parks Archives - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

January Natural Delights along the CCC Trail at Joe Wheeler State Park

March 27, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I spent January 23 and 24, 2025 at Joe Wheeler State Park primarily to learn more about the 1930s Wheeler Dam Construction Village and 1930s to early 1950s Recreation Area remains along the CCC Trail on the hillside above Wheeler Dam overlooking Wilson Lake, which lies just downstream of Wheeler Dam. This photo essay reports on the natural delights my colleagues and I discovered and chronicled as we performed our intended archeological pursuits.

We found some of what we were seeking, and as Henry David Thoreau observed, so much more…and that in itself is a delight:

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.

We unintentionally scheduled a cold day, locating an intact frost flower as we began our CCC Trail exploration a little after noon. Fascination propagates from every find; magic lies hidden in plain sight to all woodland saunterers!

Waves rippled Wislon Lake as northwest winds fueled the clear winter day. I imagined a similar day 90 years prior as workmen labored to build the dam. The forest is approximately the same age as the dam.

Individual trees, like these oaks above the Nance Creek Bay, provided shade for a concrete picnic table, its wooden seats long since decayed:

We identified several specimens of Kentucky yellowwood (Cladrastic kentuckea), which according to an online source is one of the rarest trees of eastern North America, found principally on the limestone cliffs of Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The source indicated that yellowood native to Alabama have leaves more densely hairy underneath than those from furth north, distinguished as f. tomentosa. The species is new to me, at leaste as far as I recall.

Woodland delights come in nearly endless variety. Leonardo da Vinci observed simply that:

There is no result in nature without a cause.

I refuse to attribute such tree form oddities and curiosities to will or reason. The sugar maple sapling had no purpose other than to survive and propagate beyond the injury (a falling branch…a strangling vine?) that triggered the main stem and a spurred branch to reach vertically toward the sun and its sustaining rays.

Muscadine grape vines rely on their flexibility, strength, and suppleness to stay aloft in the high wind-swaying tree canopy. Their cause is to adapt to their motion-dominated environment, retaining a tree-provided full sunlight perch, and thrive for succeeding generations.

A higher power may have considered the aesthetic appeal to human woodland saunterers. Grape vines are among my forest delights.

I consider my doctoral discipline as an amalgam of applied ecology, soil science, and forestry (An Evaluation of Soil-Site Relationshps in Allegheny Hardwoods — Ph.D. Dissertation). Not surprisingly, I find soil and its nature and processes delightful! The sites I studied in the 70-90-year-old-second-growth forests of southwest New York and northwest Pennsylvania evidenced the pit-and-mound, hummock-and-hollow, and pillow-and-cradle microtopography that is likewise common across our northern Alabama forests. A maturing tree grasping its root ball yields to windthrow, lifting its soil mass from the excavated basin, as in the two exapmles below, where Alabama State Parks Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger crouches in a pit/hollow/cradle (left) or stands triumphantly on a mound/hummock/pillow (right).

So long as I wander our woods I will not tire of seeing quality (high commerciel value) standing timber. Josh Kennum, technician at Joe Wheeler State Park, serves as a reference scale to a magnificent cherrybark oak. The old industrial forester within me resurfaces at will.

Yes, I still find delight with straight bole, three 16-foot logs to the first branch, sound wood, and hefty girth — a timeless delight!

What is not timeless is the old forester (me) standing with a magnificent yellow poplar (left) and a handsome cherrybark oak (right).

Age adds its own special delight factor to the ancient American beech within 100 feet of the 200-foot wide power line transmitting hydro-power from Wheeler Dam.

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I struggled to identify the tree species for this large dead standing tree-delight. Its three-foot plus diameter and large collapsed crown drew us closer. We concurred that the outer bark resembled American elm. The inner bark confused us…brittle with a rough cured leather appearance.

Because we needed to focus on our focused pursuit of the abandoned Village and Recreation Area, we decided the tree warrants deeper examination in the coming spring.

No doubt, the elm is an object of delight.

