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Brief-Form #65: Large-scale Southern Pine Bettle Kill on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville State!

September 10, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from May 6 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/05/06/brief-form-post-59-nashville-tn-finding-nature-where-you-are/)

I am pleased to add the 65th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

On-site to attend the Alabama State Parks Foundation board meeting (June 18, 2026), at Lake Guntersville State Park, I arrived the prior morning to explore trails I had not yet wandered. I enjoyed a sweeping loop that covered the Terrell Connector, Terrell Trail, Graveyard Road, Service Road, Cave Trail, and Lodge Road, then returned through Terrell Trail and the Terrell Connector. I focused on what I could discover hidden in plain sight. See my weekly photo essay presenting highlights of my discoveries: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/08/31/mid-june-exploration-on-trails-new-to-me-on-lake-guntersville-state-park/. I address this essay to a major forest transformation sweeping Lake Guntersville State Park and other sectors of northern Alabama: the southern pine beetle.

Lake Guntersville State Park experienced hundreds of acres of pine mortality from the summer of 2024 through 2025. I passed through extensive acreage of total pine stand decimation.

Clemson University’s Southern Pine Beetle Information Center tracks and reports SPB infestation activity southwide:

Southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann, SPB) is a native, eruptive forest pest that has caused significant damage to pine forests since it was first reported in the 1700’s. SPB has been found in the southeastern U.S. for decades, and was first documented as a major mortality agent in southern pine forests more than 120 years ago. Charles Zimmermann originally described the SPB in 1868, placing it in the family Hylurgidae under the tribe Hylurgi. He synonymized it with Bostrichus frontalis Fabr. in his description. This was later corrected by Le Conte (1876), and SPB was placed in the family Scolytidae. SPB is now placed within the family Curculionidae: subfamily Scolytinae. While frequent, severe, and widespread SPB outbreaks occurred throughout the Southeast in the last half of the 20th century, recent SPB activity in the region has been localized and short-lived. Reports from the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s indicated that outbreaks then were also less common.

I had seen scattered clusters of pine mortality during the first half of my circuit, where second-growth hardwood dominated. Widespread infestation appeared as I entered pine forest along the latter stretches. I recorded this 59-second video along a section of trail with a pine stand decimated by SPB.

Park crews felled dead pine bordering active trails to remove overhanging hazzards. The tremendous volume of regional mortality overwhelmed markets, shutting down salvage opportunities. Already, a second or third year of full sunlight reaching the forest floor is unleashing the understory vegetation (see lush growth at right). Invisible at the moment, decomposers are hard at work returning dead and down woody debris to the soil. The carbon cycle is functioning at full speed. The booming sequence of forest growth, death, and renewal is well tuned and remarkably well practiced with a millennially-seasononed native eruptive forest pest!

A dozen years from now, standing pine skeletons will have fallen, the downed trees will not be recognizable in decay, and the trailside hardwood forest will seem intact. Sure, the astute observer will read telltale signs of the devastating insect outbreak and the shift from pine forest to hardwood.

The periodic fatal infestations are nothing new across the southeastern US. Such is the case with an eruptive forest pest like SPB. The insect is native and has been as long as foresters and entomologists have paid attention. Union Camp Corporation, a then Fortune 500 Paper and Allied Products Manufacturer, hired me as an industrial forester in May of 1973. Among other assignments, I managed. We foresters kept vigil on SPB cycles, alert for eruptions, quick to salvage, and vigilant to establish buffers. We strove to stay ahead of the hopeless predicament the state park faced. Sometimes we succeeded; other times we, too, were overwhelmed.

There are management measures we can practice with our native SPB devil. However, across my 53-year career, forest scientists and foresters have lamented destructive invasive agents (insects and diseases).

Gypsy moths entered our fair land in 1869, posing a widespread oak and related hardwood devastation threat. Fortunately, 157 years later, the insect is mostly endemic, a naturalized insect pest, now buffered and controlled by its own introduced pests, including selective biological insecticides (Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium) and a small parasitic wasp (Encyrtidae) introduced in North America in 1909.

Chestnut Blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) entered the US from Asia in 1904, when it began its relentless devastation of american chestnut. Chestnut forests from southern Maine to central Alabama. I recall encountering abundant surviving chestnut saplings during my summer forestry employment on state forests in western Maryland. There remains hope for eventual, long-term recovery. From its website, The American Chestnut Foundation:

During the past 100 years, chestnut blight, caused by the Asian fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, killed an estimated four billion American chestnut (Castanea dentata) trees, and pushed the iconic species into a state of functional extinction. Human interference triggered the American chestnut’s demise–now scientific innovation offers us the best chance to save it. As reliable and productive as the American chestnut tree was, the species now exists in forests primarily in a state of stunted vegetative regeneration from surviving root systems, and this population continues to dwindle. The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) is leading an unprecedented rescue mission to return the iconic American chestnut to its native range.

The goal of our forest restoration work is to implement plantings of genetically diverse and disease-resistant American chestnut trees that are capable of sustained population growth across the native range in the ever-changing landscape of our Eastern hardwood forests.

Dutch Elm disease entered the US in 1928 and decimated our native elm forests. I lived in Keene, New Hampshire several years ago. Know as Elm City, its once magnificent Elm-lined avenues and lanes are elm-barren.

An online USDA source indicates that the Emerald Ash Borer was first detected in North America in 2002 (southeast Michigan.)

The emerald ash borer (EAB), an invasive wood-boring beetle from Asia, is responsible for the death and decline of tens of millions of ash trees in North America. EAB lays its eggs in the bark crevices of ash trees. The eggs hatch and the larvae burrow into the tree where they feed. This feeding is what damages the trees. We have detected EAB infestations in 38 States and the District of Columbia. EAB is difficult to detect early when pest populations are small because damage to the trees is hidden under the bark and tree decline is gradual. The beetle is well-suited to our climate, is a good flyer, and spreads naturally. People contribute to the long-distance spread of the beetle when they move EAB-infested ash firewood, logs or nursery stock.

In early May of 2010, I chronicled in a single Great Blue Heron photo essay (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2018/06/05/six-hundred-sixty-mile-transect/), the ecology of my 600-mile drive from Madison, Alabama to Fairmont, West Virginia, noting my deep concern encountering the EAB mortality front:

Midway between Chattanooga and Knoxville, I spot a disturbing first along the route — dead ash trees along the highway. The imported (an international shipment stowaway) emerald ash-borer is spreading rapidly in North America across the range of genus Fraxinus. It is decimating ash. We saw the ubiquitous mortality from this point north to our destination, and beyond to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland. Oh, the price we pay for our shrinking globe. We do business in a global economy; we and all Earth species must sustain within a global ecosystem. I find the ash decline and imminent peril particularly disturbing. I have been a big ash fan from my days conducting forest inventory on State Forests in western Maryland during undergraduate summers… to conducting forest fertilization on planted green ash stands for Union Camp Corporation in Virginia and North Carolina… through my PhD research on Pennsylvania and New York Allegheny Hardwood stands (white ash a major component). I have revered its preference for high-quality sites, its fast growth, straight boles, strong wood, and deep green foliage. Nothing beats its easy response to a splitting maul, its non-sputtering flame and hi BTUs in a fireplace or stove, and the crack of a Louisville Slugger bat connecting with a fastball. As we’ve faced before with American Chestnut and American elm, how on Earth do we contend with vanishing ash!?

We encountered the dead ash for reasons other than crossing some ecological divide. Instead, we entered the geographic margin of spread from the borer’s Cleveland point of entry. Officials have already noted the green beetle’s presence in Alabama, though not yet widespread. Time will tell. We can hope for some climatic barrier… yet I fear the insect will continue its spread of infestation and death.

I am hopeful that the southward spread has slowed. I am not seeing widespread mortality in my northern Alabama forest wanderings. Are environmental conditions at work? Are 20 years of biological control programs (e.g., parasitoids) proving successful? See this comprehensive USDA APHIS report to learn more: (chromeextension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.eppo.int/media/uploaded_images/MEETINGS/Meetings_2026/Agrilus%20presentations/Dodge%20Current%20status%2C%20successes%2C%20and%20limitations.pdf).

