BANKS

The Brooker Creek Mitigation Bank is a 168.04-acre conservation area in the process of being established to provide compensatory mitigation for wetland impacts located in the Tampa Bay Basin. The Bank consists of excavated open water ponds at the lowest elevation, mixed forested wetlands that comprise the forested floodplain of Brooker Creek at the highest wetland elevation, maintained gold course greens, and altered pine flatwood upland buffers. The site is currently degraded by cleared vegetation for maintained golf course fairways, exotic species invasion, forested wetland clearing/altered edge effects, and overgrown vegetation due to fire suppression. Hydrological alterations consist of excavated open water ponds that impede surface water flow, clogged and buried drainage pipes that cause flooding and prevent surface water flow into Brooker Creek. Large amounts of fertilizers have been used for decades to treat the golf course that has discharged into the open water ponds and Brooker Creek.

Brooker Creek Mitigation Bank will restore and create freshwater herbaceous wetlands that provide vegetative nutrient uptake, restore surface water sheet flow discharge into Brooker Creek and provide habitat for fish and wildlife; enhance the mixed forested floodplain wetlands through nuisance/exotic vegetative removal; restore upland forested habitat within the golf course fairways; and restore the existing native pine flatwoods through tree and shrub removal, and nuisance/exotic vegetation removal.

The Brooker Creek Mitigation Bank has freshwater forested and freshwater herbaceous credits available approved by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD).