature’s special treats await our discovery, our understanding, and our interpretation!

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Brief Form Post #49: Lessons and Observations from a Maryland Mountain Hardwood Forest Fire

November 17, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 49th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

On July 29, 2025, my grandson, Jack (then 17), and I hiked the Evitts Mountain Homestead Trail at Western Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park, ascending 1,100 feet to the summit of Evitts Mountain, a six-mile round trip. A mile from the parking area, an extensive burned area rose uphill on the east side of the mountain. The trail, an old jeep road, obviously served as an effective fire break. I estimated that the fire burned within the past three years, running hot enough to kill at least half of the upland hardwood (oak-hickory) main canopy trees and all of the understory trees and shrubs.

A hardwood forest fire of this intensity occurs only under special circumstances, generally a very windy spring day after forest ground surface fuel has dried. One may think intuitively that autumn’s leaf litter would be more likely to burn. High winds with low humidity occur more often in the spring. Autumn seldom brings the intense dry winds that follow a late spring cold front. By mid to late April in these Central Appalachian forests, the prior year’s leaf litter and fine fuels cure rapidly. In late April of 2016, such a day in nearby west-central Pennsylvania saw nearly 10,000 acres of hardwood forest burn, the largest Pennsylvania forest conflagration in 26 years.

I imagined such a day triggering the fire leaving the evidence I observed. The fire left an impression of a wildfire racing up the slope consuming understory and killing overstory trees, a fire more intense than I would expect from a prescribed fire.

However, my online search discovered a November 7, 2022, announcement (Cumberland Times-news.com) of a planned 90-acre prescribed fire in the park on the east slope of Evitts Mountain, the location where I snapped these photographs and recorded the video. Excerpts from the notice:

Controlled burns for forest and wildlife habitat management are always conducted with safety as the top priority. Burn staff are trained practitioners who monitor the weather leading up to and during a burn to ensure the fire remains at the desired intensity and smoke is carried up and away from roads and homes. If the required conditions for temperature, humidity, moisture levels, cloud cover, and wind are not met or they unexpectedly change, the burn will be postponed.

Foresters and ecologists recognize that fire is a critical ecological process for many environments, including the typical Appalachian forests of oaks, hickories and pines that cover most of western Maryland. Since the 1930’s however, a lack of fire has unintentionally harmed forest health.

The controlled burn at Rocky Gap State Park is being conducted to help a variety of fire-adapted native tree and plant species, including table mountain pine (which needs fire to regenerate), pitch pine, oak trees, blueberries, huckleberries, and many native wildflowers. A more open forest will also improve habitat for birds, bats, and other animals, while also making it harder for destructive pests like pine beetles to travel between trees.

Another significant benefit of controlled burns is the reduction of dry wood and organic matter on the forest floor that build up over time, which then reduces the likelihood and severity of dangerous wildfires.

Part of the controlled burn will also be conducted through the use of an ignition drone, which allows a drone operator to drop incendiary devices on the interior of the burn site. This not only results in a more precise ignition pattern, but also reduces the need for crew members to traverse difficult terrain near the active burn.

Unfortunately, I found no online commentary or YouTube videos of the fire or its results. Clearly, I view the burn rationale and intent as well-reasoned. The results, a full two growing seasons after the November 2022, prescribed fire, suggest that the burn exceeded the planned level of intensity. Too many main canopy oaks succumbed. Survivors suffered basal scarring that will allow heart rot to infect.

I’d like to see an official assessment of the burn. How do results compare to purpose and expectations?

I recorded this 58-second video of the burn area above the trail.

Midway through the third growing season after the burn, some areas (left) remain mostly barren of regrowth. Other areas, like the two photos above the video and the image at right show robust understory resurgence, including tree regeneration.

The stand beyond Jack shows the desired intact overstory and vigorous regeneration.

At my request, Jack ascended 75 feet above the trail to capture these images of the uphill side of a sawlog-size chestnut oak. Because leaf litter and fine fuels aggregate on the uphill side of trees, the fire burned hotter in the concentrated debris, killing the cambium. Witness the mushrooms from decay fungi already infecting the tree that is otherwise undamaged.

A closeup of the colony of decay fungi mushrooms.

We found a number of trees below the road that showed deep decay and hollowing of oak trees similarly scarred on their upslope side from a fire decades earlier.

Controlled fire can be a valuable tool for forest management:

Foresters and ecologists recognize that fire is a critical ecological process for many environments, including the typical Appalachian forests of oaks, hickories and pines that cover most of western Maryland. Since the 1930’s however, a lack of fire has unintentionally harmed forest health. [From the online announcement}

During my 12 years with Union Camp Corporation (1973-1985), I oversaw prescribed burning on tens of thousands of acres, including a single day in Alabama when we ignited 4,300 acres, intentionally (by aerial ignition) and under control. Like all tools, the use of fire requires careful planning, responsible and informed implementation, and post-treatment assessment and learning. Again, I would like to see the review of this particular prescribed fire.

I will not pass judgement. I wasn’t there. I refuse to criticize. I can only posit that the result does not appear to have yielded what was intended.

All of us who have accomplished much, have missed our mark, fallen short, or failed from time to time. Always, our intentions were sound:

A good intention, with a bad approach, often leads to a poor result. (Thomas A. Edison)

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. (Samuel Johnson)

Over my career, I missed 9,000 shots; I was on the losing side of nearly 300 games; on 26 occasions when my teammates entrusted me to take the last minute winning shot, I missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again, and that’s why I succeeded. (Michael Jordan)

I hope the various agency planners and pratitioners learned from the November 2022 prescribed fire.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. Thomas Edison implored that good intentions must be matched with a good approach. Russell Stevens focused his related admonition to prescribed burning:

Prescribed fire is a process and should be well planned to safely accomplish desired goals. (Noble Research Institute)

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

Teacher-Educator Adventures in Alabama State Parks Workshop Lakeside at Joe Wheeler State Park!

November 12, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On August 9, 2025, I assisted with the delivery of a Teacher-Educator Adventures in Alabama State Parks Workshop at Joe Wheeler State Park. Funded by a grant from the Caring Foundation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the workshop introduced the 23 participants to the Nature of the park face-to-face. They engaged with expert naturalists, experienced field-based learning, and received program curricula, lesson plans, and teaching kits. My role was simple: offering opening words of inspiration and lunchtime reflections on Aldo Leopold, a pre-eminent conservation scholar of the twentieth century.

A recently painted water tower welcomed visitors to Joe Wheeler State Park.

Just a 50-minute drive from my Madison, Alabama residence, the park welcomes me at least once every season. I enthusiastically agreed to assist with the Saturday workshop.

Setting

We gathered at the Day Use Area pavilion along Lake Wheeler, enjoying fair skies and a summer breeze. Alabama State Parks Chief Naturalist, Renee Rainey, welcomed participants and introduced speakers and staff.

Renee is a tireless champion of Nature education and interpretation.

Words of Inspiration

Asked to offer words of inspiration, I emphasized that Nature education is a process of outdoor immersion, discovery, illumination, inspiration, and encouragement. I reflected on the dual, and seeming contradictory, emotions I felt when I first encountered a full profile view of Alaska’s Mount Denali (McKinley) from the nearby, and much lesser, Mount Quigley in 2005. Simultaneously, the feelings of absolute humility and overwhelming inspiration brought me to tears…and nearly to my knees. The gleaming towering white mountain ediface reached high above me, just 20 miles south of where I stood. Breathless, I knew that nothing in my life matched its glory…its significance…its eminence…its symbol of Creation and God. Countering the weight of Humility, its Inspiration lifted me…buoyed me…reminded me what John Muir knew all along:

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

I counseled that their role as educators requires an approach steeled in humility and inspiration. Humilty in recognizing that they are changing the world through each young person they reach, educate, and encourage.

