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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

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 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 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!

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. Until I can’t!

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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

Early Signs of Spring on the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary!

May 27, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I co-taught a Huntsville, Alabama LearningQuest session on America’s National Parks on the morning of February 12, 2026, at the Hampton Cove WellPoint Senior Community. Afterward, an exquisite early spring afternoon beckoned me to explore the eastern half of the nearby Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary. Walk with me as I share some early signs of wildland spring within the 400-acre reserve in the bottomlands along the Flint River.

The Flint generally runs high with winter rains. On this day, the river is shy of bank-full, yet is high enough to submerge this sycamore’s base.

Here is my 48-second video of the main channel a few hundred yards from the Sanctuary’s east side entrance.

I’ve scheduled a prior winter season hike at the Sanctuary following several days of winter rains, only to be turned back by the Flint River overflowing its banks and sending floodwaters to within a hundred feet of the gravel parking lot.

I recorded this 58-second video of side channel with narration, at a point opposite the cut-off island one-half mile from the lot.

The main river channel lies just downstream from where I stood.

Here’s the same view (51-second video) without my annoying narration.

The bottomland forests and meadows were saturated. Soaked areas welcomed male frogs already intent on attracting females. All critters are single-minded. Life is all about reproduction…sustaining the species…whether amphibian, reptile, bird, mammal, fish, human, or fungus.

This little guy is of lone voice, yet persistent. Is some lonely girl frog listening…tempted, lured, and approaching?

My 42-second video recorded the lone male calling plaintively.

I like the rustic signage, slowly yielding to time and decay, reminiscent of Sleepy Hollow!

Old agricultural fields, populated with sedges and various other meadow species are transitioning to forest courtesy of natural tree and shrub regeneration, as well as trees planted in seedling shelters, many of which are protecting seedlings that died when planted during an extended fall drought two years ago.

Here is my 60-second video of wetland mitigation efforts in the meadows.

The trail passes east from the mitigation fields through this meadow that is regenerating with volunteer, now shoulder-high sweetgum trees.

I recorded this 60-second video as I strolled along the trail.

Ironweed (left) and sweetgum line the trail.

Mature hardwood borders the meadow.

I repeat often that every tree tells a story. This American beech along the trail in the dense bottomland hardwood forest within hearing distance of Highway 431 traffic noise, supplies life-sustaining sustenance via root grafts to three living stumps, including the one below right at the tree’s base.

I reecorded this 61-second video with explanatory narrative of the beech and the three adjacent stumps.

Although still six weeks from the spring equinox, our peeper friend evidenced that spring was in the air. That’s a far cry from our time living in the far North.

Early Spring Ephemeral Bonus

I’m drafting my photo essay prose on February 26. This morning at 5:00 AM Central Time, when our Madison, Alabama temperature was 58 degrees, I checked the temperature in Fairbanks, AK, my home from 2004-2008. It was negative 37; that’s 95 degrees colder. The snowpack was 40 inches. I copied these images at 11:00 AM local time from the University of Alaska Fairbanks webcam atop the Geophysical Institute.

The Fairbanks ground will not be absent snow cover through most of April. Spring flowers may not appear until mid-May.

I’ve adjusted my calendar here in the South. Within the regenerating meadow, in mid-February, I spotted two Virginia spring beauty blossoms (one at left). The flowering cress (right) presented itself on the sandy shore across from the island.

I loved our four-year Alaska venture, even the deep winters. I could have stayed for many years, but both of our adult children blessed us then with our first two grandkids, who this May will graduate high school! Life itself is a rewarding adventure, enriched many fold by our time in The Last Frontier — The Big Broad Land Way Up Yonder!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

Life is all about reproduction…sustaining the species…whether amphibian, reptile, bird, mammal, fish, human, or fungal. (Steve Jones)
Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm. (John Muir)
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. (Helen Keller)

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

Me at right from a prior visit.

Brief-Form Post #60: Oddities, Curiosities, and Mysteries in a Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Bottomland Hardwood Forest

May 13, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 60th 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 once again entered the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge bottomland hardwood forest south of HGH Road on January 15, 2026. I sought a break from writing, reading, and preparing for the two courses I’ll be teaching in the winter term at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and at LearningQuest, a similar program offered through the Madison County Huntsville Library. Each time I explore this extraordinarily fertile and rich WNWR forest, I seek the beauty, magic, wonder, and awe that I always find hidden in plain sight.