I recorded this 43-second video of Chris at the elm:

This laurel cherry met my delight criteria, a relative rarity and foreign to my previous woodland discoveries.

I gathered this gouty oak gall for examining and photographing at home. How could one not find delight in a small wasp ovipositing in an oak twig, triggering woody growth to shelter and feed the wasp’s larvae as they grow and transition to wasp adulthood? Nature is truly amazing and delightful.

I discovered this menagerie in just two days when we focused our direct attention on our primary objective. This photo essay reports on the natural delights my colleagues and I discovered and chronicled as we performed our intended archeological pursuits.

We found some of what we were seeking, and as Henry David Thoreau observed, so much more…and that in itself is a delight:

The question is not what you look at, but what you see.

I delighted in seeing all that open exploration afforded trained eyes, curious minds, and shared passion for Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration!

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:

I delighted in seeing all that open exploration afforded trained eyes, curious minds, and shared passion for Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration!
The question is not what you look at, but what you see. (Henry David Thoreau)
There is no result in nature without a cause. (Leonardo da Vinci)
In retirement I am enriched by the freedom of time without pressures, restrictions, and deadlines. (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 #42: A Short Afternoon Trek to Maggie’s Glen at Oak Mountain State Park!

February 18, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 42nd of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

On November 7, 2024, a fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I trekked the short Maggie’s Glen Trail at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, Alabama located just south of Birmingham. We were already at the park, having been there for two other ventures, so I thought I would introduce Chris to Maggie’s Glen, one of my favorite spots at Oak Mountain. The Glen is a protected streamside cove in deep forest at the base of a north-facing slope.

Several trails diverge from the covered marquis.

Autumn’s thinning crowns brought sunshine to the ground amid the bench-welcoming and resting site, reminding me of William Wordsworth’s observation:

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

A massive ancient beech, greeted me once again to this cherished site that reminds me of where I grew up wandering the central Appalachians hills of western Maryland. Oh, would I love to hear the tales this tortured and convoluted sentinel could tell from it 150-200 years along the creek!

I recorded this 59-second video at the old beech:

I bestow the significant designation of character tree for such grizzled veterans that I’ve encountered over my seven decades of woods-wandering. Age, size, perseverence, distress, hollows, and contortions aggregate to earn the title. Sunlight hitting leaves within the hollow trunk warrant points. The gnarled roots contribute.

A view from within the hollow trunk that finds sky far above scores high, as does the open crotch at right that allows the sky portal 30 feet from the gound.

The beech stands guard at the wooden foot bridge that during our extended late summer and early fall drought carries little surface water. Only a reflective pool evidences the lively stream flowing during wetter seasons when I’ve enjoyed visiting the Glen. I felt as though I was peering into another world, one that embodies the essence of the spectacular Glen to which I am accustomed.

The Glen includes an odd tree-couple growing side by side…a fat loblolly pine growing straight and tall…and a diminutive sourwood with its species-distinctive corkscrew reach into the intermediate canopy.

I imagined how underwheleming a rapid hike through the forest might be if the wonders I discovered in plain sight were unseen. As Henry David Thoreau observed:

I have no time to be in a hurry.

The older I get, the stronger my feelings about not wanting to miss anything. Fourteen months with five surgeries (July 2023-August 2024) reminded me that time…my time…is finite!

Although still early afternoon (2:38 PM), the sun was alreadt setting deep in the Glen, representing the special Nature of one of my favorite places at Oak Mountain State Park.

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. William Wordsworth captured Nature’s magic in simple beautiful verse:

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

Brief-Form Post #40: Active Decay in Monte Sano State Park Wells Memorial Forest

January 15, 2025/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Brief-Form Post #40

I am pleased to add the 40th 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.

Active Decay and Poofing Puffballs

Alabama State Park Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger and I hiked the Wells Memorial Trail at Monte Sano State Park on December 4, 2024. We found multiple woodland delights: massive grapevines, active decay (and incredible mature puffball mushrooms), and a landscape of sinks, pits, mounds, hummocks, and hollows. The aggregate would have overwhelmed a single Great Blue Heron photo essay. Instead, I offer three distinct Brief-Form essays, this one focusing on active decay and fanciful poofing puffballs.

