I'm here with Kevin Pittman, who is the forest supervisor.

Kevin, what is an educational forest?

- An educational state forest is a place where people can come to learn a little bit about forestry practices.

We're different from a park.

We actually harvest timber on this land.

And our primary audience is for school groups to come out to learn more about the forest setting and helping the kids to be able to recognize that the things they use each and every day that's so common, from the furniture they have that they sit on, the house they live in that's made of wood, and even the paper they write on, even materials that goes into making a shirt or skirts such as rayon can come from the forest.

Some folks will wonder, "Well, where's all the animals?"

Well, it's not a zoo.

And the thing is they're everywhere.

Not right there at you, but you just never know.

From the birds we're hearing in the trees, and then there's a tree that's down this trail that has like nine holes in it.

I've seen owls in there, I've seen squirrels.

What's in there now, I don't know.

But that's real estate for an animal and you just don't know if there's something nearby or far away.

- [Deborah] Well, I've heard that some of these trees actually talk.

- They do, they do, we have talking trees.

- [Wood Box] Howdy, I'm White Oak, the first and oldest guide tree on this trail.

I was born in 1910 when wagon wheels raised dust and mules were still the farmer's most important tool.

- And each time you press the button, there's several messages there, so you can hear something a little different each time.

- [Deborah] And access to the forest is free, correct?

- That's correct, there's no charge for anything.

There's no charge for the admission to come to the forest, even programs that we do for school groups and others, there's no charge or fees for those.

- Kevin, thank you so much for telling us more about this educational forest.

It's a great resource and a wonderful spot off the beaten path.

- Thank you, glad you came.

- [Deborah] Clemmons State Educational Forest is at 2256 Old Highway 70 in Clayton, and it's open every day except Monday.

To find out more, give them a call at 919-553-5651 or go online to johnstonnc.com/parks.