Natural barriers (oceans, mountains, deserts, etc.) used to limit the spread of invasive plants, animals, insects, and diseases. Today we have a difficult enough problem controlling native eruptive forest pests, like SPB. Toss in exotic insects and diseases, and we must turn to new and emerging technologies like biological control programs in addition to an arsenal of traditional control practices.

We are a wood-dependent human species. Mess with elements of this incredible renewable resource, whether chestnut, elm, ash, oaks, or other species, and you impair our ability to practice sustainable forestry. I’ve watched the battle intensify over my 50+ year forestry career. Don’t despair. Know that diligent and responsible science will prevail. Continue to enjoy Nature, learn more about the biological and physical factors affecting our forests, and embrace and promote informed forest stewardship.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection:

Don’t despair of forest pests and diseases: embrace and promote science-informed forest stewardship.

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

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

Teaching Beyond the Walls: An Alabama State Parks Workshop at Monte Sano State Park

September 2, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from April 29 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/04/29/brief-form-post-58-forest-discoveries-while-measuring-tree-heights-on-monte-sano-state-park/)

I assisted the Alabama State Park staff in delivering the Teaching Beyond the Walls: Alabama’s Ecology In Action educators’ workshop at Monte Sano State Park on June 30, 2026. Funded by BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama, the ~30 participants enjoyed diverse sessions over the nine-hour program, including: Alabama’s biodiversity; immersion in forest ecology; student-centered science; place-based teaching and learning; water cycle and stream ecology; asking the right questions; seeking insight from others; and learning through Nature. Join me as I accompany the registered learning community participants at the State Park Lodge and its plateau-edge surroundings.

The State Park System education and interpretation obiectives align with my professional retirement mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship. I find fullfillment in partnering with the park system to educate, inspire, and enable visitors to embrace Earth Stewardship. What better way than through educator workshops!

We learned indoors (blessed air conditioning) and out (welcome breezes and deep woods shade).

I recorded a 54-second video showcasing the lodge and its immediate woodland outdoor laboratory.

I suppose that spending my youth in family Nature-based recreation, four years in forestry school (1973 BS), 12 years employed by a Fortune-500 paper and allied products manufacturing company, three years earning a doctoral degree in Applied Forest Ecology (1987 Ph.D.), and 35 years in higher education teaching, research,and administration at nine universities, positioned me to know all the answers. Not so! The more I learn, the less I know. Sure, I am pretty comfortable with how I can handle a day of learning and sharing in a northern Alabama forest. Just the same, it is I who benefit most from interacting with eager, inquisitive, and dedicated educators intent on sharpening their craft, deepening their knowledge, and fueling their environmental education passion.

Understanding and Appreciating Alabama’s Biodiversity

Dr. Scott Duncan’s SouthernWonder is a perfect launching pad for such a course. Alabama is the fourth most biologically diverse state in the country. Each participant exited the workshop with a copy for use as an invaluable environmental education resource.

Finding Inhabitant Wonder in a Plateau-top Brook

Environmental learning is a contact sport. The educators leaped into investigating abundant life (biodiversity) in the plateau-top brook near the lodge.

Participants turned over rocks, screened the water, and gathered nearby to share discoveries and compare observations.

There is excitement and celebration in learning, a demonstrable contact sport with feet in the water, knees in the mud, and hands on the tiny critters.

Here is my 25-second video of learning in action, which is anything but learning inaction!

Amber Coger, the Alabama State Park NW District Naturalist, shares the caddis fly larva she found under a rock mid-brook. She may not have been more thrilled finding a gold nugget.

Here’s my 59-second video recorded where the plateau-top brook exits at a ledge to depart for the Huntsville valley floor.

There is palpable magic in learning, sharing, understanding, and appreciating.

Seeing What Lies Hidden in Plain Sight

I often observe that I invest most of my time in forest wanderings discovering what wonders lie hidden in plain sight.

I recordeed this 58-second video of the workshop’s forest immersion experience, a designed quiet period to listen, relax, and absorb through all five human portals: mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit. Here’s the location where instructors released students one at a time to facilitate solitary immersion.

Instructors placed guidance along the way to help focus and implore deep thinking and full immersion.

An instrucor cautioned participants and bikers to watch out for each other.

Teacher-students followed forest immersion practitice guidelines. I reminded myself that I need to be a more disciplined practitioner. I don’t sit quietly long enough. Come on, Steve, practice what you preach!

One station suggested that students look into the crown, a perspective that forces us to think about the engine, Old Sol, that fuels forest energy flow.

Although I seldon pause for a full forest immersion, I abhor wasting my time blindly hiking through Nature, intent on the destination… not the journey.

John Muir advocated sauntering in Nature, as an online biographer source noted:

One day as I was resting in the shade Mr. Muir overtook me on the trail and began to chat in that friendly way in which he delights to talk with everyone he meets. I said to him: “Mr. Muir, someone told me you did not approve of the word ‘hike.’ Is that so?” His blue eyes flashed, and with his Scotch accent he replied: “I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not hike!”

John Muir lived up to his doctrine. He was usually the last man to reach camp. He never hurried. He stopped to get acquainted with individual trees along the way. He would hail people passing by and make them get down on hands and knees if necessary to see the beauty of some little bed of almost microscopic flowers. Usually he appeared at camp with some new flowers in his hat and a little piece of fir bough in his buttonhole.

Discovering Special Oddity, Curiosity, and Delight in Everyday Nature

Forest oddities, curiosities, and mysteries fascinate, puzzle, and entertain me on my forest excursions. I kept my eyes open as I wandered during the workshop. This chestnut oak stood in plain view where I recorded the start of the forest immersion video. I wondered how many noticed?

A contorted sugar maple displayed clear evidence of some past physical battery (falling branch or tree, logging equipment damage, or some less-obvious injury). Nature is remarkably resilient.

Naturally curious in its manner of growth, sparkleberry or farkleberry grows however it wishes, without apparent disciplinary rules.

I love it for its mirthful common names and for its whimsical growth.

I learned a new plant: leafy elephant’s-foot, a moniker worthy of inclusion in this listing of notable features in everyday Nature.

I consider myself a neophyte mycophile… a fungi enthusiast. I’m gaining confidence in identifying regional edibles. iNaturalist identified this mushroom as Neoboletus sp. ‘varietstibus. Its velvety brown, stocky appearance drew me closer. I saw no other individuals and because of its scarcity, I did not disturb it to capture a complete set of photo images: top, bottom, and side. Therefore I am not confident in the iNaturalist identification. I’ll consider whether this species is edible or not when I find a patch large enough to be certain.

Red chanterelle mushrooms are edible, but are too diminutive to bother. I do forage larger chanterelles, but not from our State Parks.

I recorded this 60-second red chanterelles video during the workshop.

I present this final oddity, curiosity, and delight: dog vomit slime mold, which presented itself along the trail at the intersection where we launched individuals for their solitary immersions. So much lies hidden in plain sight.

Like John Muir, I believe:

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

The Wonder of My Retirement Role

Here’s our contingent of ardent learners.

One of the educators (Shelly, employed in Tennessee) said to me after sharing a table during the indoor sessions, “You have the greatest volunteer retirement role I could ever imagine.” She nailed it:

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:

Mr. Muir, someone told me you did not approve of the word ‘hike.’ Is that so?” His blue eyes flashed, and with his Scotch accent he replied: “I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not hike!” (Muir biographer)
There is excitement and celebration in learning, again, a demonstrable contact sport. (Steve Jones)
There is palpable magic in learning, sharing, understanding, and appreciating. (Steve Jones)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

[Workshop facilitator Amber Coger depicting the right-angle branching character of black gum (the smaller tree at her right forearm).]

Mid-June Exploration on Trails New to Me on Lake Guntersville State Park!

