| A unique component of Walnut Creek Preserve is the Educational Forest adjacent to the Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center located at the southwest corner of the Preserve. The Educational Forest will use the natural forest floor surrounding the Nature Center and Walnut Creek, essentially untouched for more than 50 years, to promote learning about our native Southern Appalachian forest. The Anne Elizabeth Suratt Nature Center and Educational Forest will be open to home owners and their guests at no cost. It will also be open by invitation only at scheduled times to school groups and nature study groups, with a goal to further an appreciation by young and old of the importance of our forest in our daily lives.
Babs and Bob’s daughter, Anne Elizabeth Suratt, loved Serenity Farm and the surrounding area as much as Babs and Bob do. Anne was killed in a private plane crash in 1997 during her fourth year at the University of Illinois. She was majoring in remote sensing, a new field under the Forestry Department at the University. Anne’s goal was to become an astronaut, and she was developing particular skills in reading land masses from space. During one summer as a college student, she worked for the Bent Creek Research Station in Asheville and she always had a passion for hiking and enjoying the outdoors as well as space exploration. During her college years Anne spent countless hours as a volunteer in the local schools of Champaign, Illinois, teaching children about the complexity of the earth’s environment, as seen through photographs taken in space.
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After Anne’s death, Bob and Babs wished to honor her memory by creating a natural area that could become an educational forest available for teaching about the value of the Appalachian forest and the native plants in this foothills area. The Educational Forest will be endowed and managed by Grassy Knob Lands. Additional plantings of native species are intended to supplement the hundreds of species that already flourish in Walnut Creek Preserve and signage and educational displays will further enhance the visitor’s experience. Homeowners will have opportunities to volunteer in teaching about the forest and its gifts. | 