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. (Robert Louis Stevenson)

And Inspiration in accepting that the differences they make can last a lifetime and beyond…permanent, resilient, and immutable, like Denali Mountain.

Pulitzer Prize novelist and essayist Louis Bromfield wrote in his non-fiction Pleasant Valley of his life’s work rehabilitating his old worn out Ohio Farm:

The adventure at Malabar is by no means finished…The land came to us out of eternity and when the youngest of us associated with it dies, it will still be here. The best we can hope to do is to leave the mark of our fleeting existence upon it, to die knowing that we have changed a small corner of this earth for the better by wisdom, knowledge, and hard work. (Louis Bromfield (1896-1956)

Whether shaping Malabar Farm….or an eager sixth grader…wisdom, knowedge, and hard work, fueled by passion, and laced with humility and inspiration, carry the day.

What a great pleasure and privilege to engage with enthusiastic educators.

Setting the Stage

Environmental Educator and Main Guest for the workshop, Jimmy Stiles, introduced Dr. Scott Duncans’s Southern Wonder: Alabama’s Surprising Biodiversity. My intent is not to reiterate workshop content. Instead, I want to give you a feel for the major themes and a sense of the exquisite setting.

Why should we focus on our state’s biodiversity? First and foremost, Albert Einstein, instructed us:

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

We cannot truly know our state and teach environmental education without understanding our location, climate, geology, geography, and surrounding ecosystems. Biodiversity is interwoven with all those factors.

The ever-present lake served as backdrop for the entire day.

Jimmy presented how the ice age that ended 13,000 years ago influenced Alabama’s present-day biodiversity (my 60-second video).

Jimmy and NW District Naturalist Amber Coger presented where we are, the Highland Rim, emphasizing the importance in knowing our location and context.

Fishing as a Learning Exercise

Obviously, Lake Wheeler and its associated ecosystem is a major component of where they are. Joe Wheeler State Park Naturalist, Jennings Earnest, oriented the teachers to one of the lake’s residents, its ubiquitous sunfish. For some participants, this was their first fishing experience. Excitement ran high!

Here’s my 60-second video of Jennings readying the educators to fish.

Exemplifying a critical characterization of teaching, Jennings exudes passion and enthusiasm

He admits that he has the best job on the planet!

I recorded this 57-second video capturing the moment when one of the teachers landed a sunfish.

Not a trophy, but a successful teachable moment.

The day could not have been better. These moments along the lake will accompany participants into their fall classrooms and will infuse the spirit and passion of their teaching.

Often I find that others who preceded me constructed verbiage long ago far superior to any utterances I might make to express timeless wisdom. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was among them.

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

I believe our workshop instructors planted seeds that will multiply manifold times through the students they touch.

Meeting Animal Friends

Again, I offer some photos with narrative unecessary: box turtle and American aligator.

Black kingsnake.

I recorded this 46-second creature-teacher video

Knowing our setting and introducing some of our common animal neighbors impressed participants.

Measuring Vegetative Cover

Jimmy conducted an exercise adding an element of quantifying elements of our surroundings, like measuring vegetative cover in field and forest edge.

I recorded a 56-second video of measuring vegetative cover.

I remember summer days prescribed burning, marking and cruising timber, laying out roads, and other field tasks during my 12 years practicing industrial forestry…hard demanding days of exertion, sweating, challenge, and near exhaustion. And, too, younger days! As a 74-year-old retiree, such days would be more than I can handle. The state park workshop required no such toil. Total relaxation, at least physically. A bit of intellectual engagement, which knows no limit to date, just some continuous tuning by teaching, speaking, writing, and woods-sauntering!

Steve’s Shoreline Ramble

I explored during sessions, wandering (and wondering) along the lakeshore. As I’m drafting this narrative, some Leonard Da Vinci wisdom emerged from my mental recesses:

It’s not enough that you believe what you see. You must also understand what you see.

I regret not including that wisdom in my lunchtime message. The workshop’s core theme is opening the educators’ eyes to understanding the Nature around them. Empowering them to see, appreciate, and understand all that lies hidden in plain sight, like the magnificent eastern tiger swallowtail sipping nectar from a buttonbush.

Or the clouded skipper on a buttonbush nearby.

Buttonbush seedpods give the plant its moniker.

I added each participant to the distribution for my weekly photo essays. I hope at least a few find time to read this edition. I know I learned as much as they did. I admire their eagerness to learn and I sensed their desire to deliberately incorporate Nature into the fabric of teaching.

I am privileged to occasionally interact with educators committed to learn from and teach in accord with Nature.

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson

I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness. John Muir

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.

I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Nature doesn’t steal time, it amplifies it. (Richard Louv)
I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
Every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by Nature. (Steve Jones)

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

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

Nature Attractions within Reach of Leighton, a Stop on Alabama’s Singing River Trail!

October 15, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Note: I am flagging this photo essay as one of a sub-series that introduces North Alabama’s emerging Singing River Trail:

A 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.

As a designated Ambassador to the Singing River Trail, I occasionally visit a destination along the route to explore and highlight worthy Nature attractions. I visited historic Leighton, initially known as Crossroads due to its strategic location at the intersection of two early stagecoach roads in Colbert County, on August 21, 2025. I distilled my tour, hosted by Mayor Derick Silcox to two Posts:

The Town: A One Square Mile Whistle Stop on the Singing River Trail (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/10/01/leighton-alabama-a-one-square-mile-whistle-stop-on-the-singing-river-trail/)
Leighton, AL: Nature Attractions within Reach of The Town (This Post)

I focus this Post on Nature Attractions within Reach (15 minutes drive) of The Town.

Nature Attractions within Reach of Leighton

Leighton is a lovely crossroads community approximately seven miles south of Wilson Lake on the Tennessee River, and 55 miles W/SW of my residence. The internet abounds with recreational and natural amentities associated with TVA’s necklace of impoundments along the river. Wilson Lake lies just downstream from Wheeler Lake and Joe Wheeler State Park, about which I’ve published dozens of these weekly photo essays.

When we retired to Madison in northern Alabama seven years ago (our daughter and her family live in Madison), I wondered whether I would find the natural beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration that I would require to sate my Nature passion through my post-employment years. I assure you, supplemented by occasional trips out of state/country, I’ve found this region blessed by abundant forests, waters, meadows, swamps, glades, and both natural and human history attractions. I’ll highlight such attractions Derick introduced to me in the Leighton vicinity.

LaGrange Cemetery

We visited LaGrange Cemetery, one such site, just eight miles from Leighton.

I’ve loved reading Robert Service since residing in Alaska (2004-2008). Service, a Brit who spent time in the Yukon during turn-of-the-century gold rush days 125 years ago, wrote beautiful poetry and ballads of his time in the Far North, including The Spell of The Yukon. Two lines from The Spell came to mind as we had only a few minutes to experience the cemetery. I wanted to peruse (i.e. study deeply) the cemetery…its headstones, the large trees populating it, and the hills and wildlands enveloping it. Aptly, Service declared:

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

And I want to go back–and I will,

No, Colbert County is not the great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder, yet it does have special places, like the cemetery, with beauty that thrills me with wonder, and stillness that fills me with peace.