I photographed this image several year ago. It’s the best photo representation of the magnificent Wells Memorial Forest.

This massive hickory tree toppled across the Wells Trail during the late summer of 2019, five years before my December 4, 2024 venture. I snapped the photo at left on November 16, 2019, before crews cleared a trunk section to provide passage. The April 22, 2020, view is from the stump side of the downed tree taken at the cleared trail. The tree shows no sign of decay; its wood is solid; the bark is intact; the root ball still holds its soil mass.

By December 2024, the root ball had begun to subside as the roots internal to it are decaying; the process of transforming the root ball to a mound or hummock is underway. The bark is sloughing from the trunk. The cut end of the overturned stump is fraying from decay.

I recorded this 58-video depicting the obvious state of decay:

I’ve watched time mark the decay process season after season. I noticed few indications of decay during the first summer. I witnessed an extraordinary blossom of oyster mushrooms in the second…bushel basketsful if foraging were allowed on our state parks. The oysters were few and far between the third year. Since then non edible leathery Trametes and other decomposers have prevailed. Most of the bark no longer remains. The surface sapwood is punky. Ashes to ashes; dust to dust.

Over the past several years of drafting these photo essays I’ve strived to hone my skills at estimating the passage of time since a live tree fell based on degree of decay. I am surprised by the rapid pace of decomposition for this grand old hickory. Abundant rainfall, mild climate, and favorable understory moisture environment encourage rapid decay.

Poofing Puffballs

We discovered another hickory, this one on the ground for less than a year. Mature biege puffball mushrooms sprouted from bark fissures. I believe their mycelia are growing surficially on the bark, and not penetrating into the wood. Other deeper decay fungi will colonize to begin the greater task of wood consumption.

I am a lifelong sucker for poofing mature puffballs, as the 32-second video attests:

After our puffball volcano venture, I recalled that in 2009, I suffered a severe case of Hispoplasmosis, a fungal infection common to the Miami River Valley where we lived during that period. I believe our common puffballs are innocent!

Who could resist the urge to puff these magic mushroom dragons!

Fungi are indeed fun in our incredible north Alabama woodlands. We covered enough ground that I considered our trek a good test of my August knee replacement recovery. However, we enjoyed a pace that allowed full exploration and discovery.

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 single trek along a forested trail discloses only a brief moment in time, obscuring the decades prior and the future ahead, isolating us from the scope and scale of the grand forest cycle of life. Henry David Thoreau captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the Wonder of decay and renewal:

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Brief-Form Post #39: Pits, Mounds, and Sinkholes in the Wells Memorial Forest at Monte Sano State Park!

December 19, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Brief-Form Post #39

I am pleased to add the 38th 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.

Sinkholes, Pits, Mounds, Hummocks, and Hollows

Alabama State Park Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger and I hiked the Wells Memorial Trail at Monte Sano State Park on December 4, 2024. We found multiple woodland delights: massive grapevines, active decay (and incredible mature puffball mushrooms), and a landscape of sinks, pits, mounds, hummocks, and hollows. The aggregate would have overwhelmed a single Great Blue Heron photo essay. Instead, I offer three distinct Brief-Form essays, this one focusing on sinkholes, pits, mounds, hummocks, and hollows.

I previously snapped the photos below at other locations to demonstrate the natural processes creating pit and mound…humoock and hollow… microtopography. A large living tree uproots, lifting a mass of roots and soil vertically as the trees slams to the ground. The pit or hollow is immediately evident. Imagine the root matrix decomposing and the rootball soil and organic matter settling adjacent to and aligned at 90-degrees to the toppled trunk.

I recorded this 56-second video of Amber exploring this very distinct pit on the uphill side of a long-ago fallen tree. The tree’s roots and trunk have long since decomposed.

This tree and the vast majority of the trees creating the distinctive hummock and hollow microtopography fell downhill.

