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Halloween Ballad

November 9, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I present a special Great Blue Heron Post, different from routine photo essays about my field ventures to local or remote places. Renee Raney, friend, associate, and award-winning, nationally recognized environmental educator extraordinaire, is Alabama State Parks Director, Education and Interpretation. Just last week we submitted a fourth-year $100,000 youth education funding request to a prominent Alabama foundation. Renee and I good-naturedly exchanged appropriately spooky congratulations and well-wishes for the looming (and glooming) Halloween weekend. Later that evening Renee sent me, “An All Hallows’ Eve Ballad for Dr. Steve Jones, with a respectful tip-of-the-feathered-hat to Alfred Noyes and his immortal poem, The Highwayman.”

An All Hallows’ Eve Ballad for Dr. Steve Jones
With a respectful tip of the feathered hat to Alfred Noyes and his immortal poem, “The Highwayman.”

The wind was a whisper of witchcraft among the autumn trees,
The moon was a ghostly lantern afloat on a spectral breeze,
The road was a ribbon of silver through forests of shadow and gloom,
And the heron-man came riding, riding, riding,
Wise Doctor Jones came riding,
Through the haunted hills, past the yawning mouth of doom.

He wore no cloak of crimson, no pistol gleamed at his side,
But weathered boots and a knowing grin, and a scholar’s stubborn pride.
His weapons were wit and wisdom, his treasure the woodland’s lore,
And he rode with a purpose, a purpose, a purpose,
A most peculiar purpose:
To leave our world a little better than he’d found it before.

Now the ghosts were gathered at midnight, where the ancient hardwoods stood,
And the witches were brewing enchanted stew in the heart of the hollow wood.
The skeletons rattled their grievances, the goblins began to complain,
For Jones had been teaching, teaching, teaching,
That troublesome Doctor teaching,
And all were beginning to care about trees, which was terribly hard to explain.

“He’s dangerous!” cried a specter. “He’s persuasive!” shrieked a ghoul.
“He’ll have us all attending some blasted lifelong-learning school!”
“He’ll make us admire a fungus! He’ll lecture us on decay!”
But Jones just smiled, smiled, and smiled, and smiled,
That dreadful, distinguished smile,
And said, “Decomposition is rather important, I say.”

A great blue heron rose silently where the silvered waters gleamed,
A guardian of the mysteries of which the wise man dreamed.
It spread its wings through the moonlight, then vanished beyond the hill,
And the heron-man watched in wonder, wonder, wonder,
In reverent, restless wonder,
For the earth hid a thousand stories, and he sought a thousand still.

He’d wandered through bogs and universities, through halls where the learned convene,
Yet found his finest professors in the wild and the growing green.
A fallen leaf held a lesson; a rotting log held more,
And he studied and studied and studied,
That incorrigible scholar studied,
While the ghosts rolled their eyes and muttered, “Good heavens, he’s found one more!”

Now far beyond the graveyard, where Alabama’s parklands spread,
A curious band had gathered, though thankfully none were dead.
They’d come to build a legacy, to keep the wild things free,
And Jones was there among them, among them, among them,
That steadfast soul among them,
Planting seeds of possibility.

With foundations and friends and fellowship, with a vision both bold and bright,
He’d helped turn dreams to pathways and brought new hopes to light.
And children walked those pathways, their hearts awakened to see,
While Jones kept quietly plotting, plotting, plotting,
Most wonderfully plotting,
How to make the next adventure even better than it could be.

But Death himself grew weary of this most persistent man,
And consulted his dusty ledger to devise a dreadful plan.
“I’ll frighten him into silence! I’ll make his courage cease!”
So he rose from the crypt at midnight, midnight, midnight,
At the stroke of haunted midnight,
And demanded that Doctor Jones give the universe some peace.

“Enough!” cried Death. “Your essays! Your forests! Your endless woodland walks!
Your nature-inspired wisdom! Your presentations and talks!
You’ve made the living thoughtful, and the dead are growing wise!
I demand your immediate surrender, surrender, surrender!”
But Jones regarded the specter,
And said, “Have you considered what the forest teaches us when something dies?”

Death stared at him in horror. His jawbone dropped with a crack.
He’d never met a mortal who could turn the question back.
Then Jones produced a photograph of a fungus on a tree,
And Death cried, “Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!
For the love of darkness, mercy!
I only came to frighten you, not earn a Ph.D.!”

The moon slipped low through the branches, and dawn touched the eastern sky,
The ghosts returned to their resting places, the bats went fluttering by.
And Death, quite thoroughly humbled, withdrew with a weary groan,
While the heron-man rode on, rode on, rode on,
Wise Doctor Jones rode on,
With a thousand trails still waiting and a thousand seeds unsown.