Temperature still in the upper twenties; these oyster mushrooms are frozen solid, adorning a downed hickory trunk, their mycelia decomposing the cellulose within. I’ve found that oysters are early saprophytes, flourishing within three years of tree mortality. I know nothing about cultivating oysters with home kits, much less commercial production. I harvested a few of these for omeletts, the first time I gathered frozen specimens.

Nearby I recorded this 59-second video within the forest, including a big oak.

The oak’s diameter breast height (4.5-feet above ground; DBH) exceeded three feet.

When still a supple sapling, this sweetgum suffered an impact from above, slamming it to the ground, yet maintaining its roots’ connectivity to the soil. The concussive force broke the now horizontal stem, where the gaping mouth remains today. A doramt bud erupted, sending a new stem/trunk vertically (left). The entire horizontal portion is hollowed by decay. The larger opening (right) is where the sapling roots still reach downward. The blowhole 18 inches from the severed topside root basal opening adds character and mystery to this woodland ogre.

I recorded this 59-second video of the fallen and somewhat recovered sweetgum and the similary tortured yellow poplar just 30 feet beyond.

The same toppled signature and fate. Both trees survive through natural resilience. Forest objects have been crashing onto hardwood saplings for thousands of generations of sweetgum and yellow poplar. Evolution has prepared both species (and many others) for striving beyond catastrophe to ensure seed production to extend the individual’s gene pool. The poplar at left fell toward the photo point. The other view is from the root end.

A peculiar red oak burl watched me approach. All of us, I posit, have playfully identified cloud shapes on spring and summer afternoons. I admit to engaging in the same pursuit with tree oddities. Can you do better than a praying mantis head with this one?

I may some day venture forth to capture images of these obscure, startling, and potentially evil growths in the dark of night…if I can get the nerve!

Washington Irving mused about the menace of darkness in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

There is nothing like the silence and loneliness of night to bring dark shadows over the brightest mind.

This sweetgum appendage matches the oak burl’s menacing scale! Shift the view angle by 90 degrees and get a completely different creature.

Subtle perspective shifts yield seeming endless varieties, especially when viewed through lenses of imagination. Again, try it in the dark!

Once again, Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) saw the macabre and horror in such tree embodiments:

In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveller.

This eight-inch DBH eastern hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana) sports an impressive waist-high burl, a spherical benign tumorous growth triggered by viral, bacterial, or fungal (or a combination) infectuous agents. If I stretch my imagination, I see a full frontal countenance with two eyes, pug nose, puffy cheeks, and a closed, slightly frowing mouth.

Albert Einstein was a tireless proponent of both imagination and good humor!

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

The bottomlands have shallow winter water tables. Windthrow is common, creating hummocks and hollows, mounds and pits, and pillows and cradles, colloquial expressions for the resultant microtopography. The hollows hold water until spring when evaporation and transporation increase to lower the water table. Many hold clear water. Critters are keeping this one muddy. Frogs?

Closing Observations

I spotted just a single cutleaf grapefern plant, fresh and colorful amid the stark brown leaves.

Before departing the refuge, I stopped by Blackwell Swamp along Jolly B Road. I leave you to enjoy the beauty of a sunny WNWR winter morning.

There is nothing dark, menacing, or gloomy about my morning Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge saunter.

Closing

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

I cannot offer a quote more apropos than Washington Irving’s observation from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

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

Brief-Form Post #58: Forest Discoveries While Measuring Tree Heights on Monte Sano State Park

April 29, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I am pleased to add the 58th 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.

Alabama State Parks Northwest District Naturalist Amber Coger, fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger, and I measured selected tree heights on the morning of February 10, 2026, at Monte Sano State Park. We chose the exceptionally fertile lower, concave, northeast-facing slopes along the Sinks Trail. The soils are limestone-derived, deep, and well-watered. I visit the area several times annually… and marvel at the diversity of hardwood species, the towering heights of the trees, and the straight boles. I refer to this stand as a cathedral grove.

I brought my measurement tools for the tasks, positioned below with my trekking pole for scale: a 100-foot reel; a diameter tape; a 10-factor basal area prism; and a clinometer. Don’t look for a detailed exposition on their use. We used the reel to measure 100 feet horizontally from the tree base. At 100 feet, the clinometer percent scale translates directly to vertical feet below and above eye level. The diameter tape measures the tree diameter at breast height (DBH). The prism estimates the square feet of basal area per acre (at breast height).

Amber quickly learned the fine art and skill of employing these basic forestry instruments, in this case tallying basal area.