This area is riddled with prominant pits and mounds.

Limestone Sinkholes

Unlike the tree fall microtopography, sinkholes are an artifact of parent material. The US Geologic Society defines a sinkhole as

A depression in the ground that has no natural external surface drainage. Basically, this means that when it rains, all of the water stays inside the sinkhole and typically drains into the subsurface.

Sinkholes are most common where water soluble limestone is the underlying parent material, which is the case along the lower Sinks Trail and throughout the Wells Memorial Forest. Over time, water dissolves the limestone, creating underground spaces that occasionally collapse leaving the conical depressions (dimples) on the forest floor. The entire Memorial Forest is a broad depression, where there is no surface exit. Individual sinkholes dimple the broader hollow.

Amber walked into this sinkhole (dimple) that is 25-feet across and 10 feet deep.

I recorded this 58-second video of Amber dropping into and ascending from the sinkhole.

Again, the entire Memorial Forest occupies an extensive bowl, providing rich limestone derived soil, abundant soil moisture year-round, and a micro-environment protected from the harsh effects of wind and sun exposure. Trees luxuriate, growing rapidly to large girth and exceptional heights.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. I am educated, holding multiple degrees, yet I secured by far the greatest knowledge from an elective graduate course, geomorphology (taught by the late Dr. Ernie Muller), the study of the form of the earth. Because I can find no relevant wise quotation in the literature, I give you my own:

Learn the microgeography and you will understand the forest, appreciate its function, and interpret its mysteries, all at a higher level.

Brief-Form Post #38: Tangles, Loops, and Vines in the Hardwood Canopy on Monte Sano

December 13, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

Brief-Form Post #38: Woodland Delights!

I am pleased to add the 38th 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.

Grapevine Bonanza!

Alabama State Park Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger and I hiked the Wells Memorial Trail at Monte Sano State Park on December 4, 2024. We found multiple woodland delights: massive grapevines, incredible mature puffball mushrooms, and a landscape of sinks, pits, mounds, hummocks, and hollows. The aggregate would have overwhelmed a single Great Blue Heron photo essay. Instead, I offer three distinct Brief-Form essays, this one focusing on the grapevine marvels.

The maturing second-growth hardwood forest on the upper slopes along the Sinks Trail shares its upper canopy with numerous large native grapevines. The grapevines do not climb the trees; instead, they grow vertically with the trees, clinging and hitching a ride as the tree extends vertically. Imagine grape seeds deposited by birds in the brushy bramble of a recently harvested forest among seedlings of black locust, Eastern red cedar, hickories, oaks, and others. The grapevines wrap their tendrils among the leafy leaders of the trees reaching year-by-year heavenward, ensuring their position high in the forest canopy 90 years hence.

I recorded this 53-second video at the first tangle we encountered on the middle-upper slope a quarter mile below the Bikers Pavillion.

This vine produced a peculiar curlicue, a mirthful expression 40 feet above the ground. The Sinks Trail is well used by hikers, joggers, and bikers, most too consumed by through-passing to notice, much less pay attention to, the wonders around and above them. As Thoreau observed, and I paraphrase, I have no time to be in a hurry. Life is too short to miss the marvels in front of my nose!

One of my roles as a senior educator, old forester, and mentor to less seasoned Nature interpreters is to open their eyes to the Nature magic that lies hidden in plain sight. I am confident that Amber sees the delights, is intent upon understanding the wonder, and is dedicated to interpreting the mysteries to stir imagination and appreciation among state park visitors, young and old.

This 58-second video presents another cluster of massive vines within a few hundred feet of the first.

Unlike the oak that supports it, this six-inch diameter grapevine serves only as conduit for transporting the stuff of life (water and nutrients) up from the roots and carbohydates down to the roots.

I’ve puzzled for years over the tree/vine relationship. Clearly the vine benefits by positioning its foliar crown in the upper reaches where, for the life of the tree, the vine accesses full sunlight. Is there a commensurate advantage to the tree? I shall continue to explore the question.