For some men gather riches, and some seek lasting fame,
And some leave only echoes of a half-remembered name.
But some leave living forests, and souls that learn to see,
And their stories go on, go on, go on,
Long after the riders are gone,
In the wonder they’ve awakened and the minds they’ve set free.

So beware, ye ghosts of October, ye creatures of shadow and fright!
He still wanders beneath the harvest moon tonight.
And should you meet him walking where murders manifest as crows,
He’ll stop you and teach you, teach you, teach you,
By heaven, he’ll surely teach you,
And you’ll find yourself quite haunted by the woodsy wonders you now know!

For Steve, with gratitude for your friendship, your extraordinary imagination, your tireless encouragement, and the many ways you help others discover the wonder of the natural world.

With affection and a wicked little grin,
Renee
On the Eve of All Hallows’ Eve, in the Year of Our Lord MMXXVI

The Highwayman is one of my favorite ballads, just as Renee is one of my favorite naturalists. I am struck with honor, humility, and admiration. Renee’s ballad means more than any official recognition, certificate, plaque, or trophy ever presented to me.

I can add only a few photos that depict Nature’s implicitly dark (yet fun) side. I will strive to be true to the mythical Heron-Man. I’ve said repeatedly across my career: I take what I do seriously. I refuse to take myself unnecessarily too seriously. The ballad signals the right mix of serious and mirthful.

I share Renee’s creativity as a testament to her Earth Stewardship philosophy, which echoes my own, and to her appropriate mix of knowledge, wisdom, passion, hard work, and devotion to tomorrow’s citizens and Earth stewards.

I gratefully accept my new avatar: Heron-Man!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

And he rode with a purpose, a purpose, a purpose… a most peculiar purpose: To leave our world a little better than he’d found it. (Renee Raney)

And the heron-man watched in wonder, wonder, wonder, in reverent, restless wonder, for the earth hid a thousand stories, and he sought a thousand still. (Renee Raney, paraphrasing Alfred Noyes)

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. (Wendell Berry)

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 compile personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. They offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief-Form Post #69: Late Summer Stopover at Blackwell Swamp and Buckeye Impoundment on Wheeler NWR!

November 4, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 69th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

I am fortunate to live within 30 minutes of the 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Occasionally, when the urge strikes… when I need a Nature fix, I’ll head to some feature of this world-class, complex, 55-square-mile Tennessee River ecoregion. I scratched my Nature itch on the morning of August 27, 2026. I’ll take you along virtually to Buckeye Impoundment and Blackwell Swamp. I intend to share the late-summer morning visual delights. I have no in-depth ecological mysteries, puzzles, or discoveries to examine. Don’t anticipate a quiz or challenge; sit back and enjoy!

Buckeye Impoundment

I published a Great Blue Heron photo essay on the Impoundment from my October 6, 2024 visit (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/12/05/buckeye-impoundment-in-early-october-on-the-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge-part-one/). I excerpted the two photos and narrative below from that post.

Excerpt (No, not plagiarized; I authored both posts!): On an August 2023 aerial tour, the impoundment appears as a mosaic of agricultural fields, meadows, and marsh vegetation.

I photographed the winter-flooded impoundment on January 6, 2020, when the flooded wetlands attract waterfowl vacationing from frozen northlands.

The impoundment is a complex, diverse ecosystem that ebbs, flows, and fluxes with the Corps of Engineers’ controlled flooding. [End of Excerpt.]

The seasons don’t advance visibly from late August to early October. We won’t have a killing freeze. It’s unlikely even to see a frost by then. Sure, the vivid foliar greens will fade; yellows and browns will evidence desiccation and leaves wearing out from six months of intensive photosynthesis.

Although my iPhone lens can’t capture them, a handful of great egrets populate every naked-eye view.

I recorded this 61-second video on that fine late-August morning.

Stunning cerulean sky; cumulus and wispy cirrus clouds reflected in standing water; and wetland meadow vegetation!

On a cooler autumn day, I will return to Buckeye Impoundment with a lawn chair, my spotting scope, and some more time to linger and enjoy.

Delightful Herbaceous Vegetation

I am a tree guy, hoping to learn more about the lush herbs and forbs of our region. I’m grateful to iNaturalist, which guided me to Bigpod Sesbania on the right. I don’t even attempt to identify the wetland herbs and grasses on the left.

Common evening primrose earns its moniker, opening its flowers at dusk and closing them mid-morning. Hawkmoths pollinate the nighttime flowers.

Cardinal flower seems appropriate here in Crimson Tide country!

Elderberries clung in clusters on bushes roadside along HGH Road.

Blackwell Swamp

The Corps of Engineers maintains the Blackwell Swamp water level year-round. Great egrets, great blue herons, and seasonal ducks populate this heavily vegetated body.