I’ll return to the cemetery when cooler weather persists and mosquitoes, ticks, and chiggers take leave.

Every gravesite tells a story, some dating back to a birth when our USA was just a child and this rural, raw land was still wild frontier.

I captured a few images, but each monument and gravestone merits study and contemplation. Importantly, for this old forester, I yearned to know the trees and shrubs, and wander the surrounding forests. Like the graves and tombs, each tree, shrub, and hollow has a story to tell.

Some of the headstones evoke feelings that are best absorbed in quiet, unhurried contemplative solitude. This monument, a mournful tree carved on its face, two artificial roses left at its base, begs such deep reflection. Mary J, wife of Hugh Pennick, lived just 24 years, departing her earthly life 140 years ago. The inscription, which if had sat long enough, would have brought misty eyes: Though lost to sight: to memory dear. I view it through my lens at age 74 and from a marriage now extending through 53 years. I wanteed to share some quiet time with Mary J. The words and the forested hilltop setting stirred emotions.

The surrounding forest tried its best to draw me in, urging me to come back…and I will!

Again, each tree has a story, like this dogwood. Who planted it and when? Who does it memorialize? A father; a mother; a child; a grandparent; a friend?

When Judy and I lived in west-central Ohio, our son-in-law’s geneology investigation revealed that my maternal great, great, great, great, great grandfather, a Revolutionary War Veteran, was buried just two miles from our residence. Standing before his tombstone with its grand spreading oak tree, touched me deeply. In some ways, he yet lives in me, some 180 years after his death. Einstein understood:

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.

I recognize and accept that am but fading leaves on that ancient familial tree of life.

LaGrange College and West Point of the South

The Colbert County Tourism website is an excellent resource for historic information about the Site Park, Pioneer Village, and Antebellum Cemetery. Having served 35 years at nine universities, I have a keen interest in LaGrange College and its successors. The website paints a compelling story:

In the early 1820’s, LaGrange was established on the crest of a mountain near Leighton, AL with about 400 inhabitants. In the late 1820s, the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church solicited proposals for a site and subscription of $10,000. On December 4, 1828, the Methodist Church accepted the LaGrange proposition. Later that month, the Mississippi Conference joined in the efforts to establish a college. Representatives from the two conferences met at LaGrange on January 10, 1829, and selected a site for the college. On January 11, 1830, “LaGrange College” opened with an enrollment of 70 students and became the first state chartered college in Alabama.

The enrollment peaked at 139 in 1845. Dr. Richard H. Rivers became president in 1854, when the college faced serious financial
problems. In response to an offer of better support, Rivers moved the college to Florence, Alabama in January 1855. Over 150 graduates
received A.B. degrees during its 25-year history. The establishment of LaGrange College in 1830 might well be considered the birth of
collegiate education in Alabama. The move was controversial, some students and faculty remained on the old campus, and the Florence
institution was denied permission to use the name of LaGrange College. It was chartered as Florence Wesleyan University on February 14, 1856, and is known today as the University of North Alabama.

Colleges and universities have played a major role in my life, career, and retirement. I felt no small measure of nostalgia standing on the hilltop reflecting on an institution establed there 195 years ago and operating more or less through today as UNA.

The view is north across the Tennessee Valey to Leighton and beyond to Florence. From the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where I served as Chancellor (CEO) from 2004 to 2008, a clear day provided a view of 20,310 foot Mt. Denali (McKinley), North America’s highest peak. The overlook is perhaps 750 feet above sea level, hardly on the crest of a mountain, yet the view is pleasant and rewarding, providing a sense of the current landscape mosaic of forest and farmland.

From the same website:

After LaGrange College moved to Florence in January 1855, a group of LaGrange citizens organized a college in the vacant buildings under the old name. Rev. Felix Johnson was elected president. To increase the patronage, a military feature was introduced in 1857. Major J.W. Robertson became superintendent and classes were suspended while a third major building was erected for the cadets. The college reopened in February 1858, as LaGrange College and Military Academy. The new institution’s financial situation was dismal until the State of Alabama provided military equipment and scholarships. The Academy soon flourished and became known as the “West Point of the South.” In 1860, the name was changed to LaGrange Military Academy. By 1861, the enrollment was almost 200 cadets. During its existence, 259 cadets from nine states attended the Academy.

In 1861, many LaGrange cadets left to join the Confederate Army. Consequently, the Academy was forced to suspend classes on March 1, 1862. Only two cadets had graduated. Major Robertson was authorized to organize the 35th Alabama Infantry Regiment, C.S.A.
He was elected colonel and the remaining cadets formed part of one company. The regiment was mustered into the Confederate Army on March 12, 1862, for three years. On April 28, 1863, the 10th Missouri Calvary of the Union Army, known as the “Destroying Angels,” commanded by Col. Florence M. Comyn, burned the Military Academy, the nearby La Fayette Female Academy, many businesses, and homes. The village of LaGrange dwindled away. In 1995, LaGrange Park was transferred from the Alabama Historical Commission to the
LaGrange Living Historical Association. Thereafter, the site of Alabama’s first chartered college was enhanced and stands today as a historical landmark.

The monument and sign memorialize the College and Military Academy.

The Site Park restoration comprises mid-19th century buildings relocated to the site, along with buildings constructed in period style.

We chose a perfect summer afternoon to visit the hilltop. A picture-perfect sky; comfortable humidity; tolerable temperature. Although I was not able to engage in my more typical Nature wanderings, I took palpable joy in breathing fresh air while peering into the countryside wildness within sight.

The sign reads: LaGrange Welcome Center, Open Sundays 1-4 pm or by Appointments (446-9324).

While not a dedicated imbiber, I do appreciate a convivial sip (well, maybe not just a sip) of purely organic spirits prepared from all natural ingredients, locally produced. The Dawson Distillery Moonshine Headquarters, Leighton, AL, distills its special essence along the access road to the Park Site and LaGrange Cemetery. Alas, my only disappointment from my visit with Derick, the distillery was closed. I was ready and poised enthusiastically to invest in the Leighton community economic enterprise. Another compelling reason to return!

Had it not been for my recruitment to the exalted rank of SRT Ambassador, I may have never visited this small town Alabama crossroads and its area Nature attractions. I am sure that the SRT will eventually provide mulitple such compelling whistle stops along its route.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

A key component of understanding and enjoying Nature is getting into the out there. (Steve Jones)
Curiosity rewards Nature enthusiasts who explore whistle stops along and near the SRT! (Steve Jones)
There’s a land–oh, it beckons and beckons; And I want to go back–and I will. (Robert Service)

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

The Nature of the Singing River Trail

The Singing River Trail will be a 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.

The trail will prominently feature many off-shoots of the core trail. Leighton, Alabama is representative of the unique whistle stops and special places along the trail. My hope is that SRT venturers can search these Great Blue Heron Posts to better understand the Nature of our region.

As a lifelong devotee of hiking/sauntering, running, biking, and Nature exploration, I envision multiple other Great Blue Heron weekly photo essays focused on The Nature of the Singing River Trail. I will incorporate individual essays into my routine Posts that total approximately 450 to-date (archived and accessible at: https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/). I offer these Mooresville Cemetery related photo essays as an orientation to the new component series.

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

The Nature of the Singing River Trail

The Singing River Trail will be a 200+ mile greenway system that strengthens regional bonds and creates new health and wellness, educational, economic, tourism, and entrepreneurial opportunities for the people and communities of North Alabama.