A Magnificent Chestnut Oak

From my exhaustive experience in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and here in Alabama, chestnut oak commonly dominates ridgetops and upper slopes, poorer sites with shallow rocky soils that can be drouthy and of low fertility. Here’s a particularly gnarled ridgetop chestnut oak, squatty and mishapen, on the Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve in nearby Madison, Alabama.

My chestnut oak stigma paints chestnut oak unfavorably. On better quality sites, chestnut oak doesn’t compete effectively with faster growing species like yellow polar, basswood, northern and southern red oak, and hickories. This chestnut oak along the Sinks Trail had caught my eye on previous visits. Stately, straight, and fat, this individual is 35.8″ DBH, and stands a remarkable 122 feet tall. Across the 53 years since earning a forestry bachelors degree, I don’t recall seeing such a superb chestnut oak.

But low and behold, my search of the Alabama Forestry Commission’s 2025 State Champion Tree List revealed a different image than the one I’ve held for years. The Commission lists 32 oak species, including the chestnut oak champion, which stands at 147 feet, 25 feet taller than the Monte Sano specimen. Only the champion cherrybark oak is taller at 156 feet.

I pledge to adjust my chestnut oak stigma. I assure you that this is not the first time I have altered an impression based on knowledge, experience, and time, whether it be of people, places, or things. Another teachable moment surfaced during the morning. I have known this species as Quercus prinus since taking Dendrology in 1970, more than a half-century ago. Amber and Chris informed me that the esteemed gods of systematic botany and plant classification have recently (RECENT to me alone perhaps!) changed the species from prinus to montana. The Missouri Botanical Garden online reference reduced my chagrin:

Quercus montana, commonly called chestnut oak (also commonly called basket oak, rock oak and rock chestnut oak) is a medium to large sized deciduous oak of the white oak group that typically grows 50-70’ (less frequently to 100’) tall with a rounded crown. It is native to wooded slopes in dry upland areas, often with poor soils, from Maine to Indiana south to South Carolina and Alabama. It grows tallest in rich, well-drained soils.

The old timber beast occasionally resurfaces within me. This baby is a beauty: veneer log quality to at least 32 feet. Clear lumber all the way to the live crown. The thought just as quickly faded. Come on, Steve…for God’s sake, this is a State Park you old fool! Yet, I can’t shake the aroma of fresh sawdust and the rich patina of finished oak furniture. Or the heavenly warmth of a fine whiskey aged in a white oak barrel!

Whether commercial forest product or State Park forest treasure, its value is high wherever it grows. Measured and noted, the tree will stand as a lesson within the park’s information and interpretation portfolio. Why is this specimen special? What site factors (soil, slope position, nutrients, moisture, aspect) enable this individual to succeed?

Yellow Poplar Reaching Skyward

A few hundred feet downslope, I made note of the cathedral grove of primarily yellow poplar when I entered the stand near the lowermost signatory sink on the trail five years ago (March 12, 2021).

I photographed Jerry Weisenfeld, Alabama State Parks Advertising and Marketing Manager, standing beside the very same specimen that Amber, Chris, and I measured this February.

The prominent sink captures all surface water within the karst basin, directing it to subsurface. I have not encountered anyone who can tell me where the subterranean flow surfaces.

I have told many groups that some of these poplars exceed 140 feet.

The state champion yellow poplar stands at 172 feet. The three of us measured DBH at 28.1″ and height at 155 feet, 17 feet short of the champion! Keep in mind the champion designation is based on three measures: height, crown width, and bole cicumference. There may be, and often are, trees of the same species that are taller than the winner.

Two complementary Delights

We found a colony of scarlet elf cup mushrooms near the yellow polar. I love the moniker, the cup shape, and its spectacular scarlet and white.

Here is my 57-second video of the elf cup forest floor population.

Within the sheltered poplar stand, I found a cankered hickory, a tree form curiosity posing near the poplar.

Leonardo da Vinci studied Nature’s forms and shapes:

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another.

Nature is the source of all true knowledge.

Closing

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

I often observe that every tree, every stand, and every forest tells a story. Sometimes we can’t discern the individual tree’s tale while we are distracted by the forest. We chose to focus our attention on two trees. We know them now as individuals. We hope that Amber and future park naturalists will share their stories and the lessons drawn from them.

Leonardo da Vinci would have appreciated our intent:

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another.

Squeezing a 90-Minute Woodland Saunter into Four Hours!