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. Henry David Thoreau captured the sentiment I felt as we explored the grapevine tangles:

I have no time to be in a hurry.

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

November 13, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 37th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

On October 30, 2024, 69 days since my total right knee replacement surgery, I ventured solo to the Wells Memorial Trail at Alabama’s Monte Sano State Park. The difficulty is only moderate, yet following five surgeries (including triple bypass) in 16 months, my strength, endurace, and confidence are not up to par. The magnificence of the Well Memorial cove hardwood forest beckoned. I accepted…and subsequently celebrated…the test. I offer these observations, reflections, photos, and brief videos from my afternoon sauntering.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The images of forest and wandering trail need no narrative.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, a task far more elusive than assembling a dozen pithy statements. William Wordsworth captured Nature’s magic in simple beautiful verse:

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

Exploring the Forest along Lake Wheeler at Point Mallard Park!

October 22, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Woodland Fungi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Clearing Sky

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Gloomy skies and rainy days can lift routine Nature to a level of exceptional beauty.
Nature’s ferocity (i.e. Helene in the southern Appalachians) often displays a softer side, in this case, three days of gentle showers in the Huntsville area.
When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty. (John Muir)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

An August Afternoon Stroll along Indian Creek Greenway!

October 16, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An NC State Cooperative Extension online source stated:

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

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

I recorded this 57-second Chinese yam video:

Here is a screenshot of two leaf axil tubers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is my brief red mulberry video:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

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

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief Form Post # 36: Late August Afternoon along Indian Creek

October 2, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 36th of my GBH Brief Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I tend to get a bit wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will publish these brief Posts regularly.

On Friday, August 9, 2024, I stopped by Huntsville, Alabama’s Indian Creek Greenway to trek a couple of miles to capture images of mid-summer flowers, trees, seasonal breezes, and the mood of Indian Creek in the late afternoon shade. I focus this brief form Post on my creekside wanderings off of the greenway.

Here is the 59-second video that takes us from the greenway to Indian Creek:

I’ve seen the creek at this placid mid-summer level and I’ve visited the southern trailhead when flood water lapped at the signpost. An urban stream, Indian Creek flashes quickly with summer thunderstorm downpours and drenching winter and spring rains. On this August afternoon, the creek flowed placidly within its forest-sheltered bed and trickled to the right at a diversion deposited by a spring flood.

I recorded this 60-second video creekside:

I saw a short video recently. Its brief caption read, “A picture paints a thousanad words; a video is priceless.” I believe that by including these brief videos, I leave you with a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the beauty, magic, awe, inspiration, and wonder of the special places I visit here in my northern Alabama region. I remind readers that nothing in Nature is static. For example, Indian Creek is moody, showing this placid demeanor during the low flow of dry summer periods, and contrarily expressing flooding ferocity in response to summer downpurs and dormant season monsoonal spells.

I wondered when I spotted this 30-inch-diamter streambank sweetgum whether its scarred base evidenced floodwater debris battering, which would have made a convincing segue from the floodwater narrative. However, the tortured base is at 90 degrees to the stream flow. Instead, I have seen similar scarring on trees gnawed by beavers many years earlier. The chewing opens an infection court to decay fungi. Long after the guilty rodent fails to fell the tree and departs the scene, the scar persists and the wound deepens.

I return to the peaceful waters with this 40-second video:

This late summer creeping lilyturf in full flower caught my eye with its deep green grass-like foliage and sparkling white spikes. Even its name attracts and retains attention.

I leave you with this final 56-second video of streamside trees and the creek, a gnarled old easern red cedar, and a view back to the greenway:

While soothing and peaceful on this late summer afternoon, this is a harsh environment. Streambank scouring exposes roots. Flood-borne debris punishes trees and shrubs, and torrents power stream channel meanders that alter the creek’s passage across its wide floodplain. Again, nothing in Nature is static.

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. John Muir captured Nature sentiments far better than I, hence I borrow his reflection on flowing waters:

The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing.