I recorded this 52-second video at Blackwell Swamp.

I enjoy the sky view on every visit… the vista above and its water reflections.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection. I am fortunate to live just a dozen miles due north of Alabama’s 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, where I wandered for several hours on June 9, 2026. A quick, low-investment visit to Nature pays high dividends in peace of mind, satisfaction, exercise, and learning and discovery.

On a cooler autumn day, I will return to Buckeye Impoundment with a lawn chair, my spotting scope, and some more time to linger and enjoy. (Steve Jones)

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

Over-Flight of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s Graham Farm and Nature Center!

October 27, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

My friend Tim Kelley, a licensed pilot for 44 years, graciously treated me to an overflight of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s Graham Farm and Nature Center in Jackson County’s Paint Rock River Valley. We departed Huntsville Executive Airport on August 22, 2026, at 2:00 PM under clear skies at 90 degrees Fahrenheit. My objective was to get a better overview of the Center, understand its topographic position within the Cumberland Plateau and Paint Rock River Valley, and appreciate the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe of this special place. We circled the 491-acre property at ~3,000′ altitude, 2,300′ above the valley floor and 1,300′ above the summit of Maxwell Mountain.

Tim rented a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, a fine machine for our aerial exploration.

We flew west from the airport to examine a property Tim wanted to see. We then flew to GF&NC, following Route 72 east to the county road leading north to the property. Our return flight was due west about 20 miles.

I recorded this 58-second video over GFNC.

We agreed to plan a repeat flight during the dormant season, when hardwood foliage no longer obscures ground features. Importantly, I will coordinate better with Tim in advance on the flight pattern needed to achieve the images I seek. I refer readers to the old saw that I’ve communicated about experience and learning:

Experience is what you get right after you need it.
We seldom learn by doing things right.

The property maps imposed on existing aerial photographs provide proper N/S orientation.

This image leans about 30 degrees east of north; the view is NNW. The pavilion, Connestoga overnight wagons, classroom, and kitchen headquarters unit occupy the open high ground at the upper left. Its position furnishes a clear view to the valley and the prominent ridge beyond.

My first on-the-ground visit to GF&NC evoked a sense of the Place and its Spirit. I viewed Graham from above through a spirit-filtered lens that reached back more than a century of family farming and 13 millennia, when Native Americans foraged, hunted, and farmed the valley and hillsides.

Wendell Berry, author, essayist, conservationist, and farmer, died August 31, 2026. I am still early in my evolving relationship with GFNC, yet I am embracing its beauty and spirit. I believe that Love is in the air!

We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it. And to take good care of it, we have to know it. And to know it and to be willing to take care of it, we have to love it. (Wendell Berry)

The property home-place sits to the left at woods’ edge, at the base of Maxwell Mountain.

This is the view to the east across the valley. We are banking above the Maxwell Mountain summit. The home-place is at lower right.

Now looking southwest, the home-place is straight ahead. The tree-identification trail we’re establishing is along the lower slope of Maxwell Mountain.

This view is to the northwest.

The valley extends northward from Graham.

This final view looks southeast toward the confluence of Larkin Creek and the Paint Rock River.

Mr. Berry never visited Graham Farm and Nature Center, yet he knew it well:

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.

The primary motive for good care and good use of the land-community is always going to be affection, which is too often lacking.

Louis Bromfield, author of Pleasant Valley, his mid-20th-century non-fiction account of restoring soil health to his old worn-out Ohio Farm, wrote:

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

Tim and I flew again on October 23, 2026. We departed due east at 5:00 PM to have dinner with Tim’s brother Scott in Chattanooga. We ascended to 5,500′ altitude over the Paint Rock River Valley. I easily identified the aerial imprint of Graham Farm and Nature Center as it passed under me. I’ll be ready for our dormant season property overflight. We returned after dinner well after sunset, at 4,500′. Bright urban, suburban, and rural lights lay beneath us in succession as we departed Chattanooga. Then we entered the total darkness of the isolated Paint Rock River Valley. The Center is a special place, day or night!

In some small way, I hope to apply the power of my affection for the Place and the Spirit to the service of the Graham Farm and Nature Center Mission:

Graham Farm and Nature Center offers visitors educational experiences in agriculture and environmental stewardship. Explore farm tours, multiple hiking and biking trails, and hands-on learning opportunities, making it an ideal destination for families and nature enthusiasts to enjoy outdoor activities and scenic surroundings.

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 primary motive for good care and good use of the land-community is always going to be affection, which is too often lacking. (Wendell Berry)
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. (Wendell Berry)

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 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

“Sharing My Story” with CoHort-II of RaMP-Woods to Water (W2W) at ACES Graham Center!

