Wildlife Refuge Archives - Steve Jones Great Blue Heron

Magic and Wonder in the Canopy and Crowns on Beaverdam Swamp Old Growth Forest

November 12, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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. The second of four photo essays from that brief visit, I focus this one on the intricate and fascinating structure of crowns and canopies in this complex, tiered, interconnected swamp forest ecosystem.

Consider an acre of Beaverdam Swamp forest. Each acre is 43,560 square feet. The towering main canopy averages at least 110 feet high. That’s 4.7 million cubic feet per acre. Assume that the above-ground biomass in the photograph below depicts roughly an acre. The image represents just one of millions (billions?) of permutations, combinations, and possibilities for how the forest could have grown and arranged its trunks, branches, twigs, and leaves over 200+ years. The result derives from chaos. Nature is infinitely chaotic. Starting anew, what are the chances of repeating this exact forest structure… a mirror image? The same as finding two identical snowflakes?

So, my photo essay Conclusion Number One from a brief Saturday morning saunter: Chaos rules the natural world:

I find beauty in the continual shaping of chaos, which clearly embodies the primordial power of nature’s performance. (Iris van Herpen)

Yet, chaos is not without order. Nature operates powerfully within her own limits.

Nature never breaks her own laws. (Leonardo da Vinci)

Each molecule of growth and every increment of death result from a cause.

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

Let’s modify Conclusion Number One: Chaos rules the natural world, constrained only by Nature’s Laws.

I puzzled over the unaltered canopy image below on the left, with its stem orientation leaning vertically toward infinity. I’m sure there is a technical term for that effect. I wondered whether editing out the lean would improve the photograph. There it is on the right. I don’t like its suggestion of vertical alignment and order. I reject the edit. I’ll stick with what I see as the natural image, chaos.

My Conclusion Number Two: Image simplicity, with no editing and no imposed order, rules my interpretation of Nature. Nature is what it is.

I recorded this 61-second video along the boardwalk.

Were I more adept at editing my iPhone videos, I believe I could have eliminated the I-565 traffic noise. However, on my saunter through the swamp, the sound accompanied me. It is what it is. I choose to be real in my essay depictions of Nature.

Conclusion Number Three: Our wildness exists within a populated region.

I don’t need to add narrative reminding you of the swamp forest complexity. Instead, I ask you to contemplate the complexity above and below the ground surface. At least two-thirds of a forest’s carbon turnover occurs in the forest soil as fine root development and mortality and mycorrhizal growth and death. Conclusion Number Four: Forest complexity and dynamics reach into the soil.

I couldn’t help myself. I yielded to my disgust with the so-called civilized humans who behave poorly in Nature, tossing trash wherever they wander. Here is my 60-second video of McDonald’s cup desecration. If you carry it in… take it out, damnit!!

I’ve walked the boardwalk when the leafy forest floor gives way to overflowing water. I will return when seasonal rains reappear.

By mid-September, early autumn had already dropped fading foliage on the boardwalk and forest floor. It was a perfect morning for friends to shuffle through the crispy leaves. I wonder how many visitors that day mused on the forest canopy’s three-dimensional complexity? My forest ecologist’s mind encourages and enables me to see Nature’s beauty, magic, wonder, and awe hidden in plain sight.

The upland forest logically transitions to the tupelo swamp at the beginning of the boardwalk.

The overhead canopy provides full shade… at least for the moment. Soon, bare branches will prevail.

The canopy opens at the boardwalk terminus, above Beaverdam Creek.

Every walk in the woods generates new conclusions not evident at the outset. In fact, I had little idea of where I might pursue a narrative theme until I organized my photographs and videos. John Muir observed:

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

I attended my grandson’s Auburn University Honors College induction several weeks ago. A keynote speaker addressed four interdependent verbs necessary for achieving success in college, life, family, and business: read, speak, write, and think. My ongoing photo essaying and teaching encourage me to employ all four. Blessedly, this is my golf!

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)
Our northern Alabama wildness exists within a populated region. (Steve Jones)
Chaos rules the natural world, constrained only by Nature’s Laws. (Steve Jones)

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature inspire, inform, and reward you!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

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 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 #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!

Brief-Form Post #64: Mid-June Visit to a WNWR Bottomland Forest and a Drying Buckeye Impoundment!