August 31, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from April 21 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/04/21/brief-form-post-57-reflection-in-on-beaverdam-tupelo-swamp-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge/)

On-site to attend the Alabama State Parks Foundation board meeting (June 18, 2026), at Lake Guntersville State Park, I arrived the prior morning to explore trails I had not yet wandered. I enjoyed a sweeping loop that covered the Terrell Connector, Terrell Trail, Graveyard Road, Service Road, Cave Trail, and Lodge Road, then returned through Terrell Trail and the Terrell Connector. No, I refuse to claim mine was a hike. Like John Muir, I sauntered these forest trails and park roads to experience yet another northern Alabama second-growth Cumberland Plateau forest. I walked within the forest…not through the forest. I was absorbing all I could discover hidden in plain sight, not to reach benchmarks, score miles, and log elevation gain. Come along with me virtually.

The entire route transited second-growth forest. However, second-growth is a broad characterization encompassing nearly every acre of forest in the eastern USA. Very little of the original pre-Columbian forest escaped domestication, settlement, logging, and other disturbances. Although all second-growth, the LGSP forest is anything but uniform.

Entering a Forest Stand with an Ancient Aura

The Connector Trail transits a rich bottomland forest exhibiting old-growth characteristics: large-diameter towering hardwoods, abundant dead and down woody debris, and tiered canopy. I felt I had entered an ancient forest.

A planked boardwalk kept my boots dry.

A channel directed water through the bottomland. The waterway appeared to be human-made, suggesting a dragline or backhoe excavation drainage ditch through fertile farmland prior to the Corps of Engineers or TVA acquiring the basin property for Lake Guntersville. I have often observed that every parcel of forest has a story to tell. I can discern some of the tale from hints, allegations, and evidence on site, yet there is a juncture where conjecture blurs from certainty.

Tufts of Christmas fern highlighted the fertile bottomland near the channel. Dense shade reduced understory growth, leaving the fern standing in isolation…alone in the gloam.

I continued beyond the ancient feel of the Christmas fern glade.

Exiting the Apparent Old-Growth

The Connector Trail brought me to a spaghetti intersection. Several hours later I worked my way back to this loblolly pine tree, and then on to my car.

The remainder of my transit stayed on uplands. Long ago when I was managing company-owned forest land, I would have subdivided the property into management units. Such was not the intent of my LGSP wanderings. I sought not to understand, differentiate, or consolidate…nor to consider the forest. I wanted only to discover the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration that linked one marvel, curiosity, and oddity to another. This trail segment served as matrix, revealing nothing special… just a peaceful, quiet stretch that offered no distractions. This stand of mixed oaks and associated upland hardwoods seemed to fall within the age range of 80 to 110 years, typical of northern Alabama.

A little further along, the fun began. The seeming even-aged matrix of 80-110-year-old forest was peppered with significantly larger, older, disfigured, and decayed individuals, like this chestnut oak. I offer an explanation for this apparent two-aged forest. Loggers harvested commercially valuable individuals about a century ago, leaving unmerchantable trees behind. This chestnut oak will never secure a berth on a logging truck, yet in this public park setting, the tree’s non-forest-product value may be nearly incalculably high.

Among other benefits, the tree produces vast quantities of mast (acorns for animal consumption). The tree is hollow and likely has been since the logger noticed it was not worth felling early in the twentieth century. This oak occupies land, air, and soil covering at least one-fifth of an acre. Think of the vast quantities of organic matter processed by the tree, associated organisms (micro and macro), and energy flowing through this single tree ecosystem.

And nearby a healthy, vibrant, ~90-year-old hickory reached high into the canopy, its bark revealing vigorous growth, distinct from the old denizen in the turtle-head massive monster image below.

I recorded this 59-second video along the trail.

Again, imagine this gnarled hickory ignored by the forest sawyer so many years ago. Every tree has a story to tell. I’d like to hear this unique individual’s tale.

I recorded this 60-second video of the gnarled hickory:

Eyes closed, the turtle (or is it a dragon!) relaxed as I snapped photographs and recorded the short video.

A black oak signaled internal decay with its severly swollen branch stub at chest level above the trail surface. I’m reminded of the 12 weeks of bi-weekly physical therapy I endured following my April 13, 2026, total left shoulder reconstruction. People with braces, recent scars, bandages, and gimpy, healing limbs surrounded me. Nine weeks after surgery, here I was at LGSP in the midst of trees bearing wounds, injuries, infections, and diverse infirmities and imperfections!

Even among the affected trees, including this blemished black oak, a glance upward revealed the beauty, promise, and inspiration of the sun smiling through its crown.

A nearby white oak stood among the stricken, its decay-swelled old branch stub opening a portal to its hollow core.

Not all oaks are misshappen, decayed, and physically disabled. However, all sourwood trees (Oxydendrum arboreum) rebel against growing in accord with the basic, fundamental dictates of negative geotropism and positive phototropism. Most trees grow opposite the attraction of gravity or directly toward the sun. Sourwood prefers sinuosity, a characteristic I’ve admired since first meeting the species in freshman Dendrology! Compare the curvy sourwood cluster below right to the three clumped yellow poplars beyond them standing at ramrod attention.

Some Additional Curiosities:

Our native loblolly pines accumulate resins in core wood as they age and mature. The resin-soaked heartwood is decay resistant, as is evident from this old cut stump. Only the bark and the core remain.

This corewood skeleton remains intact on the forest floor where it fell decades ago. When I fueled a fireplace in prior residences, I collected such lightered wood to start evening fires.

So many stories to interpret, record, and later share as I sauntered through LGSP; so little reader’s time to consume!

Kings Chapel Cemetery

I abruptly entered a sacred opening, dropping back 100 years. The cemetery bordered a community then tethered to Kings Chapel and anchored to the Tennessee River. I found no interment that postdated Lake Guntersville’s 1939 completion.

The Terrell and King families were prominent citizens. These individuals died in 1938 and 1927. Imagine the tremendous family, community, and economic tremors imposed by dam completion.

The King inscription reads: Their toils are past, their work is done, they fought the fight — the victory is won. Who now tends their graves? Who remembers them?

Friends, neighbors, and kinfolk, these King and Strange residents passed in 1918 and 1926. Did any still-adjacent trees witness their burial?

The John and Willie Strange epitaph: We trust our loss will be their gain, and that with Christ they have gone to reign.

The Terrell memory lives on via a named trail. I can think of less favorable ways to be memorialized!

Some Worthy Postscripts

Two lovely mushrooms appeared, the first this hintapink (Russula paludosa), a brightly colored, edible brittlegill. I harvested only one of several, mostly to secure an underside photo for identification. I cooked the morsel with butter, pepper, and salt, finding the flavor mild and pleasant, but not nearly enough to truly gauge whether I’d want a full-omelette measure.

I saw a handful of this meaty ornate-stalked bolete, identified as edible with a caution that the species can be too bitter for consumption. I found it disagreeably acrid.

This violet-toothed polypore occupied an oak sapling snag, performing its dedicated decomposing mission. No, not edible!

Pin cushion moss colonized a long decaying stump and trunk, both visible only as an outline of the organic matter remains of the downed woody debris.

A supplejack vine clings to its black oak anchorage. I admire its smooth green bark and tendency to wrap in sinuous coils on tree stems and adjacent supplejack vines.

I leave you with an image of the LGSP Mabrey Rock of Ages, along the Service Road as I returned to to the Connector Trail.

Alabama State Parks Foundation

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

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:

Take heart, not all oaks are misshapen, decayed, and physically disabled. (Steve Jones)
However, all sourwood trees (Oxydendrum arboreum) rebel against growing in accord with the basic, fundamental dictates of negative geotropism and positive phototropism. (Steve Jones)
I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. (John Muir)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

I 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 #63: Mid-Summer Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Nature Walk at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge!

August 19, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from April 9 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/04/09/mid-december-delights-and-mysteries-on-the-wnwr-hiking-and-bicycling-trail/)

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I am pleased to add the 63rd of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger and I co-led an OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Alabama in Huntsville) Nature walk on June 13, 2026, at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur, Alabama. We planned to saunter through the rich bottomland forest along the Flint Creek Trail, slowly exploring the beauty, magic, awe, and inspiration of Nature hidden in plain sight. Three of us appropriately dallied, immersed in wonder, wandering within the forest, truly focusing on the intended discovery and learning. The other dozen or so participants yielded to resident bottomland blood-sucking mosquitoes. As a result, the three of us were persuaded to abandon the trek and head to the nearby Refuge Visitors Center instead. I’ll take you there with me.