October 21, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I returned to Graham Farm and Nature Center at 7:30 AM on August 22, 2026. The ten Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureate, Woods to Water (RaMP-W2W) participants and three program staff arrived mid-afternoon the previous day. Staff stayed overnight in the GFNC Conestoga wagon accommodations; students overnighted in tents adjacent to the pavilion. I was here by invitation to observe, interact with the enrollees, and offer formal comments in the classroom. Administrative Support Specialist II Donna Sands asked me to “Tell them your story.”

Having first visited GFNC on July 4, 2026, I am already a champion for the place, its mission, and its special spirit. I welcomed the chance to spend a day with the RaMP-W2W program at this great learning and exploration facility in the heart of northeastern Alabama’s Paint Rock River Valley.

The University of Alabama-associated RaMP-W2W website narrative succinctly describes this 12-month dreamscape learning experience that bridges a bachelor’s degree to graduate school or a professional career.

Woods to Water (W2W)
Training the Next Generation of Ecologists and Natural Resource Managers
Post-Baccalaureate Program

The Woods to Water (W2W) project is an experience-based post-baccalaureate learning program aimed at helping early career scientists understand critical linkages between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The program will provide a year-long, immersive, cohort- and field-based program in standardized methods and data science.

The Woods and Water Program provides:

Stipend support and free housing.
Collaborative interactions with leading scientists, technicians, and researchers at The University of Alabama, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), and the Jones Center at Ichauway (JCI)
Training in key field techniques that link water, carbon, and nutrient fluxes among ecosystems
Comprehensive classroom, field experiences, laboratory, and independent research approaches to building skills and self-confidence in field research
Opportunities to present and publish research and facilitate transition into the ecological workforce.
Development of skills required to succeed and stand out in today’s STEM job market

The Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalaureates (RaMP) in Biological Sciences program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) program to establish networks to support full-time research, mentoring, and training for recent college graduates who have had few or no research or training opportunities during college. Broadly, its goal is to create a competitive and highly representative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce in the U.S. with a focus on the biological sciences. Projects are expected to train individuals for a range of potential career pathways in the biological sciences, including: research-focused M.S. or Ph.D. graduate programs; entry-level positions in industry, federal, tribal, or state agencies, education and research centers, or not-for-profit science-based organizations; or other STEM careers.

I recorded this 60-second video of the RaMP participants gathering before breakfast

RaMP-W2W is a competitive program; these are exceptional young men and women embarking on an exciting journey. The visit to GFNC officially launched the 2026-27 RaMP-W2W year.

The ten participants list their home addresses as follows:

Lehi, UT; Oakland, CA; Auburn, AL; Santa Cruz, CA; Chattanooga, TN; Clarksville, OH; New Orleans, LA; Tuscaloosa, AL; Lexington, KY; Fairhope, AL

Widely dispersed geography, diverse topical interests, and varying career aspirations define the group. Their futures will lead in many directions. Their stories will share this common year-long bond and will diverge in whatever route they choose. Some know their intended path. Others are not so certain.

Center Director Mike Sims led the orientation session after breakfast.

What better way to begin the RaMP kickoff than a series of team-building challenges? Mike directed them through a series of challenges.

I recorded a sixty-second video of a team-building challenge.

Mike demanded that participants follow strict rules and guidelines, practice selfless teamwork, and share purpose and spirit. I enjoyed watching the process unfold from the comfortable shade under the pavilion canopy.

A late-summer cirrus sky over the Center backdropped the challenge.

Jonathan Nemati, Wildlife Programming, introduced the group to Center reptiles.

I recorded this 58-second video of the group interacting with Jonathan’s reptile discussion.

Snakes and box turtles highlighted the reptilian cast.

As summer’s heat fades to cooler temperatures, the outdoor classroom will have greater appeal.

Telling Them My Story

The August 22 weather was more conducive to offering my remarks in the Center classroom. That was the easy decision. More difficult: choosing which elements of “My Story” to share with these incredibly bright, enthusiastic, and ambitious learners. I came with a satchel of books, each flagged with Post-its marking relevant quotations. After spending the morning with the group, I had a good idea of where to start, and then let our one-hour interaction unfold through their reactions, questions, and interests.

I had recently read Ben & Me (Eric Weiner, 2024), a book commemorating our country’s 250th anniversary celebration and recognizing (and appreciating) Ben Franklin’s pivotal role. My copy of the book sprouts multi-colored Post-its marking kernels of wisdom and reflection worthy of revisiting. One stands out, and that is where I began my remarks;

Distrust not providence!