The trail will prominently feature many off-shoots of the core trail. The Richard Martin Trail is an 11-mile (22 out and back) route segment reaching from Athens to the Tennessee line. My hope is that SRT venturers can search these Great Blue Heron Posts to better understand the Nature of our region. Here is my May 2022 Post on the Richard Martin Rails to Trails: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2022/06/07/early-summer-on-the-richard-martin-rails-to-trail/

As a lifelong devotee of hiking/sauntering, running, biking, and Nature exploration, I envision another Great Blue Heron weekly photo essay series focused on The Nature of the Singing River Trail. I will incorporate individual essays into my routine Posts that total approximately 450 to-date (archived and accessible at: https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/). I offer these Mooresville Cemetery related photo essays as an orientation to the new component series.

Hiking the Homesite Trail at Rocky Gap State Park

October 8, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On July 29, 2025, my older Alabama grandson, Jack (17), and I hiked the Evitts Homestead Trail on Maryland’s Rocky Gap State Park. We ascended 1,100 feet from Lake Habeeb to Evitts’ 2,200-foot summit. I wanted to share the magic of the place with Jack and rekindle my aging memories. Still in high school, I had explored Rocky Gap Canyon and Evitts Mountain before authorities created the state park and built the dam. We discovered the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe of Nature hidden in plain sight along the trail.

Those youthful excursions are now two generations past. I was about 17; Jack’s age. He is my daughter’s son. Time marches on at 24 hours per day, just as it did 57 years ago, yet its relative pace accelerates. I heard my maternal grandmother say more than once, “The older I get, the faster time passes.” I thought she was old and confused; I now recognize her wisdom.

Ascending the Trail: Moss, Ferns, and Fungi

I recognize another truism: the older I get the more challenging trails become. I hiked this trail five years ago, prior to a series of surgeries: shoulder replacement; triple bypass; bilateral inguinal hernia repair; two total knee replacements; and kidney stone blasting. Add in a minor stroke. It’s no surprise that my recent hike proved tougher. I view summitting Evitts as a major recovery benchmark…and a family milestone. This time next year, Jack will have departed for college and a demanding and rewarding life journey. I pray that he carries the memory of his Evitts hike with Pap into a bright and promising future.

The trail is an old jeep path, rising at a steady rate. I noticed greater erosion and rutting since my 2020 ascent. Park crews are not controlling surface water flow. Instead, runoff is in control, seeking and finding a route with no concern for trail integrity. I saw no recent evidence of constructed water bars, broad-based dips, or other measures to usher overland flow from the trail. Without immediate attention, the trail will degrade beyond easy repair. Ongoing road maintenance cannot be ignored.

Okay, so much for critiquing park trails and their management. Across my decades of wandering eastern forests, moss is ubiquitous. Pincushion moss embraces tree bases and often covers rocks (right).

This patch of broom forkmoss welcomed the dappled sunshine penetrating the forest canopy. An online dictionary defines moss as a small flowerless green plant that lacks true roots, growing in damp habitats and reproducing by means of spores released from stalked capsules.

Ample rain during the early summer stimulated prodigous mushroom growth. Mushrooms are the reproductive (spore-producing) structures of common fungi in our eastern foressts. Fungi include tree disease organisms, decomposers, and mycorhizza. Two-colored bolete is a beautiful polypore mycorhizzal fungus, this one with a pink/red umbrella and a smooth cream/yellow undersurface. Although some boletes are choice edibles, I haven’t achieved a necessary level of confidence in distinguishing among the group members. This bolete is symbiotically engaged with oak species.

A distinctly polypore underside.

I like the moniker of yellow American blusher, another mycorhizzal fungus associated with oak. this one is gilled. Mushrooms of the Southeast offers an explanation of what prevents me from expanding my culinary foraging to species about which I am not 100 percent certain:

In North America Amanita rubescens has historically been considered edible and relatively distinctive; however, since it is related to some of the most toxic mushrooms, we cannot recommend eating it.

Life in our eastern upland hardwood forests is amazingly complex.

Yellowing rosy ruella, or brittlegills, is a gilled Russula mycorhizza fungus, common in hardwood forests. Considered edible but seldom occurs in numbers sufficient to collect.

iNaturalist identified these tiny golden mushrooms as clubs and corals, genus Clavulinopsis. Mushrooms of the Southeast steered me to golden fairy club, C. laeticolor, but the book image differed somewhat from my photographs. One reference declared this fungus a mycorhizza; another said that it’s a forest litter decomposer.

I am a mushroom novice. My fascination with their unique kingdom of life grows with each woodland Nature excursion, where I learn how little I know.

White-pored chicken-of-the-woods (or sulphur shelf) is a decay fungus at home on both living trees, primarily oak, or dead individuals of the same host group. The speices is a choice edible when young and tender, like this one growing at the trail edge.

Were I wandering closer to home other than on a state park, where the rule is to take only what you bring, I would have made several meals from this perfect specimen! I wondered how many more flourished within 100 feet of our six-mile circuit.

Umbilicaria mammulata, smooth rock tripe, is among the largest lichens in the world. The species forms large sheets (rarely, up to 2′ across), like aged curling leather sheets, on cliffs and boulders. This patch is on a sandstone boulder. The sheets are attached at only a single point (hence the genus Umbilicaria). They are reddish- or grayish-brown on top, and velvety black below.

From an online source regarding edibility:

An hour of boiling is said to convert this leather-like lichen into an edible source of protein, palatable by itself or when added to soup or stews. Soak for 2-3 hours first to remove acids that, while not dangerous, may send you running to the bathroom in a hurry. Even after all this soaking and boiling, you’d better be good and hungry—many say it still tastes like shoe leather.

I will not be adding this species to my foraging list!

I recall moist forests in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Hampshire, all former woodlands haunts where I’ve rambled, covered with common bracken fern. I noticed only this single specimen.

Our journey covered the distance with as much haste as I could muster. I would do it again on a mid-60s-degree October day, devoting hours to extensive study and exploration. Drafting this narrative reminds me to saunter future wanderings with greater attention to full discovery, seeking more than a surficial inventory of what lay hidden in plain sight.

Ascending the Trail: Turtles, Millipedes, Invasive Plants, and Sign-Eating Tree!

An eastern box turtle hurried across the trail. Yes, he moved quickly, not at an exagerated turtle’s pace.

I captured his rapid gate in this 21-second video.

An American giant millipede compelled us to take a closer look.

A dense growth of mile-a-mintute-vine infesting at least an acre of forest, stopped me cold.

A Penn State Cooperative Extension online resource tells the tale of this aggressive invasive:

Mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata) is a trailing vine with barbed stems and triangular leaves. In contrast to other invasive vines, mile-a-minute is an herbaceous annual, meaning it dies each fall and new plants grow from germinating seeds in the spring. Originally from India and East Asia, this species was first reported in York County, Pennsylvania, in the 1930s in contaminated nursery soil. Mile-a-minute is listed as a “Class B” noxious weed by the State of Pennsylvania, a designation that restricts sale and acknowledges a widespread infestation that cannot feasibly be eradicated. The dense foliage of this invasive weed blankets and slowly suffocates native vegetation, making it extremely destructive and persistent despite being an annual plant.

I wondered whether park managers are aware of this infestation. When we returned to the Lake Habeeb dam I told a maintenance worker of our discovery. He seemed concerned. Enough to take action?

I always remain alert for tree form oddities and curiosities, including sign-consuming black cherry trees!