I had arrived at the trailhead early enough to examine the parking area Refuge buffer of sowed wildflower mix. Bergamots were among the plants already flowering.

I recorded this 53-second video of the beds dominated at the moment by bergamots and black-eyed Susans.

Black-eyed Susans are among my favorite summer natives.

We began our trek within sight of the beds, by crossing the boardwalk, which carried us across a sunny, breezy, mosquito-free (a relevant point as I will soon reveal) passage into the forest.

I recorded this 59-second video as we approached the trail via the boardwalk.

Pond cypress, a water-tolerant deciduous conifer, stood in the Flint Creek inlet at the boardwalk trailhead.

My Musings on What Warrants Doing as Time Wanes

We entered the forest where wonders awaited some of us… and two-winged, six-legged terrorists inflicted intolerable annoyance on the others. Summer passage through certain northern Alabama ecotypes exacts a toll. The circumstances of this day lead me to pledge (to self) that I will heretofore exercise greater caution in agreeing to which particular OLLI (or any other) missions I shall choose/decide to accept.

None of us knows how many woodland excursions lie ahead. I do know that the window eventually closes. The clock continues ticking. I love my deliberate, succinct retirement mission:

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

Mightn’t I have been better advised to persue a Nature jaunt of my own design, intent, passion, purpose, and ken, rather than one where the participants are easily dissuaded from the effort? As I draft this text, I will enter my fourth quarter of a century in two days. Chances are slim (to none) that a fifth awaits me (Well, maybe it’s with partaking a fifth of Old Forester that my chance improves!).

Without belaboring my disappointment, allow me to point out that at least eight of our 14 participants wore short-sleeve shirts/blouses, despite our advance suggestion to avoid attracting unwanted insect attention and voracious feeding.

An Abbreviated Woodland Exploration

The bottomland forest presented abundant mushrooms for those of us not flushed ahead by the pesky skeeters. Rather than escort you with deep narrative, allow me to introduce our welcoming fungi. Lactarius psammicola gave us palm-size shrooms.

Golden-gilled gerronema showed their characteristic biege funnels.

Although very attractive, the species is not considered edible.

Bolete mushrooms are a group of fungi with spongy pores under their caps instead of gills, including some edible species. I’ve reached a point in my foraging where I’m gaining enough knowledge and confidence to begin selecting certain boletes. This individual is in an advanced state of decay, rotting with a bolete mould.

Nearby we spotted dog vomit slime mold, a fungus that has a moniker that, even if it were edible, would discouraged human consumers.

I spotted an unfamiliar understory plant, whitenymph. By this point of progress, the mosquito-spurred group had raced way ahead of us.

I felt compelled to photograph Carolina ruellia, a lovely little ground-hugging early summer wildflower.

Quick Trip across the Highway to the Visitors Center Cypress Pond

The larger group hailed us before we had traversed half the distance they covered. We agreed to return to our vehicles, and then leave to the visitors center about a mile away, across the highway, where we anticipated far fewer human-blood-consuming insects. Some of the original group did not transfer to the visitors center.

I’ll touch briefly on our mosquito-abatement alternative. I always enjoy the bald cypress pond and boardwalk near the visitors center.

Stems are packed tightly and reach high. Cypress knees perform their function, whether securing incremental anchorage or assisting in gaseous exchange.

I recorded this 60-second video within the cypress pond, adding a little Righteous Brothers accompaniment.

I always glance heavenward from the boardwalk. The dense trunk-stocking suggests crowded, intersecting and overlapping crowns. Instead, cypress expresses crown shyness… faithfully, maintaining space-margins and no-touch zones separating one crown from another! Is it my own certifiable introvert personality that explains my admiration of sylvan crown shyness?

Perhaps I overreacted to our change in plans; perhaps not. However, in no small part owing to my seminal life benchmark (75 years!), my angst and pique were real… and persist. I shall be recalibrating priorities. From a time-of-life-dawn, the brim-full hour glass left plenty of room for judgement error. Today, with a setting sun ahead, the sand grains rush unceasingly. The relative cost of each one amplifies. My maternal grandmother, a country girl from Appalachian-region West Virginia, said as much: “The older I get, the faster time goes!”

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, this one cut, modified, and pasted from above:

None of us knows how many woodland excursions lie ahead. I do know that the window eventually closes. The clock continues ticking. I love my deliberate, succinct retirement mission:

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

Mightn’t I have been better advised to pursue a Nature jaunt of my own design, intent, passion, purpose, and ken?

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

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

First Time Visit to Graham Farm and Nature Preserve

August 5, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

[Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from March 24 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/03/24/mid-december-above-ground-exploration-at-cathedral-caverns-state-park/)]

I toured the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) Jackson County Graham Farm and Nature Center on June 24, 2026, with friends Chris Stuhlinger, Bill and Becky Heslip, and Roxanne Pennington. I served as ACES Director from 1996 to 2001, leading the unification of Auburn University and A&M University’s distinct extension programs under a Federal Court Order that settled a long-standing legal dispute involving both institutions and the state of Alabama. I had looked forward to seeing the 491-acre outdoor education, conservation, and preservation enterprise borne of a dedicated joint endeavor. Come along with me for my initial observations, reflections, photographic images, and brief videos.

Doorway to a Special Place: Wisps of Memories and Vapors of Possibilities

I had driven past the Center on prior trips through the valley to visit a waterfall owned by friends about two miles beyond. I saw the GF&NC signage, but knew only enough to whet my curiosity and prompt me to arrange a tour and orientation, which led to scheduling this visit. I felt a deep connection, sentimental I suppose in part, from my intimate role in forging and leading the inter-university, involuntary (Federal Court-ordered) cooperative venture that stood during the era of my tenure in the national spotlight. My purpose is not to focus on what we then termed The Unification. The ACES directorship was the toughest role of my university administrative career. I’ll mention only that Auburn University President Bill Muse said, “We asked Steve to do the impossible, and he damned near did it!”

Driving onto the property, the Paint Rock Valley and surrounding Cumberland Plateau terrain beguiled and bewitched me. I reflected on my third book, Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature, co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit (published in 2019). My book Introduction included:

Awakening to nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi. Nature is in our backyard, a trip to a nearby city park, or a state park just down the road. Anyone can develop a relationship with nature wherever you are, a point I reiterate in each and every nature-inspired life and living address I deliver. My relationship with nature is spiritual. I view my engagement as a calling, and a noble cause to sow seeds so that others might do their own part to change some small corner of this Earth for the better.

I awakened to the Nature of this special place when I entered the Graham Farm and Nature Center. The sense and spirit beckoned me, pulled me into its magic. It was real and palpable, strengthening with each moment during our six hours on the property, seeing and inhaling its essence, meeting and getting to know staff, and sharing ideas and dreams. Wisps of memories and vapors of possibilities infused my vision of a potential volunteer niche role for me, an admittedly self-satisfying venture for yet another chapter of my retirement. I recently crossed my 75th birthday threshold, entering my 4th quarter of a century of life on Earth. A senior former forestry faculty colleague remarked in response to my fourth quarter of a century comment, “Remember that in football, in the 4^th quarter, every play counts!”

I share a relevant excerpt from Notes from the Field: Paint Rock and the New Nation (July 4, 2026) by Bill Finch, Founding Director, Paint Rock Forest Research Center, located in the same valley and ecosystem as GF&NC:

Paint Rock appears to have escaped the worst of 19th and 20th century deforestation and plowing. But the modern forest is a dim reflection of what it was in the 18th century. Mountainsides then as now likely supported the most diverse assembly of deciduous trees and shrubs in the United States, in some places so tall and dense they blocked the sun for much of the year. But the slopes may have been less uniformly covered in trees. Fragments of sun-loving, summer blooming sunflowers, tall green gentians, lilies, moon-flowered silphiums, and warm season grasses still dot the slopes, the remnants of what must have been extensive nearly treeless glades. Plants that are now rare in that forest, like smoketrees and the federally threatened Morefield’s clematis vine, are struggling to find the light they once knew.