April 1, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I co-led a University of Alabama in Huntsville OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) Nature Hike on Saturday, March 28, 2026, with fellow retired forester Chris Stuhlinger. Chris led the way; I swept, bringing up the rear behind our 15 seasoned hikers (we’re predominantly retirees). We departed from the Kensington Trailhead on the North Alabama Land Trust’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve, climbed to Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail, visited Balance Rock, and returned to our vehicles. Come along, and I’ll show you what I crammed into a one-hour and 43-minute venture!

I want to articulate a lesson with this Great Blue Heron photo essay. Like John Muir, I prefer sauntering, slow and deliberate, attentive, purposeful movement within the forest. Contrast sauntering with hiking, which progresses rapidly through the wildness, focused on the destination more than the passage. I am the master of squeezing a 90-minute hike into four hours!

I chose to sweep this day so I could take time to look, see, and photograph the wonders I anticipated finding hidden in plain sight. Most of my group surged ahead. I stopped when something shouted to grab my attention — a flowering plant, a curious tree form, or an odd rock formation. I would snap a photograph or two, then surge to catch up to the group. I wanted to record many more videos than the single one I captured. Had I been alone, I would have seen far more than my impelled pace permitted. I give you with this rushed essay a small taste of what our speedy hikers missed, by and large. Sure, they enjoyed the hike, although I overwhelmingly prefer the pleasure, joy, and satisfaction of deeper examination.

Without unecessary narrative, here is what I packed into 103-minutes on the trail. I could have used three hours or more!

Ephemeral Spring Flowers

American cancer root, the flower from a parasitic plant that grows on oak roots. I shared the discovery with the one person lagging behind with me. Most people did not notice this fascinating organism common to our late March hardwood forests!

Violet woodsorrell is a common woodland spring ephemeral.

Fire pink is less common and and spectacularly beautiiful. See it this time of year or forget about it!

Purple phacelia is another seasonal mid-spring delight, often growing atop boulders and ledges, as were these. Why in those curious niches, where nutrients and moisture are subject to the whimsy of weather fluxes. Their beauty would have made good topics for conversation and speculation. I still do not have all the answers, nor even a complete set of questions..

Eistein knew that Nature held natural secrets of unfathomable depths:

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

I shall never tire of red buckeye’s triumphant declaration of spring life, exclaimed with simultaneous glossy palmate leaves and stacked upright clusters of tubular red flowers

Amur honeysuckle, native to eastern Asia, is a fast-growing shrub that forms dense thickets, outcompeting native plants and altering local ecosystems. Seeing it in flower presents another teachable moment. Pretty…and pretty disturbing!

Virginia creeper is opening its palmate leafy umbrellas.

Atop Rainbow Mountain xeric conditions furnish an ideal site for prickly pear cactus: shallow soils, exposed microsites, and little capacity for moisture retention. Another feature worthy of observation, reflection, and learning.

I have been unquenchably in love with trilliums since my spring 1970 systematic botany course in Maryland’s Appalachian Region. Sweet Betsy is among my local favorites. Like every flowering plant I found, the season is brief.

Shiny New Leaves

Poson ivy, although ornamented with shiny new leaves, is one I can admire without touching!

Fragrant sumac, resembling poison ivy, appeared in profusion along the trail. Recognizing the distinction is not unimportant!

Rusty blackhaw was just showcasing it rust-hued leaves.

Nature does indeed abhor a vacuum; life finds suitable habitat almost anywhere. Rock greenshield lichen paints the surface of bare exposed rock surfaces across our harsh wooded ridges.

Our group paused when we intersected Rainbow Loop Trail.

I recorded this 54-second video as I caught up with our group as they paused.

Stone Statuary

One of our party stood gazing at Balance Rock.

The late morning sun graced our observation perch with a reverent glow.

Rainbolt Trail passes through a labyrinth of imagined stone statuary. I saw this rock frog perched atop a limestone ledge.

Einstein saw extraordinary value in mind-rambling:

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Remember, employ your imagination to envision the stone-hard gaze of this ancient warrior’s severe countenance staring from right to left.

I photographed this rock face along the trail in November 2024.

Trees Meet Stones

A persimmon tree stood silently along the trail, backdropped by yet another limestone ledge.

This oak somehow grew wedged in a rock crevice, forcing life’s sustenance from roots penetrating into mineral soil below.

Another oak, a chestnut oak, likewise precariously clings to life in a not-so-friendly survival niche.

Downslope from a Rainbow Loop ledge, I spotted a fearsome creature awaiting the freefall of any unwary, hapless, clumsy hiker who slipped from the rim. Its awry, gaping maw, face contorted from prolonged hunger, is poised. I wonder whether any of our party saw it? Good thing they were sure-footed!

A trailside white oak sniffed us as we wandered blithely past, oblivious to its sentinel presence.

And this agonized spectre of a redcedar also stood watch on the Rainbow Loop. Did anyone else witness its tortured form. Leonardo da Vinci observed, There is no result in Nature without cause. Oh, I longed to explore its cause with flellow hikers!

I wished the same for this old redcedar denizen, yet another work of art, grandeur, and mystery.

I’ve said repeatedly in my weekly photo essays, every tree has a story to tell. What is this redcedar snag’s tale?

Evev the redcedar burl has a story worthy of exploring. An old injury, providing an infection court for bacteria, fungus, virus? Does it harm the tree? Affect growth? What nature of bowl could a woodshop crafter produce?

Two ancient chestnut oaks stand at the southwest rimroack of Rainbow Mountain. Two centuries of harsh survival?

Sparkleberry is the only tree form (marginally so in my estimation) of the blueberry (Vaccinium) genus. Its tough, contorted, multiple stemmed character seems content on sites where real trees struggle.

What a rich panoply of Nature’s gifts, harvested (observed, photographed, and contemplated) across a 103-minute forest speed-reading excursion. Forty-eight photos in 103 minutes. That’s 2.25 mppp (minutes per publishable-photo)! I won’t do that again. I made my point. I can’t both responsibly co-host a hike and gather sufficient observations, reflections, photos, and videos for a Great Blue Heron photo essay.

Closing

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

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

I recall the dawn…my dawn…from a growing distance. I sense the evening gloam approaching. I ask myself, do I want to invest a single woods venture by racing with a group from one place, through the woods, to another, with virtually no time for inter-personal, social intercourse? And certainly too little time to harvest photo essay fodder. I relish each step at my own pace, embracing the beauty, magic, wonder, awe, and inspiration? Are my Mission yields (To educate, inspire, and enable participants to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.) sufficient from an OLLI woods walk to merit my time?

I love introducing Nature to others, but my minimum requirement perhaps must be for more of an introduction than a handshake or nod. This past Saturday amounted to little more than a superficial greeting with Nature. I may explore whether there is enough interest within OLLI for an occasional 3-4-hour long meaningful woodland excursion…a probing immersion with a limit of 6-10 eager and dedicated learners.

I shall continue to wrestle with the dilemma, pondering the best use of my time, expertise, and passion. Louis Bromfield intimated that the best that any of us can do during our fleeting existence is to change some small corner of our earth for the better through wisdom, knowledge, and hard work. Until we can’t…

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

I don’t like either the word [hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not ‘hike! (John Muir)
Every tree has a story to tell to those of us intent on learning the language. (Steve Jones)
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. (Albert Einstein)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mid-December Above Ground Exploration at Cathedral Caverns State Park

March 24, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

I published a photo essay of my July 2020 Cathedral Caverns tour on October 20, 2020: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/10/01/wonder-below-ground-cathedral-caverns-state-park/. I pledged a subsequent visit to explore the park’s surface trails, not knowing that 5.5 years would elapse before my December 11, 2025, four-hour venture with Hannah Hembree, Park Naturalist for Cathedral and Rickwood Caverns State Parks, Amber Coger, NW Alabama District Naturalist, and Chris Stuhlinger, a fellow retired forester. I sorted, selected, edited, and placed these 29 photos within a WordPress format on December 14, 2026. I’m drafting text five weeks later, on January 12, 2026, debating whether I should have begun a month earlier while my memory remained sharp!

I photographed the park entrance sign in 2020.

Hannah, Chris, and Amber showed their enthusiasm for our journey, backdropped by the mixed upland forest growing among scattered limestone boulders. Hannah stands at the edge of a distinct sinkhole (right), where trees reach more than 100 feet vertically owing to deep limestone-derived soil, abundant moisture, and protected slope position. We enountered a diverse overstory species mix, another expression of the productive site.

We admired this massive American beech tree dominating the convex ridgetop, a terrain position not generally conducive to large diameter, straight, tall beech. As we progressed, I marveled increasingly at the high site productivity reflected in species diversity and average canopy height.

I recorded this 58-second video of the upland hardwood forest and the wide flat trail system we explored.

