Brooker Creek Preserve

86 degrees Farenheit
15% cloudy

Brooker Creek Preserve is around 8,700 acres, and the largest park in Pinellas county. With the original purchase made in 1989, Brooker Creek has a long established history dating back to the indigenous people in 7000 BCE. Now the land serves as hiking trails and an education center.

Brooker Creek is home to many diverse neighboring communities, allowing our class to trek through multiple environments and view the differences. One of the prominent communities was the forested wetland area.

Here we saw emergent and floating plants such as ferns and duckweed, as well as trees with high roots and waterlines. In the background a Great White Egret wades through the shallow water.

Further into our hike we found flatlands, primarily consisting of pines and saw palmettos.

The area had not been burned in the past 5 years or so due to the presence of homes just yards from the area. If the area remains unburned, it will slowly progress into being hardwood hammock. As seen later in our walk, though the soil is sand on top, an underlying clay causes water to pool on the surface, creating the lovely muck streams that few dared adventure through. Near the standing water a spider spun it's web, aware that standing water would be the perfect breeding area for mosquitoes and other bugs, creating an opportune feasting zone for the spider.

In the mesic hammock of Brooker Creek, there was plenty of groundcover, shrubbery, understory, and canopy to create the diverse richness that goes into that community. Due to the density of trees, fungi and epiphytes have plenty of available habitat on which to thrive.

Brooker Creek Preserve phenomenally provides diverse and interacting ecosystems, and is an amazing addition to Pinellas county's educational and recreational parks.