I have no doubt that this Paint Rock Valley is a Special Place. I recorded this 60-second video as a brief introduction to Graham Farm and Nature Center.

I will not burden you with tireless narrative based only upon a preliminary superficial reconnaissance. I’m hooked enough to return to get to know her better, and share what I learn, both the obvious and the mystery.

The Center

As Chancellor, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, America’s Arctic University, I fell in love with America’s Last Frontier. Alaska is not just a vast place…it’s a spirit, an abiding spirit. Robert Service, a Brit who spent several years in the Yukon during the turn of the prior century goldrush days, expressed the Far North essence more clearly than any I’ve read. Excerpting from his The Spell of the Yukon:

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

And I want to go back — and I will.

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

It’s the forests where silence has lease;

It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

Granted, Alaska is unmatched. It’s also not within an hour and 15 minute drive of my house! I welcome a Nature affair with a special place of beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration… where I want to go back — and I can… and I will. Graham Farm and Nature Center fits the bill!

Allow me to rely upon selected photos and brief videos to present a GF&NC overview. I pledge to develop focused photo essays from future visits. The pavilion and operational hub occupy a commanding knoll at the valley core of the 491-acre property.

An old photograph of the pre-ACES Graham farm is among exhibits that reach back into the farm and valley’s rich history.

Our June 24, 2026 contingent consisted of Bill and Becky Heslip, me in the rear echelon, Center Director Themika L. “Mike” Sims, Chris Stuhlinger, Roxanne Pennington, and Administrative Support Specialist II Donna Sands behind the camera.

Although we didn’t have an opportunity to visit this charming woods-edge cottage, we understood that it will see future use as an overnight accommodation.

We visited the trailhead of a mountain forest trail. When summer’s heat abates I will return to explore this and many other trails.

The valley does indeed beckon.

Even the open land near the creeks promises discoveries in ecotype transition from field to meadow to brush to forest to wetland to stream channel.

Meadowland transitioning to brush then to forest will afford learning and discovery to Center visitors for the ages.

Wild carrot presented its lacy blossoms in the lower meadows.

I’m eager to follow and admire the Center’s changing seasonal faces. Multiply the one-hour-of-one-afternoon a hundred fold to anticipate the Nature-magic that lies ahead.

Larkin Creek enters Paint Rock River at this juncture on the property. I look forward to seeing the flow when it is not turbid from recent flooding, and also when the streams are at overflow. This landscape feature lies 1,000 vertical feet below the property’s highest. Spring at the union arrives more than a week in advance of the peak; autumn a week later. The place and its seasons are complex, varied, and exhilarating.

I recorded this 60-second video of the Larkin Creek juncture with Paint Rock River.

Perhaps I will find reason to stay overnight in the Connestoga Wagon Pampering Accommodations!

Here is my 60-second video of the overnight pampering wagons.

Chris and I are returning to GF&NC on July 30 to scout a tree and shrub identification trail, providing fodder for a subsequent Great Blue Heron GF&NC photo essay.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I view my engagement (with Graham Farm and Nature Center) as a calling, and a noble cause to sow seeds so that others might do their own part to change some small corner of this Earth for the better. (Steve Jones)
The sense and spirit of this special place beckoned me, pulled me into its magic! (Steve Jones)
Remember that in football, in the 4^th quarter, every play counts! (Dr. Russell Briggs)
Awakening to Nature does not require a trip to the Grand Canyon or a trek across the Gobi. (Steve Jones)

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.

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

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 (2025) 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

Curiosities and Oddities at Marshall Forest Preserve National Natural Landmark in Rome, Georgia!

July 15, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from March 5 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/03/05/re-visiting-auburn-universitys-louise-kreher-forest-ecology-preserve-and-nature-center/)

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger, retired videographer Bill Heslip, and I visited Marshall Forest Preserve on April 5, 2026. Established as Georgia’s first National Natural Landmark, near Rome, Georgia, the Preserve is recognized by the Old Growth Forest Network (https://www.oldgrowthforest.net/). The preserve encompasses ~300 acres of undisturbed upland pine and hardwood forest. Our wandering began as persistent overnight rain ended, rewarding us with trunks stem-flow-darkened and bark surfaces beautifully algae-patterned in the relatively limited light under low clouds. The dampened woodland seemed to accent the curiosities and oddities I highlight in this weekly photo essay.

A twisted, stunted, dwarfed black cherry tree presented a gnome-arch trailside near the trailhead. Were I younger and more nimble, I may have made a ceremonial entrance on hands and knees. However, were I not incessantly young at heart, I may not have viewed the natural scupture as a fairy gateway!

A forked chestnut oak provided an eye-level sightline into the forest. There is nothing unusual about a forked oak. I include this tree only as a prop for the interesting photo that follows.

A bark-stripped standing dead loblolly pine had recently yielded to gravity, snapping three feet above the ground, vectoring gently enough that its bole neatly lodged in the forked notch of an adjacent oak, not unlike the lower-forked oak above. What were the chances? Perhaps within five of the 360 degree circumference available to it. The fallen stem leans at a perfect 45-degree angle. I wonder how long the laws of Nature will hold the pine trunk aloft before it slams to the ground, where agents of decomposition will act more earnestly. Ashes to ashes; dust to dust; an inevitable end game for life on Earth.

I love seeing Vaccinium arboreum, the only tall shrub/tree form of the blueberry genus. I encounter it most often on rocky slopes and cragggy exposed sites. Its orange-striped, twisted stems compel me to take a closer look, engage my imagination, and snap a photograph. Its physical form, distinctive bark color, and common names demand more than a casual glance. How can I resist sparkleberry, farkleberry, and winter huckleberry!

Resisting being out-contorted by sparkle/farkle/huckleberry, this understory black cherry insists not to comport by the natural laws of geotropism and phototropism. It seems to live indepedent of the laws generally applicable to its main canopy brethren that reach straight and tall in opposition to gravity and drawn by sunlight above.

Only its distinctive cornflake shredded bark and emerging spring leaves belie its identity as Prunus serotina.

Nature is amazingly resilient, valiantly attempting to survive impact and injury to eventually produce seed and extened its genetic lineage. Some force (a branch from above, a tree, or a heavy snow or ice load) slammed a sapling black cherry to horizontal several decades ago. The fallen stem activated a shoot from a dormant (adventitious) bud 15 feet from the overturned base. The vertical shoot may produce seed, achieving its ultimate purpose.

I marvel at Nature’s endless novelties. However, even as I classify these phenomena as new or unusual (i.e. novel), I admit that I never fail to discover tree form oddities and curiosities wherever I wander forests. Are these features deserving of special recogntion as novel, odd, curious, or unusual? A question worth pondering. I believe the answer is, yes, any circumstance that prompts me to wonder about the cause that led to a visible result is worthy of a special recognition moniker: oddity, curiosity, novel…

Leonardo da Vinci observed 500 years ago that natural phenomena can be explained by the universal laws of nature.

and

Nature never breaks her own laws!

Albert Einstein would have concurred:

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

and

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Dead and Down Woody Debris

Significant biomass in dead and down woody debris is one distinguishing feature of old-growth forests. The resin-saturated pine skeleton below is the interior lightered core of a long dead pine. The outer dead wood that was not decomposer-resistant worked its way into the carbon cycle decades, if not centuries, ago.

The distinct pine knots will litter the forest floor for many years hence.

My companions agreed with me that this fallen pine corpse retains a dragon head reaching to the trail edge.

A standing dead pine snag retains a curious cupped depression three above ground. The wound looks mechanical, yet I’ve never seen a chainsaw create such a scoop mark. We noted the novel appearance…and moved along the trail, content that even we could not discern a cause for every result.