I would like to return to catalog the tree species, identifying a complete list. We paid attention but did not keep a tally. We guessed 20 individual main canopy species.

Oddities and Curiosities

Always alert for tree form curiosities and oddities, I photographed a pair of pole-size yellow buckeye and sweetgum trees embraced, a union that is termed inosculation when they grasp more securely and intimately.

I never tire of seeing Carpinus carolinia, which I learned 56 years ago in dendrology as musclewood for the distinctive sinewy, muscle-like appearance of its stem. Also known as American hornbeam, blue-beech, ironwood, and muscle-beech, the species grows in the understory of hardwood forests from Alabama to New England, occasionally reaching heights of 25-30 feet. Most of the curious phenotypes I photograph are variant forms from the typical genotypye. Musclewood’s sinewy stem form is the standard genotype, not an abberation. So, its oddity is its standard form. Nothing special except to an aficiando like me!

Supplejack, in my humble opinion, is the boa conscrictor of native Alabama forest vines. Its smooth green stem one could conclude is snake-like. What makes it boa-like is its extraordinary knack for appearing to choke the living daylight out of any sapling that offers purchase and a route to fuller sunlight above.

The supplejack doesn’t always win the squeeze-battle. This sapling sugar maple appears to have prevailed. Life in any plant-based ecosystem involves fierce competition (often life and death) for essentials…nutrients, moisture, sunlight, and space, both above and below ground. This struggle left scars in form of a clockwise spiralled disfirgurement…a tree form curiosity. Every tree has a story to tell to those of us intent on learning the language.

Leonardo da Vinci understood that there may be no truly inexplicable mysteries in Nature:

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

Mr. da Vinci knew many languages…of trees, geography, skies, and the pure elegance of shade, light, colors, hues, distance, and all other elements that constitute Nature’s visible beauty, magic, wonder, and awe.

Some fellow nature enthusiasts seem intent on ascribing a common tree form curiosity to Native American manipulation of trees and branches. Their purpose was to create Tree Markers directing and guiding fellow travelers to important landscape features (springs, choice trails, hunting spots, fishing holes, villages, trail routes to significant landmarks, etc.). The bent eastern hop hornbean (Ostrya virginiana) below is most certainly not an Indian Marker tree. The stand we traversed is less than 100 years old, post-dating Native American wildland occupation by well over half a cenutury. I frequently see such disfigurement…resulting from breakage by fallen trees or branches, wind, ice, or some other force. Trees are resilient, clinging valiantly to life, intent upon surviving to reproduce, which is the ultimate pursuit of every living creature…from earth worms to humans.

This suger maple suffered a crushing blow from above when just a sapling. The youngster responded with vertical shoots, three of which persist to today. Sugar maple tolerates shade. The stunted shrub of a tree persists in the understory, standing humbly with its tree moss skirt amid a cluster of mossy limestone boulders.

Sassafras is common as deep shade seedlings, understory shrubs, and occupying the imtermediate canopy. We found a 12-inch diameter sassafras tree reaching to a co-dominant position. This individual sported a vertical scar revealing its hollowed trunk, a condition favored by cavity-coveting birds, mammals, reptiles, and other forest critters.

As we proceeded I pondered previous land use, which I believed included domestication, timber harvesting, grazing, and even selected cropping. We found compelling evidence in form of barbed wire protruding from the base of a white oak…a remnant fence that either kept stock in or out.

One among us (I’m withholding identity to protect the innocent!) had not seen the imposing compound thorns of honey locust. Farmers have told me that these fearsome spikes can puncture a tractor tire. The thorns don’t scare me, but they certainly earn my respect!

Fan moss drapes this yellow buckeye pair.

In quick progression allow me to chronicle a few observation highlights absent detailed narration, beginning with this handsome yellow buckeye.

A pole-sized yellow poplar bears the striking pattern of vertical white stripes and pale camouflage patches.

A two-foot diameter loblolly pine carries decades of horizontal yellow-bellied sapsucker wounds.

We returned to the cavern entrance. Interpretive signage tells the geologic tale and human history.

An imposing entrance!

Visitors Center and Park Store.

The Karst topographic signature and large yellow buckeye behind the headquarters.

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:

There is no result in nature without a cause; understand the cause and you will have no need of the experiment! (Leonardo da Vinci)
Every tree has a story to tell to those of us intent on learning the language. (Steve Jones)
A short autumn morning saunter can reveal volumes on the magic of everyday Nature. (Steve Jones)

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

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

Subscribe to 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