(light piano music) Hi.

My name is Heather Runyon, and I'm the park interpreter here at Logoly State Park.

So welcome to our park.

(light piano music) This park exists so that we can protect the animals and plants that call this place home, so that people like you have the chance to discover the cool things that live here.

When we protect an area with its plants and animals like this, we call that conservation.

So we are here to conserve these things for you.

And if you're wondering what a park interpreter is, well, we're the people who help you discover these things and help you understand exactly why they're important here.

So we're going to take a look around the park so you can see what we provide these plants and animals, to give them a safe place to call home.

(bright music) So here on Spring Branch Trail, you can see our woods, which make up a big portion of our park.

Woods are great for the plants and animals.

They give the plants a great place to grow up healthy and strong.

And then as those plants grow, they become food and shelter for our animals.

So some of the things that we see around here a lot are things like white tailed deer, gray fox, squirrel, and sometimes the occasional opossum that's wandering through.

For plants, we have a wide variety, ranging from, of course our pine trees and beech trees to the smallest things like our muscadine.

And something that might surprise you is that even once a tree comes down, the dead logs are still great for the animals and plants around them.

Things like ants will move in and make their homes in the dead logs and things like termites and beetles.

Well, they turn the logs into food.

And even when the log breaks down, it kind of turns into new soil, which means it gives a new place for our plants to grow.

So even the things that might seem like they aren't helpful in the woods are actually helping out.

So now we're here at our boardwalk by the pond at Logoly State Park.

So just like animals need food and home, they also need something to drink and our ponds and many creeks are a great place for a cool drink on a hot day.

But not only are they a great place for animals to get a drink, they also work as homes for things like fish, dragonflies, crayfish, turtles and even the occasional water snake.

(bright music) Another great way to learn about the things that call this place home is by coming into our visitor center.

We have live animals plus things that you can see, touch, hear, and even smell.

One of my favorite things to see in the visitor center is our display beehive.

We just installed the bees about two months ago, so it's not full yet.

But you can still watch the bees work going in and out, collecting nectar and pollen and then storing it in the hive and even where they're building new comb.

Before long, the whole display hive is going to look like this frame packed full of bees.

Here you can see some of the things that we find in the park at different times of the year, complete with things you can touch and things you can smell.

Making this a cool way to explore the park if you aren't able to get out on our trails.

And of course, we can't leave the visitor center without talking about one of our guests' favorites, The Speckled Kingsnake, that hangs out here in our visitor center and is also used in our programs.

(bright music) Here at Logoly State Park, you can see all kinds of cool plants and animals because Arkansas State Parks works to conserve these special places to give those plants and animals a safe home.

So I hope to see you here one day at Logoly State Park where you can discover all of these amazing things for yourself.