[Note] I’m publishing this Post six weeks following my August 20, 2024 total right knee replacement surgery. Progressing rapidly, I will soon be surpassing the strength, endurance, and stability afforded me on August 9, when I plodded along Indian Creek to capture images and videos for the photo essay.

Alabama Master Naturalist Field Days at Monte Sano State Park!

September 4, 2024/in Updates /by Steve Jones

On Monday, June 24, 2024, I assisted Alabama State Parks Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger in hosting a 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM Field Day at Monte Sano State Park for the Alabama Master Naturalist Program (AMNP). We hosted a second 25-enrollee Field Day on Saturday, June 29. This photo essay captures the essence of the Field Days with my observations, reflections, photos, and brief videos.

I applaud the Program’s Mission: The Alabama Master Naturalist Program strives to promote awareness, understanding, and respect of Alabama’s natural world to the state’s residents and visitors through science-based information and research.

The State Park System Mission is similar: To acquire and preserve natural areas; to develop, furnish, operate, and maintain recreational facilities, and to extend the public’s knowledge of the state’s natural environment.

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

Because of our mission overlap, I accepted an invitation six years ago to become a founding Board member of the Alabama State Parks Foundation, which has led me to publish scores of my great Blue Heron photo essays inspired by visits to our State Parks. Likewise, for reasons of mission concurrence, I enrolled in the Master Naturalist Program, successfully completing its 20 modules with a GPA of ~95, not bad for an old geezer/forester! I admit, too, to a more sentimental reason for enrolling and assisting in program delivery. From 1996 through 2001, I served as Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) Director, the Mother Ship for the AMNP.

I often seek relevant quotes from great historic scientists, philosophers, artists, conservationists, and other wise forebearers. Their wisdom is timeless, as germane today as during their own era. Few would have imagined that Albert Einstein, a once-in-a-century intellect, theoretical physicist, and whimsical purveyor of human insight years ago penned what could be a tagline suited for all three entities:

Look deep into Nature and then you will understand everything better.

The mountain biker’s pavilion served as a perfect venue as our June 24, classroom.

At 1,600-feet elevation, nestled within the plateau-top forest, comforted by a breeze and ceiling fans, we enjoyed learning and sharing, and meeting new friends and fellow Nature-Nerds!

Here is my 58-second video of our group on the North Plateau Trail…not hiking, but sauntering.

John Muir abhorred the term hiking:

I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike!’ Do you know the origin of that word saunter? It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the middle ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going they would reply, ‘A la sainte terre’, ‘To the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.

Sauntering the deep forest on a summer afternoon super-charges learning.

We paused frequently to identify trees and plants, answer questions, exchange stories, and enjoy scenery.

Several of us admired a dense colony of plantain-leaved pusseytoes.

Even at sauntering pace, 25 people stretched along a single-wide path doesn’t permit the entire group to see and discuss every trailside feature, like this buttonbush. One of the common threads I weave into my writing, speaking, and forest ventures is that so much in Nature is hidden in plain sight, this fascinating flower less than ten feet from the trail serves as an example.

Leaves on the mid-story black gum tree nearly brushed us as we passed. I must remind myself that, if not disciplined to time, I could easily stretch a 2.5-hour saunter into 5-6 hours. I want to tell the story of every tree, flower, shrub, and curiosity along the way.

We noticed yellow buckeye saplings in several locations on June 29, showing early senescence of unknown cause. I won’t speculate.

Occasionally, the trail widened to permit the entire entourage to gather, as was the case when we crossed a power line and later at the overlook.

Near the Park Lodge we all coalesced to explore several features, including this serene underwing moth that fluttered from a shagbark hickory trunk, where it had blended invisibly with the tree’s bark.

As we re-entered the forest from the overlook, me lagging with two stragglers, I spotted an ancient chestnut oak, deeply scarred by a decades-old lightning strike and worthy of recording this short video.