Written in Yoda-esque fashion, Ben opined in three words that the hand of providence guides, directs, counsels, and influences our journey… if we allow. In effect, Ben implored, Trust Providence! I have, and it has made all the difference. Some examples:

The spring I graduated high school, the local community college announced it would open a pre-forestry program in September.
The program Director and I stayed close for half a century. He opened the door to a Maryland Forest Service summer internship through my undergraduate degree.
The Director arranged a junior year transfer with full credit to the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF at Syracuse University).
A faculty mentor there steered me to a paper and allied products manufacturing company in the southeastern US.
My industrial forestry career advanced rapidly with assignments of increasing responsibility across 12 years in Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama.
A second SUNY ESF mentor encouraged me to eventually enter a Ph.D. program with him after gaining forest industry work and life experience. He pledged to hold up his end of the agreement if I committed to bring what he saw in me back to ESF. We completed the challenging, life-altering Ph.D. (Applied Ecology) pursuit in 36 months. My wife of now 54 years shared the journey with me, offering support, love, and adventure.
We chose from five diverse positions after the doctoral degree; one of them was a faculty position in the School of Forest Resources at Penn State University. The other four were outside of higher education. In essence, “Five roads diverged in a yellow wood.” (Robert Frost)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
…..

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.
We trusted providence then, and continued through the following 40 years, serving nine universities and in retirement.
I have stayed true to my natural resources passion, extending to my formal 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 modeled my mission after words that Louis Bromfield used to describe his life’s passion for rehabilitating the old, worn-out farm he owned and tended near Mansfield, Ohio, in the mid-20th century:

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

I urged the attendees to seek and secure fulfillment, reward, and purpose in the natural sciences… to find the power of passion for Nature in the service of reason

Albert Einstein observed that Nature holds the key to human and life permanence:

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

I encouraged them to recognize and appreciate their good fortune in being selected for this incredible learning and life experience. From my end-of-career, life-sunset perspective, I said, You are blessed! Providence has opened a door… a gateway to whatever awaits. Open your arms, your mind, and your heart to opportunity, adventure, and challenge. Don’t resist what emerges.

Distrust not Providence! This year-long RaMP-W2W adventure at the University of Alabama, the National Ecological Observatory Network, and Georgia’s Jones Center at Ichauway (a half-year at each for the ten participants split into two groups) can and will shape their future.

Learn from the conservation great ones, like John Muir:

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

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.

Flourish on your one great dewdrop… your infinite storm of beauty! Serve humanity through your devotion to understanding the natural sciences. I wish you well.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Distrust not providence. (Ben Franklin)
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
Flourish on your one great dewdrop… your infinite storm of beauty! Serve humanity through your devotion to understanding the natural sciences. I wish you well. (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 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

Late August Query at Nearby Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge — Is It Really Old Growth?

October 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 June 16 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/06/16/brief-form-post-62-bringing-the-outside-in-at-nashvilles-gaylord-resort/)

Since establishing a permanent retirement residence in Madison, Alabama, in 2018, I’ve explored the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge bottomland hardwood forest west of Jolly B Road and south of HGH Road two to four times every year. Search my GBH Blog website (for Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge) to locate the dozens of related weekly photo essays. I’ve debated whether this particular stand meets old-growth criteria. I am declaring certainty! Yes, this is old-growth forest!!! Join me as I share observations, reflections, photos, and brief videos from my exploration of the stand on the morning of August 27, 2026. Again, the subject stand is old-growth, but I do not suggest it is original growth.

The 1937 aerial photograph (below) shows the HGH Road as a red line; the dark vertical mark separates Limestone (left) and Madison County (east). The penned vertical hash on the HGH Road denotes the area I discuss in this Post. The photo shows a fully developed hardwood forest 89 years ago. Individual crowns are apparent even then, indicating trees older than juvenile. I believe the stand in 1937 was at least 40-50 years old and is now 130+ years old, meeting one generally accepted criterion for old-growth.

Let’s review what the US Forest Service published three years ago that should have cleared up any doubt I may have had about whether the subject stand is old-growth.

USDA Forest Service Mature and Old-Growth Definition

April 2023 (https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mature-and-old-growth-forests-tech.pdf)

Mature and Old-Growth Forests: Definition, Identification, and Initial Inventory on Lands Managed by
the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management

Old-Growth Forest Narrative Framework

1). Old-growth forests are dynamic systems distinguished by old trees and related structural attributes. Old-growth encompasses the later stages of stand development that typically differ from earlier stages in a variety of characteristics, which may include tree size, accumulations of large dead woody material, number of canopy layers, species composition, and ecosystem function (USDA Forest Service 1989).

2). In addition to their ecological attributes, old-growth forests are distinguished by their ecosystem services and social, cultural, and economic values. Old-growth forests have place-based meanings tied to cultural identity and heritage; local economies and ways of life; traditional and subsistence uses; aesthetic, spiritual, and recreational experiences; and Tribal and Indigenous histories, cultures, and practices. Dialogue with stakeholders and Tribal Nations, and the integration of local and Indigenous Knowledge with evolving scientific understanding, are critical to identifying and stewarding old-growth forests.

Paragraph one offers some insight but falls short of providing incontrovertible criteria. The second paragraph may assist managers of Federal lands. It does nothing to help me wrestle with the stand in question.

In broad summary, the new USFS publication doesn’t help. If you can tolerate a wee bit of sarcasm, the report’s author (Captain Obvious?) wrote, “Mature forests are delineated ecologically as the stage of forest development immediately before old-growth.”

Relying Upon My Time-tested Knowledge of Forestry

The relevant table in the report’s appendix identifies generalized minimum old-growth criteria for southeastern bottomland hardwood forests:

Stand Age — >100-120 years

Basal Area — >40 square feet

Large Tree Diameter — >20″ DBH

The subject stand is at least 120 years old. Basal area ranges from 60 to greater than 110 square feet per acre. Large trees exceed three feet DBH. Dominant tree heights reach above 110 feet. Dead and down woody debris is heavy. Some large downed trees are recent; others have been prostrate long enough to be decayed beyond species identification.

These bottomland soils are nutrient-rich and naturally well-watered. Site quality is high. Areas east of the subject stand, with no visible forest development in 1937, are now populated by what I characterize as mature hardwood and mixed pine/hardwood forest. Nature quickly takes possession, rapidly developing a new forest from abandoned agricultural fields.

The subject stand has complex canopy tiers and variable understory.

This shagbark hickory is nearly 30 inches DBH.

Its basal bark appears old, thick, and coarse. It hosts a small colony of resurrection fern and a thick covering of basal tree moss.

It commands a dominant canopy position well over 100 feet above the forest floor.

Nearby, former upper-canopy sentinels have fallen and are now decomposing on the ground. Nature is recycling biomass. The structure is tiered. Stems and foliage fill the frames from ground cover to overstory.

My 58-second video of the downed trees.

Oaks greater than 30 inches DBH are common.

I am concerned that so many of the largest trees are scarred and diseased. Is this 30-inch-plus sweetgum attempting to tell me a story? Is it a damaged residual from a mid- to late 19th-century logging operation? Was it an operation that delivered massive original old-growth timber to market? The sweetgum would have been too small.

This 30-inch yellow poplar has prospered. Note the profusion of bird peck marks.

This massive red oak (species?) is thoroughly butt-diseased and probably hollowed. See the 3.5-4.00′ burl ten feet above the base.

My 58-second video of the old burled oak.

This cherry bark oak is tall, straight, and apparently sound, showing no signs of injury or decay. I like the image of it reaching high into the canopy, backlit by the sun.

It photographed so nicely that I convinced it to star in a short video production.

I wandered nearby into a ponded depression where a springhead maintains surface water year-round. The shade seemed to deepen. Even the mood darkened. This was not a light and airy place. I snapped a few photos and recorded the brief video.

The mosquitoes pestered me to move on, discouraging me from a cursory review of the video. I recorded this 58-second video at the ponded depression.

I didn’t expect to see standing water, yet it contributed to the foreboding gloom.

An American Euonymus (AKA hearts-a-bustin or strawberry bush) lifted the gloom.

An Amanita mushroom was one of the very few fungi I found. I carried a foraging bucket as I trekked. Perhaps if I had left it in my car, I would have spotted an abundance of edibles!

Ever mindful of encountering the slithering variety of reptilian life, I photographed an eastern box turtle. This fellow sports a handsome carapace, appearing freshly polished.

The mosquitoes pestered me to move on, discouraging me from a cursory review of the video.

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I am declaring certainty! Yes, this is old-growth forest!!! (Steve Jones)
If you can tolerate a wee bit of sarcasm, the report’s author (Captain Obvious?) wrote, “Mature forests are delineated ecologically as the stage of forest development immediately before old-growth.” (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 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 #67: Autumn Signals on A 90+ Degree Mid-September Day in Beaverdam Swamp

September 25, 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 27, 2026 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/05/27/early-signs-of-spring-on-the-goldsmith-schiffman-wildlife-sanctuary/)

I am pleased to add the 67th of my GBH Brief-Form Posts (Less than five minutes to read!) to my website. I get wordy with my routine Posts. I don’t want my enthusiasm for thoroughness and detail to discourage readers. So, I will occasionally publish these brief Posts.

I’ve mentioned often that I’m blessed to live within 10 miles of northern Alabama’s world-class 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. On Saturday morning, September 19, 2026, I slipped south to the Beaverdam Creek Swamp Boardwalk, a National Natural Landmark water tupelo forest along Beaverdam Creek. By 9:00 AM, the temperature was 78 degrees, the dew point 70, and the relative humidity 79 percent. Although I exited the forest by 11:00, the afternoon high reached 98 degrees! In contrast to the brutal mid-summer conditions, the forest was already exhibiting signs of autumn. Nature knows!

Here is my 60-second video noting the forest’s awareness of impending autumn. My video narrative says September 18; I was a day behind!

I shuffled more noisily than the weather suggested. Dry leaves covered the boardwalk.

One would expect tupelo leaves under the canopy of northern Alabama’s largest water tupelo forest.

Tupelo seedfall was beginning. I’ve visited during the dormant season, when water fills the swamp, and large mats of floating seed cover the surface.

A persimmon leaf lies in fall color near the delightfully patterned parent tree.

Virginia creeper’s greens are fading to yellow.

The same holds for roundleaf green brier.

Poison ivy’s leaves-of-three signal that reliably cooler weather is at hand. Please bring it on… and soon!

Ash seedlings (either green or white ash) were senescing, exhibiting leaf blemishes that iNaturalist identifies as gray mold spot. Molds often begin to infect multiple hardwood species’ leaves at season’s end.

Ground cover swamp chestnut oak has turned off its leaf factories.

Resident squirrels registered another clear sign of summer shifting to fall. Loblolly pine cones high in the forest canopy are ripe enough late in their second summer to attract the aerial rodents. They tooth-chisel the foliar twigs holding the cones, dropping them to the forest floor, or in this case, the trail surface.

The squirrels peel scales one at a time from the cones to expose and harvest the pine nuts. They either eat the nuts on the spot or transport them to a larder.

Yogi Berra once said, It sure gets late early around here! I suppose one could say the same of the season’s apparent hot-weather autumn advance in the tupelo swamp. I wish someone had informed the pesky mosquitoes that followed me to Beaverdam Creek and back.

Once again, I’m reminded of John Muir, who oft repeated:

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

In Summary

I invested two Saturday-morning hours sauntering along the boardwalk. I could have slept in, read a book, watched cartoons, edited a Great Blue Heron photo essay, played online solitaire, or countless other mind-numbing activities on a too-hot late summer (or early autumn) morning. I thank my lucky stars that I chose otherwise… and wisely.

The return on my two-hour informed woods-ramble: this brief-form GBH Post; three additional Posts to compile and draft… watch for them; seven 60-second videos (three already posted on my YouTube channel: Steve Jones Great Blue Heron@stevejonesgreatblueheron); and scores of photos! Lest you deem this effort burdensome, keep in mind that this IS my golf. I enjoy practicing my five essential verbs of woodland venturing:

Believe, Look, See, Feel, and Act. I begin within the forest and extend to writing and publishing the weekly photo essay.

- Believe — I find Nature’s Lessons because I know they lie hidden within view — belief enables me to look and see
- Look — Really look, with eyes open to my surroundings, external to electronic devices and the distractions of meaningless noise and data
- See — Be alert to see deeply, beyond the superficial
- Feel — See clearly, with comprehension, to find meaning and evoke feelings
- Act — Feel emphatically enough to spur action

My weekly photo essays encapsulate all five into a comprehensive, sometimes compact and succinct statement of passion for place and everyday Nature.

Closing

I accept the challenge of distilling these Brief-Form Posts into a single distinct reflection. John Muir nailed it:

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

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

P.S. Along Beaverdam Creek, the canopy evidenced a general yellowing, even as the old forester’s crown showed its stark whitening!

A Couple of Mid-Summer Hours to Kill at Huntsville’s Gateway to the Majestic Tennessee River!

September 23, 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 17, 2026 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/05/17/lawson-branch-loop-shoal-creek-preserve-spring-2026/)

A friend requested transportation to and from a hospital in Huntsville, Alabama, for a diagnostic test that would take 3 hours from admission to release on July 14, 2026. I had no time to go home and no desire to sit in a waiting room, so I drove ten miles south of Huntsville to Ditto Landing Marina on the Tennessee River (Lake Wheeler). I was curious to see what I might find hidden in plain sight along the gravel road on the waterway’s north side downstream. This trail (west of the Highway 231 bridge) is within the easternmost extent of the 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Come along with me virtually as I kill two hours within the wilds of what is technically the City of Huntsville, Alabama!

The River

I recorded this 53-second video from the park bench at Ditto Landing Marina.

I wanted to luxuriate longer after my trek, but I didn’t want to keep my friend waiting in the recovery room.

I find an undeniable magnetism in rivers, lakes, skies, and the great outdoors. Although traffic over the bridge consumed any silence and overwhelmed Nature’s music (breezes, soft-wave sloshing, birds, and even children laughing and playing), the distance softened the distraction to an acceptable soothing.