I love the Central Appalachian forests of my childhood and early professional days. Rocky Gap State Park drew memories, warm and fuzzy, from more than five decades ago. At age 74, I can say with confidence and satisfaction that those were the good old days…and that blessedly these, too, are the good old days. Life was…and is…good!

Thoughts and Reflections

I revisited my October 10/15/20 post from the prior Evitts Mountain ascent: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/10/15/a-tough-hike-and-deep-reward-at-rocky-gap-state-park-in-western-maryland/

I offered three lessons from my late September, 2020, solitary trek:

The extraordinary Nature of place is indelibly written in my head, heart, mind, body, and soul. I am a creature and product of place… place defined by Nature.
Countless days in Nature define my life across these 69 years — I look, see, and feel Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe… and find immeasurable lift.
My connection to Nature is unmistakably SACRED!

Today, five years later, I would modify only minimally: My connection (across these 74 years) to Nature (and Family) is unmistakably SACRED!

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

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

Outdoor Alabama Adventures Teacher Workshop at DeSoto State Park

August 6, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On Saturday, July 12, 2025, I assisted with the Alabama State Parks Outdoor Alabama Adventures Education Workshop at DeSoto State Park, attended by 25 teachers and educators. Funded by BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama, the program team will present the full-day program at five state parks from June 17 to August 9. I am privileged to participate here at DeSoto and on August 9, at Joe Wheeler. The program team and participating teacher-educators brought passion, knowledge, and commitment to the task and joy of learning. Join me on a virtual journey with the participants. I offer my limited narration, supplemented by quotes from noted conservationists and Nature educators.

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

The workshop flyer promised Teaching Beyond the Walls: Alabama Ecology in Action… You’ll gain hands-on experience and practical tools to bring outdoor learning into your classroom…and transport your classroom into the great outdoors.

I recorded a 42-second video during Jimmy Stiles’ introductory indoor session

Even the snake paid rapt attention to Jimmy, a real snake charmer!

Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it. (Louv)

DeSoto State Park Naturalist, Brittney Hughes, introduced us to the first of several sandstone glades we would visit.

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

Northeast Alabama District Naturalist, Eric Cline, led us through a mountain laurel thicket. I recorded this 57-second video in the laurel.

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

Life and death are inseparable co-conspirators in our vibrant forests, where the carbon cycle encompasses the emergence of new life and the decomposition of old. The Coker’s amanita mushroom is one of the many forest components hiding in plain site on the forest floor.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious. (Einstein)

Whether a white mushroom or a glossy-green galax plant, Nature’s mysteries and gems reach out to those of us with passion for learning more, and spreading the word of informed and responsible Earth stewardship.

In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks. (Muir)

Nature understanding and enjoyment depend upon curious minds and deep imagination. Reflection (both optical and mental) amplifies the value of teaching and learning outdoors,

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. (Einstein)

This 40-second video takes us to the sandstone ledge we explored on our morning foray.

A life without contact with nature is not worth living. (Louv)

I marvel at Nature’s mysteries. I suppose that equations may exist quantifying the mechanisms at work creating such ledge shelters. Regardless, I am grateful for their cool and dry shade.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike. (Muir)

We ascended from the dark ledge shelter to the baking glade overlooking the canyon.

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

I recorded this 48-second video at the canyon rim sandstone glade

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

Sandstone glades are harsh, sun-baked, and shallow-soiled. Some mosses, lichens, and diminuitive plants thrive. Virginia pine is not one of those specialized plants, yet this one germinated in a sandstone crevice and valiantly clings to life, persisting against all odds.

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

Eager learners and Nature enthusiasts, bare rock, surrounding trees, and a fair-summer sky open minds, hearts, souls, and spirit to embrace the World and its infinite storm of beauty.

A river or stream is a cycle of energy from sun to plants to insects to fish. It is a continuum broken only by humans. (Aldo Leopold)

We dropped from the canyom rim to the stream.

Environment-based education produces student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math; improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and develops skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making. (Louv)

I recorded this 60-second video on the floor of the canyon.

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift. (Einstein)

I contrast the sublime afternoon in the Little River Canyon to the pounding turbulence of the surging river at flood. Someone may ask, “What’s it like on the canyon floor?” Like everything and place in Nature, it depends!

I view Nature through lenses, my own, and the filters of others like Muir, Einstein, da Vinci, Louv, Leopold, and Sobel. When I formulate a profound insight and express its sagacity in prose, I discover that others have birthed the muse…and stated it far more eloquently and succinctly than I.

What induces you, oh man, to depart from your home in town, to leave parents and friends, and go to the countryside over mountains and valleys, if it is not for the beauty of the world of nature? (da Vinci)

July 24, 2025 Note: I’m reading Landon Y. Jones’ The Essential Lewis and Clark, a condensed collection of the Captains’ journal entries from their Journey of Discovery. Fifteen months into their quest (August 18, 1805), Meriwether Lewis wrote:

This day I completed my 31st year, and I conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little, indeed, to further the hapiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now sorely feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. But since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought, and resolve in future, to redouble my exertions and at least endeavor to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestowed on me; or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself.

I recently completed my 74th year in this sublunary world. I often reflect, with no small degree of melancholy, that I have as yet done but little, very little, indeed. However, I take solace from Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894):

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

I am a sower of seeds. Perhaps one or two will take root.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.

I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. (David Sobel)
Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Nature education is a process of discovery, illumination, inspiration, and encouragement. (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: “©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

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

Legacy Environmental Education Workshop at Monte Sano State Park

July 23, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Invited by Renee Raney, Alabama State Parks Director of Interpretation and Education, I assisted in conducting a daylong (June 13, 2025) Legacy Environmental Education workshop for 25 educators at Monte Sano State Park. As a founding Alabama State Parks Foundation Board member, I tirelessly support park Nature education endeavors. I snapped photos, recorded brief videos, and chronicled observations and reflections during the workshop, all of which I highlight via this photo essay.

Rather than hold forth in text on my absolute conviction that Nature-based education is essential to our children and the society they will lead (and endure), I give you four summary observations:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Nature doesn’t steal time, it amplifies it. (Richard Louv)
I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
Every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by Nature. (Steve Jones)

I’m sure these basic tenets guide, motivate, and inspire the instructors and participants in the Legacy workshop.

Nature served up a perfect start to the day — an ideal outdoor learning environment! Bright sunshine punctuated with puffy cumulus.

Until I retired to my end-of-worklife Nature pursuits, I had no idea that the 20th century’s premier mind, Albert Einstein, advocated keener awareness of the magic and wonder of Nature:

Look deep into Nature and you will understand everything better.

He would have approved Legacy and the State Parks partnering to enable and encourage 25 dedicated teachers and educators to look more deeply into Natue!

Briitney Hughes, DeSoto State Park Naturalist, revealed the secrets of wild tea infusions, a practical guide to tapping the vital natural essence from native plants, and sharing lessons and techniques with their students.

My knowledge of infusions and tinctures could fill a thimble…a small one at that! I quietly observed, saving myself for the South Plateau Trail walk.

I recorded this 57-second video as we departed the lodge and entered the forest:

I won’t attempt reciting every feature and phenomenon we encountered. We emphasized that most Alabama forests are at least second growth. Monte Sano’s forests are 70-90+ years old. Black locust, an early successional species, is dead or dying across the segment we hiked. Nearly all remaining live locust trees are infected by cracked cap polypore fungus, a decay that weakened this individual — note the black bracket mushroom 18 inches above the ground at right. Black locust was a major stand component over the first 50 years of second growth. This specimen is a fading reminder of black locust’s early colonizing and pioneering role in forest renewal.

I’m shamelessly addicted to woodland springs and wooden footbridge crossings. I offer several explanations:

Upland brooks and streams have a pleasant, heavily shaded summer microclimate
Soils are more moist, deeper, and nutrient rich
Trees are taller and fatter
Who is not charmed by the sound of gurgling water!
Birds and other wildlife are more abundant

The brook dropped over the plateau rim below the trail bridge. Who knows what exploration into the hollow would reveal. Perhaps another day.

My 60-second video hints at what may lie hidden in plain sight.

I admit to one unavoidable shortcoming when I am accompanying a group like this. I want to interact with the participants, fielding questions and offering my limited knowledge and interpretation, yet I feel compelled to capture our experiences and discoveries with photographs and brief videos so that I can share more widely via these photo essays. As a result, I pop in and out of the entourage, too often falling behind.

A powerful storm crossed Monte Sano State Park a week prior. One of our educators noticed three oak trees recently lightning-blasted. I sidetracked for a closer look to record a 60-second video of the affected oaks.

I am in awe of the power and fury of Nature. She demands full respect, even as she deserves absolute admiration. I have seen other lightning-struck trees in my north Alabama woodland excursions. Some survived the blast and retained the scars decades hence. Others suffered a fatal blow. Were I to wager the fate of these three oaks, I lean toward fatality.

The trees are not large and the bolt shattered a third of their circumference. I will see how they fare on a future visit.

We paused at the old Lilly Pond, a landscape feature near a former residence 100 years ago.

I recorded a 59-second video as the educators paused at the amphitheater bench seating.

Imagine this deep woodland setting as open space near the old home site…the old pond, now filling with forest detritus and advancing shrubs, then a spring-fed lilly pond surround by grassy uplands. Nothing in Nature is static.

Oak Mountain State Park Naturalist Lauren Muncher Massey conducted a session on Tree Cookie Wood Burning. I recorded this 50-second video of participants sanding Eastern red cedar tree cookies.

I remember my forestry junior-year Wood Identification course at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. We each received a box of 60+ blocks of species we were tasked with learning: their characteristics, uses, structure, hardness, and identification. With pocket knife, hand lens, keen nose, and careful study we grew adept at identifying our woods. That was 1971, a distant 54 years ago. Somehow along life’s journey across 13 interstate moves, understandably distracted by family, career, and life, we abandoned those 60+ wood identification blocks. I’d love to have them now. Perhaps I could relearn some of what has seeped through the weak grasp of aging memory. I vow never to forget Eastern red cedar with its distinctive color, texture, and fragrance.

That long-ago course was not easy. Some of my fellow forestry majors stumbled; others fell. The Lord blessed me with keen interest, an eye for detail, and a zest for learning. Watching the participants bring life to their tree cookies ignited dormant memories from my lifelong fascination with forest products. I won’t explore that rabbit hole today. I may someday devote a future photo essay to that pursuit.

Here is my 56-second video of final tree cookie preparation, fading into a revelation of the wonderful location for a workshop on Arts and Wellness in Nature.

Renee Raney joined us late in the afternoon with her Teacher Creature!

As we moved indoors for our closing Amber Coger (Northwest District Naturalist) led session on Nature Journaling, the fair weather cumulus assumed a more menacing look.

An unabashed lifetime weather enthusiast, I recorded this 60-second video of the vigorous thundershower that pounded our lodge rooftop.

Nature could have changed our day had she delivered the downpour two hours earlier.

I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY!

In broad summary, I declare the Legacy Arts and Wellness Workshop a day well spent!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.

I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Nature doesn’t steal time, it amplifies it. (Richard Louv)
I embrace Nature’s relentless magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration — her infinite storm of BEAUTY! (Steve Jones)
Every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is written indelibly in or powerfully inspired by Nature. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

Intergenerational Spring Saunter at Alabama’s Monte Sano State Park!

June 18, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Alabama grandsons Jack (17 years) and Sam (11) accompanied me on April 19, 2025, as we traversed the Sinks and Wells Memorial Trails at Alabama’s Monte Sano State Park near Huntsville. Seven months beyond my second total knee replacement surgery and 21 months since my triple bypass, there’s little I will not attempt on local trails. I’m relentlessly abiding by the tenets of Nature-Inspired Life and Living and Nature-Buoyed Aging and Healing. Come with us as we discover delights and treasures hiding in plain sight.

On the Trails: Sinks and Wells Memorial

Growing up in the central Appalachians of western Maryland, I feel at home on the Monte Sano trails. The varied terrain and hardwood forests range from the rich and productive concave lower north to east-facing slopes to the rocky low-quality west and south-facing convex slopes. The Sinks and Wells trails transect generally good to excellent sites. On a previous visit, I measured a yellow poplar on the Sinks trail 142 feet tall.

I recorded this 57-second video on the Sinks Trail.

You’ll note that I stated in my narrative, “I would not trade this for anything in the world.”

Albert Einstein made clear that one of the greater joys in approaching our sunset years is knowing that we can live on through subsequent generations:

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.

I am looking at the sunset from a far and distant dawn. My Dad would have been 100 this year. He passed 29 years ago, yet he walks with me every step of my woodland saunters. He remains alive through me, even as Jack and Sam will carry my spirit through their lives and beyond.

A Sampling of Spring Ephemerals

We saw many spring wildflowers, including a few notable examples. I offer these in form of a brief portfolio. I see no need to include a narrative.

Dwarf larkspur:

Rue anemone and wild geranium:

White baneberry:

Those three species date back to my systematic botany lab days more than a half-century ago.

I recorded this 60-second video of a forest floor carpeted with mayapple umbrellas:

And the same holds for mayapple and systematic botany.

Mayapple holds a little secret — only the plants with two leaves are sexually mature. If one leaf, don’t expect to see a flower. If two leaves, the flower will appear in the dual-leaf axil.

Drooping trillium grows north into the Great Lakes region. So much of what I treasure seeing here in northern Alabama extends up through and beyond where I studied all manner of forestry.

I suppose I will always be a spring ephemeral wildflower enthusiast — it’s in me for life.

And a Fern

I recall Pennsylvania forests with a full ground cover of New York and hay-scented fern. I miss those special places. Here in north Alabama, I’m pleased to encounter individual plants, like this silver glade fern.

Wells Memorial Trail: One of My Favorite Places

I co-taught a UAH OLLI course this past spring: North Alabama Naturalists and Their Special Places. I selected The Wells Memorial Trail as my Special Place. Search my Great Blue Heron website for Wells Memorial Trail to access previous photo essays on the trail and its magic.

I recorded this 59-second video at three-benches, the gateway to the Wells Trail.

A special place indeed!

Odd Tree Forms

I’ve never encountered a tree form curiosity or oddity that failed to pique my interest. I quote Leonardo da Vinci often in my Great Blue Heron posts. He urges me from half a millennium ago to examine oddities and curiosities intent on explaining the cause of these exquisite abnormalities:

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

In fact, I just came to the realization that tree form curiosities and oddities are so common that terming them abnormalities may be a misnomer!

Most of our northern Alabama forests are second-growth, the result of natural regeneration following timber harvesting or suspension of agricultural tillage or pasturing 80-to-100+ years ago. Timber harvesting would have left scarred, injured, and otherwise non-commercial residuals. This massive oak was likely such an invidual. T0day its hollow severely decayed and disfigured bulk is yielding to inevitable forces, its strength to vulnerabilty ratio passing an irresistible threshold.

I recorded a 59-second video of the massive oak.

Its large carcass is scattered across a half-acre. Its once magestic hulk lies broken and disassembling. Decomposers will take over the task of returning its mass to the soil.

Basswood is adept at resprouting from cut stumps. Loggers harvested a large basswood tree here along the upper Sinks Trail many decades prior. These four or five large tall basswoods grew from sprouts around the severed stump — hence, a mature stump cluster!

Here is my 57-second video of the basswood stump cluster, with a couple of grandsons thrown in for good measure…literally for good measure as a scale for judging trunk size.

I stop to admire the cluster each time I venture through these towering trees.

We approached this tree skeleton caricature carefully. It struck a compelling pose, leaning over us, elbows and forearms on the opposite side of the trail supporting its weight. Dare we stand under it, tempting the creature to awaken and snag us from the path? Our hardwood forests may not be the dark and foreboding, foul and repugnant wilderness tracts New England’s European settlers characterized four centuries ago, yet they are still habitated by sylvan ogres and wood spirits. What good would a woodland venture with grands be without seeking and finding such delights?!

I am sure that some trekkers would leap to conclude that this is an Indian Marker Tree. No, a falling branch or tree impacted this hickory when it was pole-sized. The concussion bent the more supple younger stem and broke the top, where the rounded stub protrudes. In response, the hickory activated adventitious buds to send new shoots vertically to resecure ascent into the upper canopy and its direct sunlight. The arched original stem supports three elevated trunks reaching heavenward. The tree does indeed point to something. You are free to fashion the mythical object or destination. I am old enough to remember the old weeknight (1965-67) comedy program, F-Troop. I recall the directions given to one of the characters, “Turn left at the rock that resembles a bear; and then turn right at the bear resembling a rock.” This tree’s directional utility may be of equivalent merit!

And yet another marker tree. Same song, different verse. Physical injury and evolved response to live and fluorish another day; seek the light above; produce seed; pass genes forward; all absent the hand of man.

Nothing in Nature is static; nothing in the natural world is new. I can’t imagine anything that hasn’t happened before…a thousand (nay, ten thousand by ten thousand) times before.

Special Mountain Biking Feature

I’m a committed Nature enthusiast…and naturalist purist. I have no desire to catapult through the forest, kamikazi-style on my two-wheeled steed. I limit myself to paved or smoothly-graded gravel greenways. However, I recognize that mountain biking is a popular woodland pursuit. Our route took us past The Sinks Ride Area. I include it only as a sidebar. Some State Park users praise the expanding bike features. Others consider it anathema to the core mission. I leave judgement to others.

Closing at a Perfect Place for Rest and Contemplation

I like the Three Benches trail intersection where the Wells Memorial Trail heads off the Sinks Trail. The three benches sit in deep shade in the cove hardwood site. A massive yellow popular tree nourishes the soul, reminding me what good living, ample resources, and time can provide. When my dear friend and professional colleague (from my Penn State University days) died four years ago in October, I recorded a tribute video to him at this sacred place.

Here is the 59-second video I recorded with the grandsons taking a breather.

My third book, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits, carries an apt subtitle: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature. When I reflect on my well over 400 Great Blue Heron posts, I realize that my focus is on Place and Everyday Nature.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board, in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.

I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

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)
There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment. (Leonardo da Vinci)
I would not trade this (exploring in the woods with my grandsons) for anything in the world. (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: “©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

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 #45: A First Visit to High Falls Park in DeKalb County Alabama!

May 27, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 45th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

Introducing High Falls County Park

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger introduced Judy and me to High Falls County Park on March 19, 2025. Town Creek, sourced on Lookout Mountain, tumbles 35 feet en route to its outlet on Lake Guntersville, a TVA impoundment on the Tennessee River. Join me on this brief-form photo essay introduction to the beauty and wonder of the falls.

When we lived in central Pennsylvania, The Blizzard of ’93 dumped 28 inches of wind-driven new snow on March 13. We had pretty much dug out by the 19th, but spring woodland forays were still weeks ahead. March 19 when we lived in Fairbanks placed us still deep in winter but with daylight returning, suggesting the promise of a distant spring. Here in northern Alabama, March 19 is serious springtime. We picked an ideal day to visit the falls…mild weather, ample recent rainfall to surge the creek, and a spectacular sky.

Park Caretaker Roger proved the perfect host — knowlegable, friendly, and happy to be of service.

Interpretive signage enhanced the experience. The 1998 bridge crosses Town Creek above the falls, built upon the same stone piers that supported the wooden structure that burned years earlier.

The natural wonder and historical context embellished our visit.

The Chief Architect at High Falls

Our area receives 55-inches of annual rainfall. Town Creek’s watershed basin lies in Dekalb County atop Lookout Mountain, several hundred feet above Lake Guntersville on the Tennessee River, the creek’s destination. Water seeking outlet is persistent, relentless, and gives no quarter on its quest for the sea. A little more than 4.5 feet of rainfall a year across the creek’s basin channels a lot of water over the sandstone bedrock hosting the falls. The falls carry 458 feet of basin-wide rainfall per century. That’s a mile of rainfall every 1.15 millennia, the blink of an eye relative to the age of this region’s tail of the Appalachians. Leonardo da Vinci knew 500 years ago that the endless cycle of water is the chief architect of natural forms:

Water is the driving force of all nature.

Let’s focus on the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration of High Falls. My narrative is not necessary.

I recorded this 52-second video of the falls from the foot bridge.

The still images draw me toward reflective waters, dormant streamside forests, and a cirrus afternoon sky.

Tumbling water invigorates, inspires, and lifts me toward something higher, beyond my reach yet within my aspiration and appreciation.

A thirty-five foot drop roars and rumbles, thundering within my chest…within my heart…my soul. I thank God that over the past two years I survived a stroke, triple bypass surgery, bilateral inguinal hernia repair, and two total knee replacements. Nature-Inspired Aging and Healing — and my loving wife of soon-to-be 53 years — gave me strength to recover and thrive.

My 56-second video of the falls.

A final view of the falls from above. Water is the driving force and the incessant spirit of Nature.

We visited the park for the falls, but I must mention other delights.

Other Natural Features at High Falls

Moss-covered ledge rock on the far side of the footbridge.

A lichen colony securing anchorage and sustenance on the bridge handrail.

A feeder spring providing a last minute increment to Town Creek 150 feet upstream from the falls.

I’ve photographed scores of horizontal yellow-bellied sapsucker drill holes on hickory, yellow poplar, loblolly, and other tree species. This was the first time I’ve seen vertically stacked drill holes. Can someone explain?

Henry David Thoreau compared a life well lived to an active cascading stream:

Most men have no inclination, no rapids, no cascades, but marshes, and alligators, and miasma instead.

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. A spring afternoon first visit to High Falls paid mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual dividends beyond measure. John Muir captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the cascading falls of Town Creek:

As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing.

March Coming in Like a Lamb at AL’s Lake Guntersville State Park!

May 21, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I embrace every chance I have to explore a new trail and to experience the shifting seasonal woodland tides of northern Alabama…or wherever my roamings take me. Compelled to attend the February 28, 2025, dinner affair of the Annual Environmental Education Association of Alabama (EEAA) meeting at Lake Guntersville State Park, I arrived early enough to descend the Dry Falls Trail from the Lodge, returning 2.5 hours later. Come along with me. I promise that no major exertion is required. Expect a leisurely pace for observations, reflections, photographs, and brief video recordings.

Although the rimrock trees remained winter-barren, spring-like warmth and sunshine prevailed over the lake.

I recorded this 43-second video from my room balcony, overlooking Lake Guntersville and the campground at water’s edge.

You Can’t Make a Silk Purse from a Sow’s Ear

I cherish high forests of towering, densely-stocked mixed mesophytic hardwood species, growing spectacularly on deep, moist, nutrient-rich lower slope soils. I should have anticipated another type of ecosystem from the trail’s moniker: Dry Falls Trail. I saw no three-log commercially valuable hardwoods that would spur drool from a sawyer. In fact, this dog-head branch stub (see the snout, smiling mouth, classic canine skull, eye socket, and floppy ear) may be the aesthetic highlight of my venture. In retirement, no longer supplying quality sawlogs to a Virginia lumber mill (granted, that was in the 1970s!), I am a tireless fan of tree form oddities and curiosities. Leonardo da Vinci wisely observed, “There is no result in nature without a cause.” Decades ago, a crashing stem or treetop broke a lower branch of this oak. The resulting stub survived, calloused over with cambium and bark, creating the canine visage.

Whether on an impoverished poor quality site like this or a fertile lower slope, death is a big part of life in all forests. Poor sites can support only some finite living biomass (e.g, some critical mass in measureable tons per acre). The threshold site quality biomass balance is achieved as growth counters mortality. The standing dead oak below is a victim of one of Nature’s fundamental laws (The Law): Forest site productivity (the sum and interplay of soil depth, texture, nutrients, moisture, slope position, slope shape, aspect, climate, and the tree species present) is inherent and fixed. Leonardo da Vinci wisely observed:

Nature never breaks her own laws.

The Reverend Jonathan Swift (1801) is quoted as coining a similar sentiment:

You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.

I invested three years delving into a like question. My doctoral dissertation, Evaluation of Soil-Site Relationships for Allegheny Hardwoods, gave definition to that basic Law. I just pulled my 426-page tome from the bookshelf, hoping to find a concisely definitve statement of findings. No luck! Instead, I rediscovered why the book was dust-bound:

Discriminant functions correctly classified approximately 80 percent of the observations into broad productivity groups. The predictive strength of regression equations was comparable to values commonly reported in the literature for single species stands. The discriminant functions and regression equations provide managers with tools for predicting site quality independent of current forest cover.

Whew!

Regardless, the Law is in full affect in the stand I traipsed. This oak yielded its share of site resources to nearby competitors. Their biomass gain; its loss. Net zero sum biomass balance.

Note the dead oak’s spiral wood grain, a feature that fascinates me…one that I’ve pondered in prior Great Blue Heron posts: why do some trees exhibit spiral grain? I don’t know; I will continue seeking a definitive answer.

A Decimated Forest

On April 27, 2011, an EF-2 tornado crossed Guntersville Lake from WSW to ENE striking and decimating the state park campground, several hundred yards from the trail where I made these observation. Perhaps a spin-off from the tornado mowed the pine-dominated stand below. The downed trunk decomposition and residual stand growth jibes with the 14-year gap. All stems are oriented in common direction.

Here is my 58-second video of the blowdown.

Amazingly, this still from the video belies a decimated forest. Sure, lots of downed debris, but regaining the appearance of a forest. Were we to return in 2040, most of the downed pine trees will have decomposed into the forest floor. The residual pine and hardwood will have grown into a closed forest. A casual observer may not recognize even the telltale signs of the 2011 whirlwind decimation!

This sweetgum double sprout is one of the telltale signs. A sapling in 2011, the original stem yielded to the tempest, uprooted to horizontal on the treking pole end, where the ripped roots remain, as does the toppled stem reaching forward to the camera point. The fallen sapling sent two sprouts vertically the next summer. Both reach today into the intermediate canopy.

Arguably among our greatest conservationists, John Muir (1838-1914) offered deep nature insight and timeless wisdom for any occasion and cause, among them a tornado’s decimation:

Earth has no sorrow that earth cannot heal.

Moving Beyond the Blowdown

I recorded this 56-second video on the convex rocky mid slope beyond the blowdown area.

We remain on a low productivity site.

Although the big blow ocurred 14 years ago, routine forest development dynamics continue to drop trees and branches across the trail. Crews cleared the two oak segments below within a few hundred feet. I offer the example of one spiral-grained and the other straight. No explanation available!

Forever fascinated with tree form oddities and curiosities, an oak burl gargoyle caught my eye.

I’m accustomed to seeing mostly limestone and fine-grained sandstone on my north Alabama woodland rambles. I could not resist capturing the face of conglomerate sandstone.

This loblolly pine (among many in this section of the forest) felt the ravages of a tiny insect, the voracious appetite of our episodic southern pine beetle. The summer of 2024 proved a rough one for our native pines. Those are distinctive pitch tubes on the left. The tree exudes sap as a defense mechanism when female adults enter to deposit eggs in the cambium. The larvae girdled and killed the tree; its crown high above is devoid of needles. Beetle outbreaks disrupt the biomass balance; until the forest rebounds, years will pass with a deficit in living biomass.

Sourwood resists growing straight and true, whether on a fertile lower slope or poor quality convex upper slope. I admire it for its unique crooked propensity.

Nearly 4:00 PM, my time growing short for returning to the lodge to shower and change, I spotted this chestnut oak sporting a signature Indian Marker Tree shape, as some would suggest (even insist). I drew my usual conclusion on such matters. The stand likely regenerated naturally 80-90 years ago, long after our Native citizens were no longer living on and with the land. Something severely injured the sapling oak, without supressing its drive to recover and find its way to the upper canopy.

I made my final afternoon observation in a pine-dominated stand that hosted a prescribed fire during 2024 (okay, it could have been 2023). Periodic controlled burns will create a more open, park-like forest, eliminating the dense hardwood and shrub understory.

The Smokey the Bear of my youth said, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” Today’s Smoky Bear insists correctly, “Only you can prevent wild fires.” Fire is an effective tool when applied reverently and responsibly.

A New Day (and New Month) Dawning

Never one to allow daybreak to precede my awakening, I snapped these images from my balcony at 5:48 AM.

Three hundred feet above the impounded Tennessee River , I captured the lake and sunrise at 6:29 AM from Mabrey Overlook.

I recorded this 59-second video from Mabrey Overlook.

The brightening dawn and rising sun elevate my body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit heavenward!

Here’s a symbolic close, a park road leading me directly into a new day, a new month, a fresh season, a bright outlook on all that lies ahead!

Alabama State Parks Foundation

I’ll remind you that although I serve on the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board (Secretary), in part because of my love of Nature and in recognition for my writing many prior Posts about visiting and experiencing the Parks, any positions or opinions expressed in these Posts are mine alone and do not in any manner represent the Foundation or its Board.

I urge you to take a look at the Foundation website and consider ways you might help steward these magical places: https://asparksfoundation.org/ Perhaps you might think about supporting the Parks System education and interpretation imperative: https://asparksfoundation.org/give-today#a444d6c6-371b-47a2-97da-dd15a5b9da76

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

My passion for the break of day inspires me never to allow daybreak to precede my daily awakening! (Steve Jones)
Earth has no sorrow that earth cannot heal. (John Muir)
The brightening dawn and rising sun elevate my body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit heavenward! (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: “©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

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