The old oak bore the scar from a searing lightning blast decades earlier. Such strikes can spell instant explosive death or leave a permanent non-fatal wound. Such a wound deadens a strip of the bark vertically, opening an infection court for wood decay organisms that begin their inexorable consumption of the mighty oak from within. The hollow oak will eventually yield to forces of wind and gravity. The rule of thumb is that the tree will topple when the persistent sound wood rind thickness falls below a third of the tree’s diameter at any given point. Can we then attribute the cause of death to lightning? The tree doesn’t care. The cause will be a matter of concern and interest to only a few old foresters and a handful of eager Master Naturalists.

Black locust is rapidly exiting the plateau forests of Monte Sano State Park. An early successional species, black locust likely dominated the younger forest of the 1970-1990s. The black-capped polypore pathogen infects most of the remaining locusts, signaling the trees’ demise with its distinctive shelf fruiting body.

Arthropods

A Master Naturalist knows about all manner of life, including the insects and diverse organisms that constitute Nature’s full ecosystem tapestry. Amber directed participants through an exercise intended to discover life forms residing in shrubs and under logs, leaves, and brush.

Here is my 37-second video of the June 29, arthropod bush-beating exercise:

Field Day participants undertook their task with relish and enthusiasm.

Forest Bathing

Amber introduced participants to the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, also known as forest bathing, a form of therapeutic relaxation where one spends time in a forest or natural atmosphere, focusing on sensory engagement to connect with Nature. Each person found a location near the pavilion to seek personal connection. Some chose a bench, leaned against an oak trunk, or chose a grassy spot to lie face-up.

I secured anchorage on an old stone wall (rich with diverse lichen crusting) under the combined shade of a chestnut oak and an adjacent black walnut tree.

The canopies gently swayed under the deep blue firmament. I recorded this 60-second video of the medium in which I soaked…soothing and immersing my body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit.

The view directly above me reminded me that all living creatures, whether the trees reaching high or the serene underwing moth we encountered earlier, draw life-energy from the star around which we orbit.

A different kind of forest bathing visited the Monte Sano Lodge on June 29, as Amber lectured indoors. I captured the summer shower with this 60-second video:

The brief shower quickly drifted to our south.

Closing Reflections

I thought of the deep revelation that John Muir shared as he contemplated the never-ending cycle of life on Earth:

It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.

I offered a closing charge to the participants. Louis Bromfield, mid Twentieth Century novelist, playwright, and conservationist, bought what he called his old worn out Ohio farm in the 1930s and subsequently dedicated his life to rehabilitating the health of its land and soils. He tells the story of his passion-driven land-healing in his non-fiction Pleasant Valley (1945):

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 some small corner of this Earth for the better, by wisdom, knowledge, and hard work.

I implored the fledgling Master Naturalists to view their own responsibility to:

promote awareness, understanding, and respect of Alabama’s natural world to the state’s residents and visitors through science-based information and research.

I encouraged them in their own way, to leave the mark of their fleeting existence upon the land and the people they touch…to change some small corner of the Earth for the better, by wisdom, knowledge, and hard work.

As I do with all audiences, I reminded them that people don’t care how much you know…until they know how much you care. Like all worthy conservationists, whether State Park Naturalists, Master Naturalists, or old worn out foresters, we operate most convincingly, effectively, and indelibly when we bring the Power of our Passion to the Service of Reason, in the cause of informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.

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 of 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 to provide 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:

I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike!’ (John Muir)
Look deep into Nature and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
We can never have enough of Nature. (Henry David Thoreau)

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones. Please circulate images with photo credit: “©2024 Steve Jones, Great Blue Heron LLC. All Rights Reserved.”

Another Note: If you came to this post via a Facebook posting or by another route, please sign up now (no cost… no obligation) to receive my Blog Post email alerts: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Three Books

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), and Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit) 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.

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

All three of my books (Nature Based Leadership; Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading; Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) present compilations of personal experiences expressing my (and co-author Dr. Wilhoit for Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits) deep passion for Nature. All three 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 now have a fourth book, published by Dutton Land and Cattle Company, Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story. Available for purchase directly from me. Watch for details in a future Post.