Yes, I would prefer a more isolated natural setting absent a busy highway, a marina behind me, and a modern bridge spanning the river. However, I remind myself that I am within 40 minutes of my residence in Alabama’s largest metropolitan area. Also, I must keep in mind that the Tennessee River is not some wild and scenic waterway. I am viewing Lake Wheeler, one of the necklace of TVA impoundments (Nickajack, Guntersville, Wheeler, Wilson, and Pickwick are the five dams stretching from Chattanooga downstream through Florence and beyond. I can’t both celebrate that I live within an hour of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, a national treasure, and lament that being here doesn’t provide a wilderness experience… pristine and untrammeled by man.

I recorded this 59-second video within earshot of the highway. I accept and salute it for what it is, and for the fulfillment the place and its special Nature awards a lifelong outdoor enthusiast.

The main channel is alongside the gravel road (left). An adjacent backwater (a slough) is situated beyond the riverway on the inland side of the trail.

At several spots along the road, secret pathways and visual portals reach through the forested buffer to favorite fishing spots at the river’s edge.

The Forest

I recorded this 63-second video along the gravel road about one mile downstream from where I parked.

Loblolly pine trees grow luxuriously on agricultural land abandoned and planted when the TVA or COE purchased the property to be inundated and adjoining buffer lands tied to the same owners. These floodplain fields are extraordinarily fertile.

Here is my 60-second video of these ~90-year-old forests.

A planted row of loblollies lines the road.

A heavy summer shower wetted the forest the prior evening. Stem flow reached the ground, leaving a patterned trunk as the bark plates began to dry.

A lush understory paw paw patch caught my eye.

Roadside Summer Flowers and Plants

A longtime enthusiast of spring ephemeral wildflowers, I’ve grown fond of our prolific summer bloomers. The spring flowers arrive when dormant woodlands are otherwise grey and drab. I suppose my vernal exuberance for the new blossoms is owed to living further north, where winters were more serious and relief more deeply appreciated. My appreciation now stretches from emerging spring into continuing summer. Here’s a brief catalog of the beauties I photographed along the trail.

Common morning-glory and large bindweed.

Plains coreopsis, a magnificent portrayal of mid-season grandeur.

Dayflower’s cerulean majesty.

American trumpet vine blossoms and seed pod.

Not yet blooming, this hollow Joe-Pye weed is nearly as tall as a basketball hoop.

Its base and top represent a single season’s growth. A perennial, it will die back to ground level in the autumn, and then loft again to ten feet next year.

American pokeweed is another perennial that will produce a tremendous amount of biomass.

Although I allow myself to enjoy the beauty and fragrance of Japanese honeysuckle, I refuse to celebrate the success of the aggressive Asian invasive.

This overwhelmingly successful and particularly combative legume arrived in the US from Japan and China in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In 1953, the USDA stopped advocating the use of kudzu for erosion control, and in 1972 the agency officially designated the plant a weed. Just imagine how our poor native pokeweed feels bearing an official common moniker of American pokeweed!

I celebrate what something as simple as Two Hours to Kill can reveal and return as satisfaction and fulfillment!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I can’t both celebrate that I live within an hour of the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, a national treasure, and lament that being here doesn’t provide a wilderness experience…pristine and untrammeled by man. (Steve Jones)
I am pleased that something as simple as Two Hours to Kill can reveal and return as Nature’s satisfaction and fulfillment! (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 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

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

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:

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

Brief-Form Post #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/)

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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

Posts

Thoughts and Reflections

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

Steve’s Four Books

Buckeye Impoundment

Delightful Herbaceous Vegetation

Blackwell Swamp

Closing

Thoughts and Reflections

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

Steve’s Four Books

Woods to Water (W2W) ​Training the Next Generation of Ecologists and Natural Resource Managers Post-Baccalaureate Program

Telling Them My Story

Thoughts and Reflections

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

Steve’s Four Books

USDA Forest Service Mature and Old-Growth Definition

Relying Upon My Time-tested Knowledge of Forestry

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

Steve’s Four Books

In Summary

Closing

The River

The Forest

Roadside Summer Flowers and Plants

Thoughts and Reflections

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

Steve’s Four Books

Entering a Forest Stand with an Ancient Aura

Exiting the Apparent Old-Growth

Some Additional Curiosities:

Kings Chapel Cemetery

Some Worthy Postscripts

Alabama State Parks Foundation

Thoughts and Reflections

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

Steve’s Four Books

My Musings on What Warrants Doing as Time Wanes

An Abbreviated Woodland Exploration

Quick Trip across the Highway to the Visitors Center Cypress Pond

Closing

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

The Center

Thoughts and Reflections

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

Steve’s Four Books

Woods to Water (W2W)
Training the Next Generation of Ecologists and Natural Resource Managers
Post-Baccalaureate Program