This veteran oak sported a porcine snout 20 feet up its bole. An old branch stub, the snout likely opens to a hollow core.

This wound on another oak clearly opens to a hollow interior. The misshapen swollen trunk is a sure indication of rot and fungal infection.

Yet another oak shows the signs of decay, suggested by an open branch stub portal, also signalling a hollow decayed core. A large burl also attracts attention. The rarity in this forest my be trees without distinguishing oddities, curiosities, and novelties.

A total anomaly, this black cherry tree comported with none of the identifying criteria listed in species keys.

The conspicuous lowland gorilla face did not assist our musings.

We marveled at an agrobacterial oak crown gall. I reminisced on the two years when I was responsible for procuring hardwood sawlogs for a Union Camp (my employer 1973-1985) hardwood lumber mill near the Virginia/North Carolina coastal plain border. Nearly every novelty I’ve mentioned would have been a defect rejecting delivery to the mill yard. Union Camp did not reward my latent talent for pondering tree form curiosities, oddities, and novelties!

I find beautiful patterns, especially on rain-wetted bark, this loblolly pine as an example. Bark crevices, with their associated microclimates, support fissure-colonies of algae, highlighting the plate margins with pale green.

I saw only a single tree example of this loblolly pine with a unique shredded, shed-bark trunk collar phenomenon, which shouted out for my attention. I suppose that the shredded bark skin at its base is resistant to decay (dry-layered above the moist mineral soil), even if very flammable. This segment of th MFP has not burned, at least for decades. Sometimes seeing a curiosity accomplishes little more than spark my interest in being on the lookout for seeing it again. Repetition may open my eyes to seeing it often enough to foster understanding and explanation.

We’ve all heard the admonition about not seeing the forest for the trees. Across many chapters of my life and career, I saw the forest and the trees. Only later in this retirement life-chapter did I begin focusing on curiosities, novelties, oddities, and mysteries. Like Albert Einstein, I have evolved into a creature of passionate curiosity.

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)
Death is a powerful and ubiquitous part of forest life. Ashes to ashes; dust to dust; an inevitable end game for life on Earth. (Steve Jones)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)

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

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all blog post images are created & photographed by Stephen B. Jones.

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

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 (2025) 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

Marshall Forest Preserve National Natural Landmark in Rome, Georgia!

July 1, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

NOTE: Some of my GBH photo essays were not routinely distributed from mid-February through mid-June. I will resend those one by one, beginning the first week of July. Here is my Post from February 18 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/02/18/mid-november-25-year-return-to-alabamas-chewacla-state-park/)

Fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger, retired videographer Bill Heslip, and I visited Marshall Forest Preserve, established as Georgia’s first National Natural Landmark near Rome, Georgia, on April 5, 2026. Recognized by the Old Growth Forest Network (https://www.oldgrowthforest.net/), the preserve encompasses ~300 acres of undisturbed upland pine and hardwood forest. Our wandering began as persistent overnight rain ended, rewarding us with trunks stem-flow-darkened and bark surfaces beautifully algae-patterned in the relatively limited light under low clouds. I’m a big fan of National Natural Landmarks!

Bill and Chris stood at the traihead monument, a provocative stone symbol, rich with imagined meaning.

The stone graphic and concentric metal totem below hinted that the forest itself may pose mysteries and puzzles for us to ponder.

I recorded a 60-second rain-dampened video of our entry to MFP.

Although the preserve forest falls short of the scale and sanctity of old-growth redwood and coastal Douglas fir stands, an eastern US perspective allowed me to appreciate this untouched upland ecosystem. A large loblolly pine reached well over one hundred feet above, spreading wide.

Nearby, a regal red oak stood fat and tall. Had a logging crew been given a chance (logger’s choice), this specimen would have been the first to grace a log truck mill-bound. We foresters commonly sleuth stand history by the quality of tress left, even long after severed stumps have decayed. I saw no evidence at MFP of prior high-grading, the practice of removing high quality standing timber and leaving less commercially valuable stems: smaller, degraded, lower desirability species, hollowed, and decayed.

Like the loblolly, the oak occupies a dominant canopy position.

Old-Growth vs. Undisturbed Forest

I’ve been guilty a few times by my own persistent stereotype that the term old-growth implies an ancient forest of magnificent large trees, heavily-shaded understory, mossy ground cover, and fairy tale images fleeting among wisps of fog and vapors. I’ve seen such forests in west coastal rain forests, from northern California redwoods to Oregon’s Douglas fir to the western hemlock and Sitka spruce of southeastern Alaska. I’ve wandered into an occasional dreamscape, magical stand here in the eastern US under the right conditions of landscape, weather, light, and mood (my mood!). I relax my criteria for the reality of our eastern forests.

I also distinguish old-growth from undisturbed forest. Marshall Forest Preserve is undisturbed according to the historical narrative that supported its classification as a National Natural Landmark. Likewise, I cannot contest that it is old-growth. I make the distinction because I routinely visit two local north Alabama disturbed forests that are crossing the threshold (and may have already entered) from late mature to old-growth. One is an 80-90-year-old bottomland forest on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. A second is what I call the Cathedral Forest on Monte Sano State Park. The WNWR stand regenerated naturally from abandoned farmland. I believe the Cathedral Forest regenerated naturally following a combination of natural disturbance and timber harvesting.

Additional Old-Growth Evidence

Allow me to attempt conveying additional evidence of the old-growth character of MFP. I’ll borrow photos from two places on prior occasions to make my point. The 22-inch diameter loblolly pine below stands in a rich riparian abandoned agricultural field on the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge near Huntsville, Alabama. The tree is ~80 years old. I am sure that the annual growth rings are wide, evidencing rapid diameter growth. The bark furrows are deep, also suggesting vigorous radial expansion.

This loblolly, planted less than 30 years ago on an old field converted to a disc golf course on the North Alabama Land Trust’s Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve has grown rapidly across its short life. Thinned at least once, the forest is growing audibly (okay, I’m exagerating a bit). Prescribed fire is holding vegetative competition at bay. Nothing could be further from exhibiting old-growth character than this intensively managed forest.

Perhaps 30 inches in diameter, this MFP loblolly tells a different tale. It’s shallowly furrowed broad platy bark suggests an extended period (many decades) of mature radial expansion. This old sentinel is content for now. There is no need to secure additional moisture, nutrients, and space. Its shredded, shed bark trunk collar is a phenomenon I have seldom seen, yet it shouted out for my attention. I suppose that the shredded bark skin at its base is resistant to decay (dry-layered above the moist mineral soil), even if very flammable. This segment of th MFP has not burned, at least for decades.

Its spreading flat-top canopy stands beside a massive dominant oak.

Another dominant loblolly pine stands tall, with crown space separating it from adjacent hardwoods, another indication perhaps that the old, mature stand has achieved a level of equilibrium. No longer does fierce competition among trees rule the day.

I recorded this 60-second video of a large white oak and adjacent loblolly tree near the trailhead, expressing the same characteristics of main canopy stability.

Another reverent white oak monarch stands watch on a preserve hillside.

Large ancient trees are absent across much of the preserve. Every acre does not portray the old-growth label. In fact, I wonder whether without having read the MFP history and its desgination as a National Natural Landmark, I would have immediately declared, “This forest is unquestionably old-growth.”

Old-growth or not, spring was erupting on the preserve.

I shall never tire of seeing mountain azalea proclaiming the vernal season in our southern forests!

I recorded this 59-second, a celebratory homage, as the sun broke through the persistant stratus.

Succulent oak gall wasp ovipositors have riddled these fresh oak leaves with visible postules.

Life in the forest ecosystem is complex, layered among its richly diverse floral, fauna, food chains, consumers, decomposers, competitors, symbionts, and life forms, and agents of death and renewal.

An Enigma

I’ll end with a full portfolio of old forester embarrassment. I spotted a strange growth (fungal; bacterial; alien life form; extraterrestrial???) on the side of an old sweetgum. Odd grey matter with a green wig-like shroud, and some lateral orange highlights.

I snapped a few photos, including close-ups. My colleagues were forging ahead. I didn’t take time to feel, probe, or handle. I thought I could identify later with iNaturalist and reference books, or perhaps a query with relevant FaceBook groups.

If nothing else, I felt that I may have discovered a new or rare life form. My reference books, internet search, and iNaturalist efforts yielded nothing. So I shifted to Facebook groups. Several folks pointed to nothing more exciting than some former woods traveler had bound the younger sweetgum with a colorful nylon or polypropylene rope; the tree grew around it; and only the cut ends protrude from the tree. Perhaps my camera managed to capture fairy tale images fleeting among wisps of fog and vapors.

Albert Einstein would have chastized this old forester:

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

I failed to look deeply into these strange organisms. I’m embarrassed, yet not fully convinced that an old-growth forest sweetgum could scam me with a modern rope protruding from its ancient core. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I want to go back for a second, deeper look!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I shall never tire of seeing mountain azalea proclaiming the vernal season in our southern forests! (Steve Jones)
I’m a big fan of National Natural Landmarks! (Steve Jones)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Einstein)
Don’t be fooled by fairy tale images fleeting among wisps of fog and vapor. (Steve Jones)

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.

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

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 (2025) 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

Red Buckeye, a Colony of Aphids, and a Swarm of Tadpoles: Spring in Our Midst!

June 25, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I met with friends Chris Stuhlinger, Marian Moore Lewis, Bill and Becky Heslip, and Ben Hoksbergen on the morning of March 26, at the Taylor Road entrance to Huntsville, Alabama’s Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary. The five of us wanted to learn more from archaeologist Ben about the Native American history he gleaned from a prior survey he conducted on the Sanctuary. Rather than share the fascinating history, I offer you our never-disappointing ecological saunter through the Sanctuary, revealing seasonal spring discoveries.

Red buckeye showed its colors amid the morning vapors above Hidden Spring.

I recorded this 59-second red buckeye video.

Hidden Spring lies 30-feet below the entrance deck and shelter. Something within the deepness beckoned me, but the steep descent and the vegetative jungle compelled me to stay at the bluff to capture the Hidden Spring magic from above. What would have been a quick descent, brief exploration, and return scamper to the brim at age 45, is now daunting 30 years hence. Such a possibiliy is now reduced to a Southern term: “usedtocould“!

A still photograph and my 59-second video will have to satisfy my curiosity for a closer look.

Hidden Spring Brook collects and channels the Hidden Spring flow, beginning its jorney to the Flint River.

Here’s my video of Hidden Spring Brook.

Approaching Jobala Pond, Hidden Brook is terraced by a beaverdam. Ever the habitat-modifying stream engineers, beavers insist on having it their way!

A city crew rectifying a drainage issue temporarily muddied Jobala Pond with sediment inflow.

I’ve been monitoring a large and rapidly expanding burl five feet above ground on a water oak at the Jobala Pond outlet for eight years. I always snap a photo, wondering what is the endgame for this unusual growth.

Nearby, a pileated woodpecker is creating a high-rise apartment complex. I could not get close enough to see whether there are different unique compartments…or separate entrances to the tree’s hollow interior. The woodpecker’s excavations serve a self interest. Does the bird know/understand/care that in pecking away to secure food (insects and grubs) that it is performing a valuable ecosysten function? How many mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, fungi, and other lifeforms interact with the bird’s ratta-tat-tat drumming?

John Muir appreciated the essential interdpendency of all things earthly:

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

AND

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.

Butterweed’s season exalts across three glorious early spring weeks. She tends her stored sunshine secretively through our southern winter. Suddenly after the requisite threshold of degree days, she lets loose, explosively…from drab dormancy to lasered brilliance emanately from roadside ditches.

Most specimens along the main sanctuary trail were pest free, this heavily black-bean-aphid-infested plant an exception.

Oh, the ecological lessons in plain sight on a three-hour spring saunter, like this silky field ant tending black bean aphids! Ants and aphids share a well-documented symbiotic relationship, which means they both benefit mutually from their working relationship. Aphids produce a sugary food for the ants, in exchange, ants care for and protect the aphids from predators and parasites.

A small flowered buttercup expressed spring’s urgent call to action. Summer’s rampant vegetative growth will rapidly smother this harbinger of spring. Her call is to get it done now, while the gettin’ is good!

Bulbous cress is another early spring ephemeral whose window will soon close.

We puzzled a few minutes over the streamside identity of buckthorn bully. I love the interplay of enthusiastic Nature enthusiasts clamoring, researching digitally, testing with iNaturalist, and even arguing (good naturedly) to see who can claim the identity summit. The competition was so savagely engaged that I already forget who prevailed!

One of us noticed a roadside puddle thick with tadpoles. I recorded this 60-second tadpole video.

I pondered the fate of the tadpoles. Did rain replenish the puddle long enough for frogs or toads to emerge? Will predators prevail?

We proceeded to the wetland mitigation area, where I recorded a video.

The project’s intent is to restore the agricultural fields to their original hydrology and to restore bottomland hardwood forest species. The tree shelters protect planted wetland hardwood seedlings.

I’ll close this post with a repeat from a prior recent photo essay. I’m drafting this narrative 25 days after major left shoulder replacement revision surgery. Recovery includes lots of physical therapy and encourages walking. Walking on the sidewalk and greenway variety! Woodland excursions are weeks away for a less-than-sure-footed 75-year-old. My Doc discourages falling, jarring, and stressing the prosthesis! I chose to once again employ the closing. I’m not yet at the end of my forest hiking/sauntering, but one day we all will reach that juncture when we’ll hike again with old friends, long gone. Until then, I will trek my haunts while I have the chance…until I can’t.

Closing

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

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

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

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

I recall the dawn…my dawn…from a growing distance. I sense the evening gloam approaching. I ask myself, do I want to invest a single woods venture by racing with a group from one place, through the woods, to another, with virtually no time for inter-personal, social intercourse? And certainly too little time to harvest photo essay fodder. I relish each step at my own pace, embracing the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration?

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. (John Muir)
I shall remain a dedicated servant of encouraging informed and responsible Earth stewardship…Until I can’t… (Steve Jones)
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

I 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

Curiosities, Oddities, Mysteries, and Seasonal Features on The N AL Land Trust’s Oak Park Trail!

June 10, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I co-led a North Alabama Land Trust Nature Hike on December 13, 2025, at Monte Sano Nature Preserve. I had never trekked the Oak Park Trail, which climbs ~300 feet up the north side of Monte Sano Mountain. We returned via a counter-clockwise circuit to the trailhead. I didn’t know what to expect, but my focus on woodland curiosities, oddities, mysteries, and seasonal features yielded plenty to cover in this photo essay!

Always alert for unusual tree forms and features, I spotted this agrobacterial crown gall about 20 feet up the trunk of a yellow buckeye.

This triad of pole-size hickory, paulownia, and hackberry (left to right) struck me as peculiar with three distinct species clustered so tightly. Winter honeysuckle serves as basal greenery. A Virginia creeper vine, with air roots clinging to the stem, grows diagonally along the paulownia.

Paulownia is native to east Asia. Common names for paulownia include princess tree, royal paulownia, and butterfly tree. Its bark, flowers, and leaves are distinct.

People often see Virginia creeper’s prominent air roots and mistake the vine for poison ivy, which has finer, more hair-like air roots.

An Indian marker tree? No, this white oak was an acorn long after resident Native Americans were wildland residents in what is now Huntsville. Instead, something from above crashed upon the oak when just a sapling, bending its stem to 90 degrees at three feet above ground. The crushed stem sent a shoot vertically and another at the stub end of the bent and broken top. Sure, the bent stem points to something, but only coincidentally.

This elbow-bent white oak likewise suffered injury from above. My imagination, ofttimes a little too vivid, sees a deer face glancing to my left.

Perhaps it is I, rather than these curious tree form features, who is the anomaly…the oddity. I seldom meet other Nature enthusiasts so enamored with woodland mysteries as I.

Let’s call this a sweetgum war club! Emerging from a limestone crevice, the tree sports a burl seeming to rest at its base, secured by the stone fissure. Burls result from fungal, bacterial, or viral infection, alone or in combination, triggering physiological abnormalities, much like a benign tumor in humans or other animals.

Known as Buzzards’ Roost, this exposed limestone ledge overlooks the cove and its wet season stream below. The ledge hosts a terrarium depression holding moisture, mosses, and shallow soil, and supporting a colony of herbaceous and woody plants. Does the scant isolated growth meet my criteria for oddity, curiosity, or mystery? I suppose that Nature sets no limits for standard, normal, and possible. Because I write the rules for these weekly Posts, if it catches my eye or piques my interest, a vegetated rock ledge depression qualifies.

There’s nothing unusual about a moss-covered stone bedded in a brown leaf carpet, yet it did catch my eye and encourage a seasonally appropriate image. This is winter in our North Alabama woods. Don’t wait for a snowy forest floor scene. We average only two inches of snow annually. A warm sunny next day afternoon will not spoil this visual expression!

Any port in a storm may best account for these saplings finding suitable anchorage and succor atop a limestone outcrop. The storm consists of high seed predation, mice and other nibblers consuming germinants, physical stressors (desiccation, freezing, sunscald), insects, and diseases. Will these seedlings secure sustenance by extending roots to exploit mineral soil beyond the barren stone surface?

Speaking of ports in a storm, what self-respecting chipmunk would not welcome the shelter of a near-ground white oak cavity, which likely extends into the trunk many feet above?

Peek into this three-feet-high red oak hollow. Soft interior debris evidences that critters have made a home. Reptile, bird, or mammal? Does it matter? I remind you that a tree does not a forest make. A tree is just one element of the entire ecosystem.

John Muir made the vast global life system complexity and interdependence clear:

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

Just as all living things are interconnected, life and death are a continuum. The labelled pignut hickory’s life has thrived in part on the decayed organic remains of prior life. Likewise, the fungal-hollowed tree’s decaying wood is already nurturing vegetation surrounding it. The carbon cycle spins without end.

Our woodland roaming 12 days before Christmas revealed many hidden mysteries and delights. Some anticipated…some not!

John Muir distilled Nature into one succinct observation on a grand scale:

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Just as all living things are interconnected, life and death are a continuum. (Steve Jones)
Perhaps it is I, rather than these curious tree form features, who is the anomaly…the oddity. (Steve Jones)
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!

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

Subscribe to these free weekly Nature Blogs (photo essays) at: http://eepurl.com/cKLJdL

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

I 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 #61: Mid-February OLLI Eagle Safari at Lake Guntersville State Park

June 3, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 61st of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

Along with fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger, I co-led a University of Alabama in Huntsville OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) Eagle Observation Safari on February 14, 2026, to Alabama’s Lake Guntersville State Park (LGSP). Alabama State Parks Northeast District Naturalist Erik Cline and Park Naturalist Anna Crow presented the program, leading us to two nest observation sites in the Park and another along the Sunset Greenway in Guntersville, AL. Come along to experience the tour stops the 55 of us enjoyed as we spotted ten eagles!

Unfortunately, because my trusty iPhone cannot capture images of eagles nesting or in flight, well enough to post in these photo essays, I’ll rely on you to imagine the magnificent eagle safari stars. I intend to demonstrate the remarkable enthusiasm that a low-intensity, half-day Nature outing within sixty minutes of campus can inspire among mostly retired, eager learners. Count me among them! Moreover, my retirement life mission impels me to employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners (and eagle safari participants) to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship. Thus, through my OLLI engagement, I am reaching and inspiring concerned Earth citizens to observe, understand, feel, and act on behalf of our pale blue orb.

Chris stands under the iconic Park Lodge Bald Eagle on October 23, when we scouted for the February excursion: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2025/12/15/brief-form-post-52-late-october-afternoon-scouting-for-eagles-and-nests-at-lake-guntersville-state-park/

Our group convened in The Gathering Place indoor social hall in the Park campground at lakeside. The Lodge stands ~300 feet above us atop the plateau rim.

The Gathering Place kept us snug and warm as Anna effectively oriented us to eagle biology and ecology.

I recorded this 34-second video from the Gathering Place, viewing the lakeshore, panning the audience, then sweeping out the opposite side, and bringing the lodge down to our level.

Who could ask for a finer place to launch our safari?!

Following lots of questions and eager discussion we drove to our first observation site at the Park cabins, where we aimed our binoculars, spotting scopes, and cameras to an occupied nest 200 yards across the inlet. This first nest, as were all three nests we visited, was firmly anchored in a large-crowned loblolly pine tree. We logged a single mature eagle nest-setting. We spotted no mate nor eaglet.

We showed few signs of cracking under the chilling mid-40s clouds and dampness, although I heard a few grumblings and witnessed signs of efforts to maintain body heat. The eagle sighting kept our attention.

I recorded this 59-second video with narrative as the group anticipated what lies ahead.

The group of seasoned learners paid the price of a chilly, cloudy spring morning for the pleasure of inhaling Nature’s elixir and seeing multiple individuals of a species on the brink of disaster earlier in our lifetime.

Here is my 58-second video of the stop without narrative.

Our second observation point, also along the lakeshore with target nest some 200 yards across the lake rewarded us with six sightings: an adult in the nest, another adult in a nearby tree, two matures in flight and alighting in the nest tree vicinity, and two more flying by above the lake nearer to our shore. That took us to seven. Elation describes our mood.

We retreated to the lodge for lunch and warmth. I’ve visited LGSP many times, never tiring of the special Nature of the place: the lake, her hills, wooded trails, wildlife, wildflowers, seasonal variations, and the embrace of its soothing moods and themes.

I snapped these photos on a May 2025 visit. Afternoon image from the lodge (left) and dawn from the Mabry Overlook, one-quarter mile east of the lodge, still on the rim above the lake.

Following a leisurely lunch, we caravaned to Sunset Drive Greenway in the city of Guntersville. Eagles have maintained and reared young in this unlikely congested location for at least the past eight years. I am standing at least 200 feet from the tree’s base, located within a copse of pine trees beyond the observers.

I admit to decades associating eagles to wild, remote, natural settings, distant from the hustle and bustle of urban life and living…until we lived four years in Alaska. Seeing this 1,000+ pound nest 70-feet up a pine tree between a greenway heavily traveled by walkers, runners, skateboarders, and bicyclists, and a busy roadway, however, still strikes me as surprising. An adult stayed on the nest during our hour on-site. Some in our party had already departed when two adults performed a beautiful fly-by!

John Denver’s The Eagle And The Hawk shaped my earlier impression:

I am the eagle, I live in high country in rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky.
I am the hawk, and there’s blood on my feathers.
But time is still turning, they soon will be dry.
And all those who see me, and all who believe in me
share in the freedom I feel when I fly. Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops.
Sail o’er the canyons and up to the stars.
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future
and all that we can be, and not what we are.

Alaska opened my eyes and mind to a different bird, a magnificent predator and shameless scavenger, adept at both capturing live game in the wild and dumpster diving in Sitka, Alaska. Eagles are culinary (and nest site) opportunists, at home in both high, rocky cathedrals and the domesticated bustle of Guntersville, Alabama.

I remind you that nothing in Nature is static. Everything changes…every hour of every day across the seasons and over the eons. The same is true of my impressions, knowledge, and wisdom, such as it is. Eagles are just as noble, elegant, persistant, and rich-with-national-symbolic meaningful as ever. Back from near extinction, the eagle exemplifies the human ability to overcome our collective ignorance. As Louis Bromfield repeated, we are capable of changing some corner of our Earth for the better through wisdom, knowledge, and hard work!

A successful venture — ten eagles! My hope is that the OLLI Eagle Safari awakens all of us to our obligation to wisely steward our One Earth.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection, this one cut and pasted from above:

My retirement life mission impels me to employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners (and eagle safari participants) to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship. Thus, through my OLLI engagement, I am reaching and inspiring concerned Earth citizens to observe, understand, feel, and act on behalf of our pale blue orb.

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

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