August 26, 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 15 (https://stevejonesgbh.com/2026/04/15/brief-form-post-56-quick-circuit-of-the-dallas-fanning-nature-preserve/)

I am pleased to add the 64th 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 just a dozen miles due north of Alabama’s 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, where I decided to wander for several hours on June 9, 2026. I searched in a familiar bottomland hardwood forest for wild edible mushrooms: early chanterelles, oysters, boletes, chicken of the woods, and black-staining polypores. Finding only non-edibles, I made acquaintance with a road-crossing river cooter, photographed new Singing River Trail signage, and explored the sights and sounds of the Refuge’s Buckeye Impoundment, an important wildlife management feature.

Bottomland Forest

Search my website Blog link (https://stevejonesgbh.com/blog/) for Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge; choose from more than 50 prior posts on aspects of this nationally significant refugium. Were the refuge a single mile wide, it would extend 55 miles. Here is the interior road (HGH Road) that runs east-west about a mile north of the Tennessee River (Lake Wheeler), just into Limestone County, adjoining Madison County to the east. I often bushwalk (bushwhack) through this rich bottomland, which if not for the TVA/COE purchasing land to buffer the 1936 Wheeler Dam inudation property, would now probably be in private agricultural production.

Mushroom Venture

I ventured for 90 minutes in the bottomland finding abundant mushrooms of various inedible species.

Amanita were scattered in the deep and damp understory shade. This one served as a luncheon buffet for underside invertebrates.

Amanita color hue and sharpness vary with age.

Yet another Amanita species.

Unlike the gilled Amanitas, all Boletes have spongy pores under their caps. This is known as bitter Bolete, a common name that suggests it may not be inedible, but it assuredly is not suitable for consumption.

This Caloboletus firmus, considered too bitter to consume, bears perfect leaf impression artwork.

Its pink underside shows the characteristic spongy Bolete pore surface.

A Mushroom Consumer

I stopped for a friendly river cooter gravel road crossing chat. The shell-shocked retile refused to share edible mushroom location secrets with me!

I recorded this 43-second video of my turtle friend.

Singing River Trail Thoroughfare

The Singing River Trail will be a 200+ mile greenway system once completed. The Refuge recently posted signage delineating the SRT route. I recorded this 60-second video introducing the route. My narrative incorrectly identifies the road as Jolly B. It is HGH Road, which ties in to Jolly B a mile to the east.

The sign below is at the northern entrance to the Refuge on Jolly B Road.

Buckeye Impoundment

Buckeye Impoundment lies just beyond the point where HGH Road turns north (where I recorded the SRT video). Here is my Great Blue Heron Post from my 2024 overflight of WNWR and the image below of Buckeye Impoundment: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2024/12/05/buckeye-impoundment-in-early-october-on-the-wheeler-national-wildlife-refuge-part-one/

I entered the aerial photo image above on June 9, 2026 where the straight N/S road candy-canes into Buckeye Impoundment from the bottomland forest to the east.

I recorded this 60-second Buckeye Impoundment video.

The views below are to the SSE and the SW. I plan to return to examine and compare end of summer vegetative growth to this early June visit.

The impoundment is drying after an extended dormant season of intentional engineered flooding.

Summer Wildflower Profusion

Here are my observed early summer flower highlights at the marge of the impoundment.

Carolina desert chickory

Wild potato vine

Annual fleabane

Carolina ruellia

A quick, low investment visit into Nature pays high dividents in peace of mind, satisfaction, exercise, and learning and discovery. John Muir nailed it:

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

Closing

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

I am fortunate to live just a dozen miles due north of Alabama’s 35,000-acre Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, where I decided to wander for several hours on June 9, 2026. A quick, low investment visit into Nature pays high dividents in peace of mind, satisfaction, exercise, and learning and discovery. 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

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

August 19, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

Black-eyed Susans are among my favorite summer natives.

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

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

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

My Musings on What Warrants Doing as Time Wanes

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

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

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

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

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

An Abbreviated Woodland Exploration

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

Golden-gilled gerronema showed their characteristic biege funnels.

Although very attractive, the species is not considered edible.

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

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

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

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

Quick Trip across the Highway to the Visitors Center Cypress Pond

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

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

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

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

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

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

Closing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 25, 2026/in Updates /by Steve Jones

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

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

I recorded this 59-second red buckeye video.

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

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

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

Here’s my video of Hidden Spring Brook.

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

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

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

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

John Muir appreciated the essential interdpendency of all things earthly:

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

AND

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Closing

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts and Reflections

I offer these observations:

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vision:

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

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

Steve’s Four Books

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

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

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

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:

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 traveler.

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.